Melissa Dinwiddie, Jazz Singer/Songwriter

(click here to listen to tracks from my latest CD, Online Dating Blues)

My story

So here’s a funny thing: I became an artist because I started making art to procrastinate when I was “trying” to be a writer. Then I became a jazz singer because I started playing guitar and singing to procrastinate from my art business.

There’s a message in there somewhere, though I’m not sure what it is…

In any case, I spent several years in a casual relationship with music. Over the years, however, the relationship got more serious. (Okay, to be honest, my relationship with my guitar is on again, off again, but with singing, that’s a lifelong love affair.)

For a long time the only public singing I did was in my synagogue, but one day a friend of mine gave me a homemade CD of jazz vocalists. Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, to name a few.

It blew my socks off.

This was jazz? I had no idea I loved jazz until that moment, but I was instantly hooked.

Singing jazz became an official Bliss to follow, and in my usual fashion I dove in head-first.

I’ve studied with the likes of Dena DeRose, Madeline Eastman, Kellye Gray, Sheila Jordan, and the amazing Margo LeDuc of Voice by Margo.

Since 2006 I’ve been performing any chance I get, and in 2009 I self-produced a CD.

My music

I lovelovelove the standards: the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and the like. I love wrapping my lips around these old chestnuts and bringing them to life, telling the stories of these wonderful songs, and getting my audience to feel something.

Not long ago I also started writing my own material to add to the mix, mostly focused around the crazy world of dating and other absurdities of modern life.

Want a listen? Check out tracks from my CDs here, and come hear me live. Sign up on my music mailing list for updates of my performances and new material.