A Cool Voice on a Hot Day; Jazz on Jazz Likely to Move Indoors Thursday
Shiri Zorn trusts her voice so completely that she sings with only minimal accompaniment.
Thursday at Jazz on Jay, she sings with guitarist Chad McLoughlin and percussionist Brian Melick, the same trio format as on her albums “Into Another Land” (2022) and “Looking for the Light” (2025).
“Shiri is my favorite kind of singer (and human, for that matter)—open-minded, creative, and honest,” singer Tierney Sutton told Downbeat. “Zorn’s voice is cool, calm and cerebral, her tone pure,” wrote the magazine’s Allen Morrison. “She articulates lyrics with perfect diction and scalpel-like precision.”
Shiri Zorn. Photo provided
Zorn studied classical piano before singer Cleo Laine’s intimate style and freedom inspired her to sing, at 14.
“I grew up listening to Carole King, the Beatles, Leonard Cohen as well as classical music,” said Zorn. She also noted the jazz singers Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae, and Middle Eastern music, as important influences. After studying voice and piano at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she studied vocal technique with Greta Matassa in Seattle, then Tierney Sutton, who produced the vocal tracks on Zorn’s debut album.
Zorn didn’t grow up performing in bands, instead honing her solo technique with key mentors. “My first real band was with George Muscatello,” the ingenious Albany jazz guitarist and longtime Skidmore faculty member.
In her current trio, she replicates the dynamic style of her earlier trio with Muscatello. “We will be playing only standards,” said Zorn of Thursday’s show. “I always try to find a new way to introduce music that has essentially been written around 100 years ago and ask myself how I can make it relevant to me, my life experience and my work.”
She’ll apply this inventive approach to standards including “The Nearness of You,” “Alone Together,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and “How Insensitive.”
This worked well last August when she helped percussionist Brian Melick, who is playing in her trio Thursday, to open for Edmar Castaneda at Proctors in a Music Haven presentation. I reported that she sang sweet but bluesy and hailed her remarkable voice and how her expressive hands add to its effect.
Jazz on Jay continues next Thursday, July 9 with Keith Pray.
Jazz on Jay is presented by the ElectriCity Arts and Entertainment District.
Sponsors are the New York State Council on the Arts, a Schenectady County Legislature Arts & Culture Grant, Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation and The Schenectady Foundation. We also receive support from Schenectady City Hall and this website.
Show time is 12 noon at Jay Square opposite City Hall. Weather site: Robb Alley at Proctors, where seating is provided.
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