"Sonya Perkins is a great artist and she never fails to amaze me with her selections and unique interpretations of the Great American Songbook".
---Joe Regan Jr., Jazz & Cabaret Journalist
About Sonya
feel the music
jazz vocalist
Background
what they're saying!
Sonya Perkins
Sonya, a NYC based jazz vocalist, has recorded on three occasions: her debut CD, And You Linger, an EP, Bring My Lover Near, and her latest CD, Dream A Little Dream.
On her newest, critically acclaimed CD, Dream A Little Dream, Sonya delivers a mixture of ballads, up tunes and blues in her own style accompanied by Musical Director, Bob Albanese on piano, bassist James Cammack, drummers Vito Lesczak and Darrell Green (alternating on tracks) and a guest trumpeter, the great Warren Vache.
"Perkins displays an innate undertanding of a great song lyric and the ability to get to the essence in her delivery..."
--Jeff Tamarkin, Jazz Journalist
"Perkins digs deep into each song, rethinks the lyrics and melodies in the context of today's world, and--with the impeccable assistance of her fine accompanists, including pianist/arranger Bob Albanese--bends and shapes them into wholly new listening experiences..."
--Jeff Tamarkin, Jazz Journalist
"Dream A Little Dream, a CD that displays Sonya's unique brand of emotional and swinging storytelling, is a joy that needs to be experienced."
--Scott Yanow, Jazz Journalist
"Sonya had another wonderful performance at the Metropolitan Room, NYC, on May 20th, 2017 with a great swing band behind her. Like her past performance here, the Metropolitan Room was packed with singers, musicians, and music lovers...
Perkins has one of the purest vocal instruments of jazz singers of today and she embellishes that with an acting performance and unique phrasing, giving life to the lyrics she sings and swings on...her dramatic pauses were emotionally true and, again, her brilliant phrasing was unique..."
--Joe Regan, Jr., Theater Pizzazz
"Sonya"s Voice, the music, the lyrics are One. Perkins holds the audience in the palm of her hands!"
--Marlon Saunders, singer, composer, arranger
Sonya performs regularly at the Metropolitan Room, NYC, has performed at The Triad, Butterfield8, LaBella’s, Divino’s, O’Neals’ Red Bar, NYC; Cafe Marcello, The Fox Hollow Inn, Aperitif, Wickers, Crescent Beach Club, Long Island, NY; Bert’s Jazz Marketplace in Detroit; The Elephant Room in Austin, TX.
Sonya is a jazz vocalist who has honed her craft slowly and surely over her life time. Brooklyn bred and NYC based, Sonya prepared for a singing career as a teenager but instead followed a calling and established a long standing career as a psychotherapist. Recently she found a way to count music back into her life and returned to her first love: jazz singing. "Maybe I never really left music because I have always seen my work as a therapist in musical terms...listening for themes in a patient's narrative and variations on the theme, the rhythm changes, the repetitions, the pauses...and as a therapist, tuning in, keeping in tune, knowing when to come in....And jazz has a lot to do with that...with empathic listening and responding, living in the lyric, reaching for the deeper meaning...‘’
As Sonya says, ”Jazz often has a healing effect both for the performer and the listener. It’s about being in the present moment together…sharing the unpredictable moment, moment to moment and a letting go of ‘ego.’”