Janet Planet | Oshkosh

1393 Washington Avenue,Oshkosh WI 54901

26 October, 2022

Description

A special Jazz Coterie premier — Janet Planet Sings the Johnny Mandel Songbook. Then off to London! Wisconsin institution and WAMI Hall of Famer, Janet Planet orbits through our series this year to perform works of 5X Grammy-winning composer Johnny Mandel. It’s an exciting sneak-peek at the concert Janet will be presenting next month at her long-anticipated London Jazz Fest debut! “Janet Planet is such an exemplary vocal artiste that anything she graces with her vocal cords benefits.” — Cadence Magazine Described as a “sultry vocalist with a vast repertoire of jazz, blues, and standards…with some Bob Dylan thrown in for good measure” by New York Magazine, the spirited and vivacious, Janet Planet has been self-produced and managed for the majority of her 35 year career. “Amazingly powerful, with seemingly limitless expression.” — Jazziz Janet Planet is a 6-time WAMI winner. In 2014 she was only the second woman in 32 to years to be inducted into the WAMI Hall Of Fame. She is featured in Wisconsin Riffs – Jazz Profiles from the Heartland, a book by Kurt Dietrich, along with other Wisconsin Jazz luminaries. “The effervescent and supremely talented Ms. Planet can stylishly sing anything she chooses." — Rochester Public Radio Planet has over 25 recordings in her discography. Since the highly acclaimed album “Sweet Thunder” released in 1985, she continues to produce, write, record, and perform. Her past two recordings were considered for Grammys and the latest Under the Venus Moon, released in 2021, has garnered high reviews. “When anyone has asked me, as they often do, what singer have I seen lately who really impressed me, I have one answer. And, it rhymes. Janet Planet.” — New York Cabaret Scenes Active in all aspects of the business she is a performer, producer, teacher, recording artist, voice-over talent and commercial singer. She co-owns Steel Moon Recording Studio and Stellar Records with husband, Tom Washatka. Ms. Planet is a professor of jazz vocal technique at Lawrence University in Appleton. “Wisconsin remains Janet’s planet, and hooray for that.” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Janet Planet has performed in Canada, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Russia, and throughout the United States, as well as numerous clubs and festivals throughout her home state of Wisconsin. Feinstein’s at the Regency | New York, NY The Metropolitan Room | New York, NY St Peter’s Jazz Church | New York, NY Birdland | New York, NY Branford Jazz Fest | Branford, CT Rochester International Jazz Fest | Rochester, NY University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN ....................................................... About Johnny Mandel John Alfred Mandel (November 23, 1925 – June 29, 2020) was an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. The musicians he worked with include Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diane Schuur and Shirley Horn. He won five Grammy Awards - from 17 nominations; his first nomination was for his debut film score for the multi-nominated 1958 film I Want to Live! Mandel studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. In 1943, he played the trumpet with jazz violinist Joe Venuti. The following year, he worked with Billy Rogers and played trombone in the bands of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Georgie Auld and Chubby Jackson. In 1949 he accompanied the singer June Christy in the orchestra of Bob Cooper. From 1951 until 1953 he played and arranged music in Elliot Lawrence's orchestra, and in 1953 with Count Basie. He subsequently resided in Los Angeles, where he played the bass trumpet for Zoot Sims. A 1944 Band graduate of New York Military Academy, in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, he wrote jazz compositions including "Not Really the Blues" for Woody Herman in 1949, "Hershey Bar" (1950) and "Pot Luck" (1953) for Stan Getz, "Straight Life" (1953) and "Low Life" (1956) for Count Basie, as well as "Tommyhawk" (1954) for Chet Baker. Mandel composed, conducted and arranged the music for numerous movie sound tracks. His earliest credited contribution was to I Want to Live! in 1958, which was nominated for three Grammy Awards. His other compositions include "Suicide Is Painless" (theme song for the movie and TV series M*A*S*H), "Close Enough for Love", "Emily" and "A Time for Love" (nominated for an Academy Award). "Emily" was a favorite of pianist Bill Evans and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, both of whom included it in live performances until they died, and Evans included it in a duo recording with Tony Bennett. Mandel wrote numerous film scores, including the score of The Sandpiper. The love theme for that film, "The Shadow of Your Smile", which he co-wrote with Paul Francis Webster, won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1966. He won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1981 for Quincy Jones's song Velas, and again in 1991 for Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable", and one year later once more for Shirley Horn's album Here's to Life. In 2004, Mandel arranged Tony Bennett's album The Art of Romance. Bennett and Mandel had collaborated before on Bennett's The Movie Song Album (1966),[8] for which Mandel arranged and conducted his songs "Emily" and "The Shadow of Your Smile", and was also the album's musical director. Johnny Mandel, A Man and His Music, featuring The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway was recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in May 2010, and released by Arbors Records in March 2011. In 2012, he worked on one of Paul McCartney's most recent songs at the time "My Valentine". He provided the song with a new and original arrangement. It appeared on McCartney's expanded version of his album Kisses on the Bottom in November of that year.