Debra Blaquiere
Debra Blaquiere is a Sydney-based vocalist-songwriter who has won over local fans as an independent artist with fresh claims on contemporary pop and graceful readings of jazz standards.
She is a product of our time, and pays respectful homage to influences such as Doris Day, Dean Martin, the Nat King Cole Trio, and great American songwriters including Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Joni Mitchell, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Burt Bacharach and many more.
Debra was born in England to a guitar-playing father, Clifton Jarvis Blaquiere (“Toni”), who had played with the “Duke” and held a residency in a pub in Shepherd’s Bush, London. After a Bachelor of Science at Macquarie and jazz vocal studies at the Access Centre Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, she stepped onto the Sydney jazz scene and came to Move Records in Melbourne.
She had already released two singles, This Time We Say Good-bye (1999) and Love’s Dance (2001), the latter with a moving 5/4 piano solo by the song’s composer Jeremy Challender, and an independent full-length album, Getting to Know Me (2001).
In writing songs first comes the experience right out of life. Then my emotions will dictate where the song will go. Or it may start with a melody not always composed by me. I will then link that to a personal experience. When it comes down to actual interpretation by players I no longer own the song. It takes on a new form and personality. I like that a lot. I never interfere with this process.
Press quotes
Debra Blaquiere - wonderful!!
Debra Blaquiere is featured on the following titles
Little Wing: Standards Inspired by Angels
Tried-and-true jazz standards fashioned around the theme of angels. Vocalist Debra Blaquiere is joined by award-winning pianist Joe Chindamo and bassist Philip Rex.
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Are you dancing too?
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