Jeanie Bryson (born March 10, 1958) is an American singer who sings a combination of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, pop, and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

music. Her repertoire is based on jazz and pop standards from

the Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes. Definition According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" is ...

and

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...

and

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...

Life and career

Bryson is the daughter of composer Connie Bryson and trumpeter

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

. Her paternity was kept a secret until after Gillespie's death because he was married, but she occasionally saw him growing up. In 1998 Bryson filed a lawsuit against his widow, Lorraine Willis, after her lawyer found court records from 1965 in which Gillespie admitted he was her father. She reached a settlement with his estate. Bryson grew up in

East Brunswick, New Jersey East Brunswick is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The suburban bedroom community is part of the New York City metropolitan area and is located on the southern shore of the Raritan River, directly adjacent to the city ...

. She began playing instruments at a young age, piano in first grade and then flute in fifth grade. Bryson attended

East Brunswick High School East Brunswick High School is a comprehensive public high school serving students in tenth through twelfth grades in East Brunswick Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of East Brunswick Public Schools. ...

.Skelly, Richard
"Cabaret singer blossoms"
''

Home News Tribune The ''Central New Jersey Home News Tribune'' is a Daily newspaper serving Middlesex County, New Jersey. The paper has an average daily weekday circulation of about 49,000. The newspaper is the result of the 1995 merger of ''The Home News'' of ...

'', March 18, 1988. Accessed February 2, 2022, via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

. "Jeanie Bryson was a late bloomer in the world of cabaret singing.... Bryson attended East Brunswick High School and Colorado State University, then returned to the East, graduating from Livingston College at Rutgers University in 1981." She studied anthropology and ethnomusicology at Livingston College,

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, graduating in 1981. That year, she performed with her father in

Salem County Salem County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its western boundary is formed by the Delaware River and its eastern terminus is the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which connects the county with New Castle, Delaware. Its cou ...

, singing " God Bless the Child" by

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

. After college she worked in a post office during the week and sang on weekends, by the end of the 1980s she was singing full-time. Bryson released her debut album, '' I Love Being Here with You'', on

Telarc Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile independent record label founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the label has had a long associ ...

in 1993. Her mother contributed the lyrics to two songs on the album. Bryson also sang on an album by Terence Blanchard devoted to Billie Holiday songs. Bryson has a son, Radji Birks Bryson-Barrett, from the first of her three marriages. Her husband, guitarist

Coleman Mellett Coleman Mellett (May 27, 1974 – February 12, 2009) was an American jazz guitarist in Chuck Mangione's band. He had been scheduled to play with Mangione and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on February 13, 2009, but was killed the night before ...

, died in the February 2009 crash of

Colgan Air Flight 3407 Colgan Air Flight 3407 (marketed as Continental Connection Flight 3407 under a codeshare agreement with Continental Airlines), was a scheduled passenger flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, which crashed on February 12, 2009. Th ...

. The couple lived in

Discography

References

External links

Jeanie Bryson official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryson, Jeanie 1958 births Living people East Brunswick High School alumni People from East Brunswick, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni American women jazz singers American jazz singers 21st-century American women