Janis Siegel was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1952. At age 12, she began singing as part of the all-girl pop trio, The Young Generation. "At that time, I was exclusively listening to pop music," Siegel recalls. "When Motown became popular, I fell head over heels for it, as well as for people like Aretha Franklin. And of course I went insane over the Beatles. But I also loved Barbra Streisand. And living in Brooklyn, I saw a lot of Broadway shows too." During high school and college, early seeds of jazz were planted as she also found time to listen to John Coltrane.

By high school graduation, with two singles released on the Red Bird and Kapp labels, The New Generation shifted from pop to acoustic folk, transforming themselves into Laurel Canyon. Focusing on her music career after a short stint studying nursing, a chance meeting at a party introduced Janis Siegel to Tim Hauser and early swing music. Soon she joined Hauser, Laurel Masse, and Alan Paul as the vocal quartet, Manhattan Transfer, which took off in 1975 with the release of its first (self-titled) recording.

From that point on, Siegel's career soared. Singing lead on some of the Transfer's biggest hits ("Operator," "Chanson D'Amour," "Twilight Zone," "Birdland," "Ray's Rockhouse," "Sassy," "Spice of Life," "Mystery," and "The Boy from N.Y.C."), she also proved to be a skillful vocal arranger, writing five of the charts for the group's acclaimed Vocalese, seven charts for the Grammy-winning album, Brasil, and winning a Grammy herself in 1980 for her arrangement of "Birdland." In 1993, the Manhattan Transfer singers received honorary doctorates from the Berklee School of Music, and in 1999 they were among the first inductees into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Janis Siegel has followed a dual-track career, performing not only with the Manhattan Transfer for more than 25 years, but also as a solo artist since her 1982 release of Experiment in White (Atlantic), followed by her 1987 Grammy-nomination as Best Female Vocalist for At Home (Atlantic). With jazz pianist Fred Hersch, she released Short Stories (1989, Atlantic), acclaimed by JazzTimes as "among the most graceful, thoroughly heartbreaking efforts of the modern era, thanks to her rich, emotive vocals." Also in 1989, the New York Music Awards named her Best Female Jazz Singer. Again with Fred Hersch, Siegel recorded Slow Hot Wind in 1995 (Varese Sarabande) and The Tender Trap in 1999 (Monarch), which also featured Michael Brecker, Hank Crawford, Russell Malone, and Victor Lewis. I Wish You Love in 2002 marked her Telarc debut, a collection of pop and jazz hits from the late '50s to mid-'60s. Friday Night Special (2003, Telarc) quickly followed, featuring the organ/tenor band of Joey DeFrancesco and Houston Person and an eclectic playlist ranging from soul-jazz and bluesy grooves to funky R&B and romantic ballads.

Dual career? Janis Siegel actually has far more on her plate than her gigs with the Transfer and her own tours. Her extra-curricular activities are as eclectic as her vocal choices--collaborations with Turkish electronic composer Ilhan Mimaroglu and the Beaux Arts String Quartet; projects with jazzers Richie Cole, Jay McShann, and Lew Soloff; a guest appearance on A Tribute to the Carpenters (King Records, 1998); recordings with Natalie Cole and Bobby McFerrin; an appearance with classical violinist Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg and the Concordia Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall; guest vocals on a benefit album by Fred Hersch for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, and tributes to jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and Ella Fitzgerald at the Hollywood Bowl. Siegel also has a number of motion picture soundtrack credits, including Swing Kids, A League of Their Own, and Dick Tracy.

Janis Siegel's newest solo project, Sketches of Broadway (2004, Telarc), deftly shows off her multi-layered talents and those of producer/arranger Gil Goldstein. While recordings of the stage show canon are commonplace among vocalists, there is nothing common --or even all that Broadway flavored-- about these renditions of both ever-popular and seldom heard melodies from the pens of Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Sondheim, Weill, and others. And despite the pop appeal of the play list, this recording leaves no doubt as to its genre-- Janis Siegel is a jazz singer, and these are jazz interpretations.