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Press
| ... Rachelle Garniez is a talented accordionist and straight-faced wit whose songs are romantic, rhapsodic and casually hilarious." |
That Voice: Rachelle Garniez
by Joe Cortez
While at the San Diego Comic Con this past July, I took in a panel featuring
New York based animator Bill Plympton.
He was scheduled to show, among other things, a twenty minute clip from
his new feature film, "Idiots and Angels."
He prepared the audience by telling us that the film was about "an
asshole guy that wakes up one morning with wings on his back" and
that it featured music by Tom Waits and
Pink Martini. What he didn't mention was
that another important, if commercially marginalized, musician was also
featured in the film, Rachelle Garniez....
read the whole article
Rachelle
Garniez and the Fortunate Few. Garniez, a local singer-songwriter
who also plays the accordion, wanders through the genres of country, jazz
and pop, leaving behind nothing but sweet wreckage.
She has a richly compelling voice, a wild imagination,
and a backing band that includes Matt Munisteri and the pianist and saxophonist
Joe Ruddick.
Diva
with a difference: Rachelle Garniez definitely stands out among
countless young women gunning for pop divadom. On her unique self-made
debut, "Serenade City", the New York artist wallows in '40s
sensibilities, gliding through material steeped in traditional jazz and
swing styles. She accomplishes this with an ample wit and a lilting contralto
vocal range and fluid phrasing that often recalls Liza Minelli. Adding
a splash of authenticity (and camp) is Garniez's limber accordion playing,
which works well with the sweet blend of violin, sax and piano provided
by her support band, the Fortunate Few.
Raised
on the Upper West Side by a classical pianist and a professor of French
literature, Rachelle Garniez had the kind
of childhood you might think only exists in Woody Allen movies -- a rarified
utopia of intellectuals, artists and well-worn rugs in pre-war brownstones.
But Garniez was having none of it. She never learned to read music, aspired
to do anything but focus on music and in 1983, at 17, fled the safety
of home for Europe. By default, she picked up the guitar and started playing
on the streets of the continent's great cities. She wound up on a beach
in Spain, where she lived with Gypsies and started developing her musical
patois.
After a year, she moved back to New York and lived in a squat on 89th Street before settling in the East Village. "I just really wanted to be around hip-hop," she says, "and the action." It was 1987 and on those potholed, needle-strewn streets, Garniez found her calling in the accordion. She started playing in the subways, but soon moved above ground to the clubs. Since then, Garniez has played her hybrid of jazz-ska-pop-country-bluegrass to sold-out rooms worldwide. But she is foremost a performer, and her work with The Citizens Band, a 15-member cabaret collective, gives Garniez a more theatrical outlet than her solo work. It also reflects her optimism and synergistic approach to both art and life. "I like things that are intermixed and inclusive," she says, adding that attitude is key to success in New York. "It's not fun to walk around grouchy. That's not productive." Garniez's fourth solo record, Melusine Years, is out this spring.
Slipping between pop, polka, country, ska, jazz and yodeling, while playing accordion, piano, guitar and plastic bells, Garniez is a master of surprise. Her CD is available only online, but fans of Bjork, Sinead and Rickie Lee should seek it out.
Wistful,
Sardonic, Sentimental and Wry . . .
To read the whole
article
" . . . dark, enigmatic beauty . . . bursting with intelligence and subtle irony . . ."
Rachelle's singing simultaneously pulls you into the
world of pain and joy. The 4am Jazz piece "Swimming Pool Blue"
awakened memories of Chet Baker's "lostness", thanks to Rachelle's
voice and Pam Fleming's trumpet . . . until my dreams come true":
the most tender temptation since there is voice.
To read the whole
article
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