Over the years, Jeannie has earned the respect of virtually every jazz musician in Chicago and is equally at home in intimate clubs and cabarets, with big bands or at jazz festivals and pleasing crowds at either end of the spectrum. Remember when you could hear the words? Jeannie will make sure you not only hear them, but feel them as well.
To hear all of Jeannie-ology, click here and log
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To order Jeannie-ology click here and log
on to CD Baby or send $15.00
(check or money order) for each CD to:
Big Foot Jazz
P.O. Box 1396 | Oak Park, IL 60304
To contact Jeannie via email click jeannie
Jeannie is available for weddings, private parties, and club work.
May/June 2003
Two Of My Favorite Singers
Jeannie Lambert and Hinda Hoffman by Judy Roberts
"Jeannie Lambert's current blissful life with husband Russ Phillips, the great trombonist/singer, is the latest and best chapter in a life filled with some bizarre twists and turns. Having been hooked on jazz by the movie "Pete Kelly's Blues" at a young age, Jeannie knew she wanted to sing. Leaving her hometown of Lima, Ohio, where she had studied classical and ballet dancing, she came to Chicago and soon realized that she couldn't make a living dancing. So she decided to add singing to her list of talents. In her early beginings as a dancer/mime/singer and infamous wild woman, she worked in some unusually rough joints, which served as boot camp for nightclub life. Surviving many long evenings in rooms like the Tides Motel, The Boom Boom Room, and Mr. T's, she proved to herself that she could handle anything.
One evening while hanging around a jazz club, she met the legendary multi-instrumentalist Tommy Ponce. After helping him carry his horn to the bus stop after the gig, they rode the bus together into a stormy two-year relationship. During those volatile times, however, Jeannie credits Tommy with having taught her how to really sing, how to phrase, how to pace a set, and how to listen to the band.
Since then, Jeannie has developed into a wonderfully seasoned vocalist and musician. She continues to sing great material with excellent musicians, and has appeared at most of Chicago's venerable jazz spots. The old Moosehead was the stage for her nine-piece big band, "The Moose Patrol," which did arrangements by Bart Demming. She has since appeared at the Bop Shop, the Green Mill, Pops for Champagne, The Chambers in Niles, Philanders in Oak Park, and currently sings with Russ Phillips' Windy City All Stars at Andy's every Thursday [now Monday].Lately she and Russ have also been featured at jazz festivals here at home and around the country.
Last year Jeannie fulfilled a dream by singing the song "Sugar" with the Ray Sherman Quartet at a jazz festival in Los Angeles. Says Jeannie with a grin, "Ray Sherman's music in the movie 'Pete Kelly's Blues' is what hooked me on jazz. Now, forty-five years later, I get to sing with him!"
...one of Jeannie's life-long mentors was the great pianist, the late Gene Esposito. She has been working on a project called Jeannie-ology, which she began several years ago with Esposito as pianist and arranger. The list of Chicago jazz artists featured on the CD includes Joe Daley, Phil Gratteau, Art Davis, Ron Kolber, and Russ Phillips; it is due for release this summer.
Jeannie says she is now a happier singer and person than ever before. "Singing makes me feel like a whole person. It's a magical world you create for yourself inside the lyric of a song. It expresses all the happiness I have in my life now with Russ, and it releases all the pain from the past." I asked her to explain how she always manages to win over even the most anti-singer musicians. Her answer is worth noting: "I once had a singer ask me, 'How can I make musicians like me?' And I said, 'RESPECT.' Respect is the word. Hear them play and listen to them. Don't sit and talk! A lot of singers talk while the guys are playing. I always figure the musicians know more than I do, so I try to hear every note. I listen to every comment they have about me. The give me the tunes I should learn. I have great respect for their talent. After all, they're the ones who make me sound good!".
Jeannie's philosophy: "Most singers need a pink spotlight. You don't need a spotlight to sell a song. In jazz you just need FEELING. It's a story, and I am telling it."
Jeannie in the wild woman days
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