CAROL SUDHALTER

DIVA JOAN CARTWRIGHT

 

CAROL SUDHALTER, is an American saxophonist and flautist. She is "A musician of the highest order..." Ayana Lowe, JazzNow "...the full-bodied warmth of her baritone sax is...nothing less than transformational".

Andrew Velez, All About Jazz New York Jan 06 "I was much impressed with Carol's lyricism ..."

"...Carol's polished skills, good taste, and exemplary ability to project her deep feeling for jazz have convinced me that she is one of the strongest players on her instruments currently on the scene". Jazz author W. Royal Stokes, in liner notes to "Shades of Carol".

Carol Sudhalter, baritone, tenor and alto saxophonist and flautist, spends 3 months each year touring Europe. She has led her own group at Villa Celimontana Festival (Rome), Aula Giulio Cesare in Campidoglio, and throughout Northern Italy with the Porsche Festival.

Guest Appearances include: Perugia's Umbria Jazz (Stage Carducci) with Rockin' Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters; at JazzAscona with organist Rhoda Scott, and with Mark Brooks and Henry Butler; and a Swiss TV news broadcast with Shannon Powell/Jason Marsalis Quartet (2005).

Carol's 2007 summer tour includes venues of Northern Italy, Rome, Bari, Paris, and England’s Birmingham, Swanage and Upton-upon-Severn Festivals, including appearances with well-known British saxophonists Alan Barnes and his trio, John Hallam, and American saxophonist Greg Abate.

Carol has released seven recordings (audio tapes, LPs and CDs) of her sextet and big band. Her latest CD, SHADES OF CAROL, (ALFA MUSIC & RAI TRADE, dist. EGEA) was released in Rome, and is a compilation of four Italian and U.S. recording sessions.

The CD includes Carol's original compositions and jazz standards. Carol plays as guest artist on several recordings including singer Minnie Minoprio's latest CD (Rome, 2006), "Swinging the Blues". Carol lives in New York and performs throughout the United States.

In New York she has appeared at the JVC Jazz Festival, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center), Trumpet's, Birdland, Cobi's Place, Pumpkin's, St. Peter's Jazz Church and more.

From 1991 to 2006 she played first as sideman and then as leader, Sunday brunch at CAJUN Restaurant, reviewed in Jazz Times, Hot House, All About Jazz, and NY Post.

In May 2004 Carol led her 13-piece big band at the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

She is profiled at length in W. Royal Stokes' Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talk About their Lives and Careers, Oxford Univ. Press 2005 (fifteen pages, two photos, and a description of Carol's fiery performance at a six-tenor session at Umbria Jazz's La Taverna; Leslie Gourse's classic "Madame Jazz", (Ch. 14: 'Carol Sudhalter: A Role Model'); Joan Hamburg's "City Wedding"; Lewis Porter’s online 'Encyclopedia of Jazz'; and a mention in Peter Westbrook's forthcoming "The Flute in Jazz: Window on World Music".

Carol is from a well-known musical family. As sister of famed jazz author/cornetist Richard Sudhalter, and daughter of saxophonist/violinist Albert Sudhalter, Carol's musical roots, based in swing, are strong and tenacious.

Her basic style is mainstream and the warm, rich sound of the saxophone giants of jazz history shines through. Time Out NY, February, 2006, observed of her, "…saxophonist Carol Sudhalter's warm, gutsy sound will put you in mind of Hawk and Ben Webster."

In a jazz flute setting Carol Sudhalter's classical training combines with her jazz chops to display percussive energy and deep jazz feeling that consistently elicit admiring audience reaction.

Joan Cartwright met Emme Kemp playing piano, in Bern, Switzerland, in 1994. On November 19, 2005, when Carole Sudhalter (sax) featured Emme in Joan’s hometown, Jamaica, Queens, for a Women Composer’s Concert, Emme and Joan met, again.

Washington Post

Click here to hear clips of Carol's music.