YVE EVANS: Reviews & Press

YVE EVANS GETS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD.

DTL will present its 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award to jazz diva Yve Evans, who also will entertain attendees.

"It is with great humility that Desert Theatre League presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to Yve Evans," said DTL President Arnie Kleban. "Yve has performed since she was three years old, and is very popular in the Valley. She exemplifies what it means to be a consummate performer. She also supports and encourages others, and gives back to this great community by donating her time and services when asked.

YVE EVANS This incredibly sassy, soulful lady brings her commanding presence to the stage, making audiences sit up straight. A wink, a smile, a suggestive gesture, and you’re hooked. That’s even before she raises the microphone to her lips and belts out her powerful jazzy blues tunes. Spellbinding

Dixieland Monterey expands way beyond the music born in New Orleans.

Yve Evans is a captivating artist who turns everything she sings into a vehicle for soulful _expression. Equally commanding performing jazz, blues and gospel, Evans is also an accomplished pianist with a bright, ringing keyboard touch. Her five CD’s are all live recordings, a wise move as she is a crowd-pleasing performer who radiates energy. Her band features players who know when to step forward for a solo and when to get out of her way.

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Yve in Toronto

What a pleasure it was to meet this charming performer, great sense of humor, a fine pianist and vocalist. Califorina based, YVE EVANS was performing in Traders Bar & Grill, Sheraton Centre Hotel at this year's Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival.
Accompanying her for the occasion were prominent local musicians, ARCHIE ALLEYNE (drums) RON JOHNSTON (bass) and MICHAEL STUART (sax). To be quite honest you would have thought this group had worked together for ages, Yve was delighted.
Chatting to, ARCHIE ALLEYNE during the interval, he said what a pleasuer it was to work with such a talented lady. Coming from Archie who has worked with just about everybody in his long career, that is a compliment. There is no doubt about it, YVE EVANS has a way with a song, her very own interpretation. Yve has performed with some of the best in the business. In 2005 alone yve will have performed in at least 9 major jazz festivals across North America, not to forget numerous club gigs. By the standing applause she recieved here in TradersBar & Grille, I'm sure she would be eagerly welcomed back.

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On the Radio in Brazil

I'm journalist, host of a radio show, author and professor. I write articles and essays for many Brazilian cultural publications. I wrote since last December 2 books ( about Jean-Paul Sartre, a French Philosopher.)

I am currently completing a book on the art of vocal jazz.
I'm happy to inform your CD, The Many Faces of Yve Evans has been very well received by our listeners. By phone they selected their favorite tracks: "Moondance", "What a difference a day makes" ( Your intrerpretation is magistral. Dinah Washington, one of my favorite Divas, in "the sky", listening your interpretation will be overjoyed, of course!), "Night and day" ( a lovely bossa nova flavor! ), "Wade in the water", "Im glad there's you" ( bossa nova flavor again ) and "Love for sale".

Well, what can I say about you except that you were blessed with a beautiful voice and you are an original stylist?

A fine jazz pianist you are a superb jazz vocalist too, a talent to the delight of audiences all over the world.

In short: a true Jazz Diva!

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A Musical Storm by Yve Evans

Indeed, in an instrumental rendition of Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'," [Yve Evans] countered the syncopated rhythm with straight-eighths in an appealing manner. Later, in a handsome reading of "I Can't Get Started," she contrasted [Ricky Woodard's] smooth lines with a jagged accompaniment and when Woodard applied the jagged edge on the ballad "Lover Man," Evans provided the soothing contrast.

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When Yve Evans opens her mouth, the blues just naturally come tumbling out.

Everything Evans tells through song is written on her face. She's there, in the moment, living it, and when she opens her mouth, the blues just naturally come tumbling out in a voice that was made just for the purpose.

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Yve Evans is an expressive, sometimes very humorous singer/pianist.

