Lucia Newell © Andrea Canter

About Lucia Newell

From Los Angeles to Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro, as well as locally at Orchestra Hall, the Artist's Quarter, and the Dakota, Lucia Newell has performed Brazilian samba, French ballads and bop melodies; she’s lent her voice to the poems of Pablo Neruda and the songs of Rogers and Hart as guest vocalist on Soul Café’s recent release (The Poetry of Jazz); she has sung with the great Billy Eckstein, the Rio Jazz Orchestra, and Oscar Castro Neves. A native of Minneapolis, Lucia was always involved in school choirs, theater, and garage bands. She moved to New York in the late 60s where she finished high school and joined a classical ensemble, the Albatross Quartet, and a political theater group that ultimately settled in Minneapolis as At the Foot of the Mountain Theater. Back in the Twin Cities, Lucia began vocal studies with Janis Hardy of the Minnesota Opera. Soon her career moved into voice-over work, radio jingles and singing background vocals for recordings.

Lucia Newell © Andrea Canter

Lucia began her jazz career singing with the Kevin Hoidale Sextet and the group Four. She traveled between Minneapolis and LA singing in clubs and concerts, and cut a demo recording at Creation Audio, where she met future husband Steve Wiese. The “gypsy years” were underway as Lucia moved to Europe and then Rio de Janeiro, where she sang with Osmar Milito, Nilson Matta, Everaldo Ferreira and Marcio Lotts at Clube 21, and with Celia Vaz and the Rio Jazz Orchestra; she also studied Brazilian percussion with Café. From Rio she moved to Buenos Aires, and then to Mexico City for six months performing at El Señorial. Back in the US, Lucia landed in Los Angeles to study jazz at the Dick Grove School of Music, finally returning to Minneapolis in 1982. Back home, Lucia married Steve and worked for Jimmy Jam Harris, Terry Lewis and Monte Moir of Flyte Time, singing background vocals.

Over the past two decades, Lucia has continued voice-over work as well as live performance and studio singing, teaching, composing, and her life-long study of music. A linguist as well as vocalist, Lucia writes lyrics in both English and Portuguese, and has translated many of her favorite Brazilian songs. She has collaborated with guitarist/bassist Joan Griffith on several songs included on their CD, Enter You, Enter Love. Lucia has set words to Thelonious Monk’s “Ugly Beauty” and to works of local piano virtuoso Laura Caviani; she also has composed and written lyrics for several children’s songs and has composed music for a Hopi poem, “Weep Not at My Grave.”

Lucia Newell © Andrea Canter

Lucia Newell is busy performing locally (often at the Dakota and Artists Quarter), at area festivals, and nationally/internationally with bassist Michael Gold at corporate events. She’s appeared often with Soul Café, a jazz trio (Laura Caviani, Steve Blons, and Brad Holden) combining poetry and music. Her first recording, Enter You, Enter Love was hailed as a “wonderfully surprising collection of love songs...that brings to mind steamy, moonlit tropical nights” (Sun Current). Her recent collaborations with Pete Whitman’s Departure Point sextet, along with her love of Billy Strayhorn, led to her latest release, Steeped in Strayhorn. Said Alan Bargebuhrin Cadence, “Lucia Newell turns out to be one of those gifted vocalists whose conception and intelligence is transcendent. Add to that some well crafted and conceived arrangements played with snap, crackle, and the requisite pop, and you have over an hour of music that is alive with authentic Jazz affirmation. Strayhorn would be very happy and proud.”

Phil Aaron © Howard A. Gitelson

Instrumentalists

Pianist Phil Aaron led a long-running weekly gig at the Hotel Sofitel in Bloomington, and the end of that job means we are seeing more of Phil at other venues. A member of the Phil Hey Quartet and other area ensembles, Aaron draws inspiration from Bill Evans, Cedar Walton, Tommy Flanagan, and Keith Jarrett, among others, and he “can swing hard or wax romantic at the keyboard" (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

Bassist Gordon Johnson graduated from the Eastman School of Music where he majored in flute. He toured with Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinsen, and the Paul Winter Consort, has appeared on over 50 recordings, and has kept time for most local and many visiting artists. Gordy has released three

Phil Hey and Gordon Johnson © Andera Canter

A former student of Ed Blackwell, native Philadelphian Phil Hey is one of the busiest drummers in town. He has performed with Kenny Barron, Dewey Redman, Benny Carter, and Benny Golson, and often is on the bandstand at the Dakota and Artists Quarter, backing touring artists (Stacy Kent, Judi Silvano, Benny Golson, Dewey Redman), local vocalists (Connie Evingson, Lucia Newell), and small ensembles (Chris Lomheim Trio, Laura Caviani Trio). He also manages percussion duties for the Pete Whitman X-Tet, Departure Point, Apex, Mulligan Stew and the Out to Lunch Quintet (OTLQ), and finds time to teach at the University of Minnesota and Macalester College in St. Paul. Last year he released Subduction, on everyone’s Best of 2005 list for local recordings.

At the Dakota, October 10th

If you have not yet heard the woman described by Minnesota Monthly as “one of the most powerful vocalists on the Twin Cities scene,” this one-night show at the Dakota offers a perfect opportunity. Find out why drummer Phil Hey calls Lucia Newell “a real jazz singer, one of the very few who’s really dedicated to what I would call jazz music - one of the few singers I would pay to see.” At the same time, you will hear one of the premier instrumental trios of the Midwest. Sounds like a perfect evening.

For more information about Lucia Newell, visit www.lucianewell.com. The Dakota is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, www.dakotacooks.com. Sets begin at 7 pm; reservations in the club recommended at 612-332-1010.

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