Jazz on the Hill Concert

The jazz artist Julie Kelly offers a jazz vocal workshop a few times a year at her beautiful house in Studio City. I have heard her sing live several times at different functions and occasions, and also on kjazz, the local radio station that strictly plays jazz for jazz lovers. She is great. A friend of mine, Yuko Nakamura, has been singing jazz for a couple of decades now, and sometimes takes Julie's workshop to brush up her skills. It was my second time to be invited to the students' recital yesterday, the Jazz on the Hill Concert. It was held at Julie's house, yes, on the hill with a magnificent view of the Studio City. That is where the Universal Studio is located. There were seven singers including Yuko. I recognized most of the faces from the other recital they had earlier this year. I noticed many songs arranged in bossa nova (which I L-O-V-E) and samba, and then ballade, and a few in swing. Yuko was fabulous. She always does great. She never fails to impress her audience. Others did very well too. I truly enjoyed Julie's (another student of Julie Kelly) scat. Soothing, relaxing and comfortable, not forcing or struggling at all. Yolanda and Carolyn sang my favorite songs, "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To", and "Cry Me A River."And the last but absolutely not the least is the trio! Wow. They reminded me AGAIN of the reason why I love jazz. Oh, and thank you very much for the wonderful selection of California wines.