Although not famous nationally yet, Yve Evans is an expressive, sometimes very humorous singer/pianist who has earned a small following playing around her adopted home of Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. A native of EL Paso, TX, Evans was exposed to classical, gospel and pre-rock pop as a child and studied classical piano for 12 years while growing up. It wasn't until late adolescence that she seriously got into jazz and R&B. Evans has cited Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McRae, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, June Christie and Ethel Waters as some of her main influences, and she has also expressed great admiration for such R&B favorites as Ruth Brown, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle. In fact, both gospel and the soul music of the 1960s and 1970s have had an impact on her full-bodied style of jazz singing. One of Evans' strong points has been her wild sense of humor--in fact, she can be downright goofy at times. But as much clowning as Evans has done on stage and in the studio, she can also be a very moving, sensitive and poignant interpreter of lyrics. Though primarily a vocalist, Evans is also an appealing, melodic pianist and has named Bill Evans, Dorothy Donegan, Erroll Garner and George Shearing as influences. CDs that Evans has on the Note-Worthy label include For Jaz C Me (1990), In A Sentimental Mood (1994) and the gospel-oriented The Gospel According To...Yve (1995).

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Wide range, very appealing voice and jazz phrsing.

Yve put on a show full of humor, funny verbal comments and rewarding music. Her wide range, very appealing voice and jazz phrsing on standards was enjoyable to hear, as was her piano style, which pays tribute at times to Erroll Garner and the masters of bop and funky jazz.

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"I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face"

— This is one of my favorite ballads, not only because of the music - but also due to the exquisite and subtle lyric. One of America’s greatest, but under recognized, jazz vocalists, Yve Evans, inspired my approach to this melody, laying back behind the time in accord with the lyric’s meaning. Thanks, Yve.

Yves incomparable skills had taken us on a soaring musical flight that refused to be pigonholed into any "sound-alike"

Once you hear this incredible singer I doubt you'll ever forget her or that first-time thrill of experiencing one of her performances.

"She sounds like Mable Mercer" was my first delighted response, but before Yve got up from the piano her incomparable skills had taken us on a soaring musical flight that refused to be pigonholed into any "sound-alike"
From the quiet sophisticated Mable Mercer intonations, we were taken on a journey through rollicking vocal renditions that could have made Pearl Bailey herself jealous, from pop tunes, to blues and gospel - all with the indomitable Yve Evans' unique styling.

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Spell-binding

Yve Evans, a wholesomely flirty little ball of a woman with eyes that can convey either humor or sex directly to the back row of the audience with an honest immediacy. She sang a spell-binding "Squeeze Me" before she turned to address those seated behind her in the library's rotunda, or "the cheap seats" as she called them, and joked, "You have a broader view of things," before breathing new life into "Got The World On A String."

The Gospel According To Yve.

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A warm, R&B-influenced jazz singer/pianist with an impressive range and a great sense of humor, the L.A.-based Yve Evans hasn?t yet gotten the commercial break she deserves but continues to put out highly enjoyable CDs. Gospel and the Afro American church experience has clearly had a strong impact on her musically, and she celebrates that inspiration with her first gospel-oriented release The Gospel According To Yve. From ?Wade In The Water? and ?Sweet By And By? to ?This Little Light Of Mine? and ?Have A Little Talk With Jesus,? Evans shows a lot of enthusiasm and gives the impression that this was a CD she had been anxious to record for some time. Though primarily a gospel album, The Gospel According To Yve isn?t without jazz elements any more than Evans? ?secular? jazz releases are without gospel influence.

Hopefully, a sizable label will sign Evans at some point. (Available from www.yveevans.com or 1-800-BUY-MY-CD).

Reprinted with the permission of Myrna Daniels and L.A. Jazz Scene , the largest jazz publication in Southern California.

No Applause Necessary, Just `Throw' Energy

Jazz: Singer-pianist Yve Evans says the audience provides some of the `divine' power that she puts into her music.
Yve Evans possesses one of the most energetic voices on the West Coast today. She can awaken even the most overplayed jazz or pop standard with a supple tone and a clever sense of phrasing. Although her voice can be a veritable playground of swings and slides, she works without catchy verbal gimmicks or wild dynamic explosions. She simply relies on the strength of her voice.

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Music is in Her Blood

...Genuine jazz performance shows a dedication to the tradition and an understanding of its' timeless reprtoire.

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"Baffo!.....Really swingin'"

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"She knocks me out"