and that is due, in part, to November’s Star Clash winner Annie McClendon. Annie was born in Greenville, Pennsylvania.
“I have been singing all my life, but began my professional career in 1999. I majored in music, vocal performance, at Mercyhurst College. It was classically based. I discovered jazz and blues my junior year and have been singing it ever since.” Annie explains, “I have always had a knack for performing and for being in front of people, whether it be in a straight play, playing a gig, or even basic public speaking. Singing has always been the perfect fit for me. My favorite part about singing is the intensity and adrenaline of the show and successfully commanding an audience.”
Annie draws her inspiration from the jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Horace Silver, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Anita O’Day, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday. She says, “Listening to the instrumentalists’ play their renditions of the standards I love so much has taught me an immense amount about phrasing, melody, and improvisation."
Annie got her start singing with the former Maynard Ferguson baritone sax player Bruce "the Bad Man" Johnstone, and joined the Dave Stevens Big Band out of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was with that band that she did her first large venue, opening for Huey Lewis and the News in 2000.
In the spring of 2003, Annie moved south to work with the Night Flight Big Band, the group derived from the Tuscaloosa Horns, who regularly back up The Four Tops, The Temptations, The O'Jays, and Mary Wilson among others. This past June Annie sang at the CoCo Club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Annie says her favorite regular gig spots are Marty's bar and Ona's Music Room in Birmingham, Alabama. She is currently the vocalist with Q-Bop, the Night Flight Big Band, The Joe Giattina Orchestra, New South Jazz Orchestra, and Just Friends out of Birmingham and the Edd Jones Orchestra out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Annie now lives outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama with her husband Allen and two children, Grady and Sadie. In addition to performing she is also a music educator in Tuscaloosa.
Annie is still unsigned at this point, but has CD's for purchase through her myspace page.
| written by Joshua Schrader
