September 2014

news and reviews

September 11, 2014

in News

A huge thank you to all of the radio stations across Canada who have been playing Like a Circle in a Spiral over the last few weeks. In particular, thank you to CILU, CFBX (#2 on the jazz chart), RadL, CJAM (#3) and of course, Jazz.FM and CBC. A huge thank you to Bill King for inviting me to be a guest on his show on CIUT. We had a delightful conversation about our favorite singers and influences. You can hear the whole show on mixcloud.

Warmest thanks to Stuart Broomer for his review in the September issue of TheWholeNote Magazine. Thanks also to Shelley Gummeson for reviewing the CD on !earshot–the go-to website for national campus and community radio. I am honoured. Thanks so much to Scott Yanow for his very kind words in the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and to Irwin Block for his review in The Senior Times, Montreal.

I was thrilled to perform at this year’s Ashkenaz Festival with two different wonderful artists. It was so much fun to be reunited with my “Barry sister” Lenka Lichtenberg to back up Cantor Simon Spiro with a rocking Moishe Oysher song.

DSCN1470

And I loved performing Theresa Tova’s wonderful and evocative Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman repertoire for the finale of the Ashkenaz Festival! Here we are during our sound check.

994187_10152573865521195_4737480751592673775_n

the whole note

September 2, 2014

in Press

Like a Circle in a Spiral, The Whole Note, September 2, 2014
by Stuart Broomer

Fern Lindzon is a rare jazz singer, her strong identity based on nuanced expression, a clear, almost silky voice, and a freedom from the collections of mannerisms that many jazz singers use to distinguish themselves. Instead, her work seems to grow from her solid piano playing and the empathy that exists with her band. For her third CD, Like a Circle in a Spiral (iatros IMO3 fernlindzon.com), she moves deftly between languages and styles, singing songs in Hebrew (Mishaela) and Yiddish (A Malekh Veynt) with the same idiomatic comfort that marks the more familiar Windmills of Your Mind. The most striking piece may be her arrangement of alternative pop songwriter Ron Sexsmith’s Jazz at the Bookstore, a richly ironic rendition in which accomplished jazz musicians (saxophonist David French, bassist/producer George Koller, vibraphonist Michael Davidson and drummer Nick Fraser) get to “play” jazz musicians.

whole note