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Date: 3/10/2021
LONGMEADOW – Jazz vocalist and trombonist Hailey Brinnel has been selected as one of the five finalists for the 2021 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition for up-and-coming artists to showcase their talent. The competition pays homage to jazz legend and Newark native Sarah Vaughan whose career began after winning an amateur singing contest at the Apollo Theater in 1942. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents the contest as part of the TD James Moody Jazz Festival, an annual celebration that fills both NJPAC’s campus and venues throughout Newark with jazz performances in a vast array of styles.
Brinnel shared, “I applied last minute in the application process which was in September. I had applied to the Sarah Vaughn competition as a junior or senior in college and I did not make it past the first round of auditions.”
She continued, “Then one day I had been feeling a little bit extra productive, which those days are hard to come by during the pandemic. I saw someone else post about the competition and that the deadline was approaching, so I went online and submitted recordings that I had done pre-pandemic that met the guidelines. About a month later got the news that I had been selected as one of the finalists so it was all a very quick and exciting process.”
Brinnel has shared the stage with artists such as Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, Ingrid Jensen, Anat Cohen, and Pell. She has performed at venues like the Lake George Jazz Festival, World Cafe Live, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, the Washington Women in Jazz Festival in Washington D.C., Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and the North Sea Jazz Festival.
Growing up in Longmeadow, Brinnel recalled listening to a lot of the Great American Songbook of jazz standards, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. Though her family had newer music, Brinnel said their newest music was probably from the ‘70s. Her father, Dave was a singer/pianist and performed professionally with him throughout the Greater Massachusetts area since the age of 12. He hosted the morning show “Dave in the Morning” on WRNX in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which Brinnel mentioned some Western Mass. folks know him from.
“I’ve always been an old soul in the music I listen to and that started at my house,” Brinnel replied. “I remember going out to his gigs when I was a small child. When I was probably about seven or eight, he let me sit in and sing a song or two. Those are my earliest performing memories and seeing music was always with my dad.”
Brinnel even admitted that she didn’t want to play the trombone at first. She was convinced by her brother that it would be a good instrument for her to play when she got to pick a band instrument in the fifth grade. Brinnel was also involved in the Longmeadow School music program in elementary school, middle school and high school where she worked with Michael Mucci who was band director at Longmeadow High School, as well as with Kayla Werlin and David Fontes, which Brinnel said were amazing influences in going through the program and really helped her hone her technical skills as a musician that prepared her to play professionally. “I had been playing out in restaurants, bars and clubs with my dad, but this whole time I’ve also been studying in the public-school program. It was a combination of both that led me to wanting to pursue music in college and beyond,” responded Brinnel.
“I tend to focus more on the traditional and swing eras. The ‘20s through ‘40s are where I’m at home which is really fun for modern audiences because that can be a more accessible form of jazz. The modern jazz you hear on the radio is great, but it tends to alienate people who don’t already like jazz,” voiced Brinnel. “I tend to think of my own brand of jazz as ‘20s through ‘40s. The Great American Songbook has wonderful lyrics that are easy to identify with and makes you want to get up and dance regardless of if you’re a jazz fan or not.”
She attended Temple University in Philadelphia and studied at the Boyer College of Music and Dance headed by jazz trumpet player Terell Stafford. As part of the Temple University Jazz Band led by Stafford, Brinnel played and recorded alongside jazz artists Ken Peplowski, Jimmy Heath, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jon Faddis, Luis Bonilla, Wycliffe Gordon, René Marie and Dick Oatts.
“I just fell in love with the city. It’s a small enough jazz community that it feels like a family, but it’s big enough that I still feel like I’m being challenged and it’s not a bad car ride home to Western Mass when I want to come visit,” she added.
Before the pandemic, Brinnel was working a lot with her debut album release and planning a tour that came to a halt. During the pandemic Brinnel has been recording at her home studio and doing live stream performances. She is trying to figure out a virtual way of making music, which she said after a year is very tiring, but it’s what all musicians have to do right now. On March 5, Brinnel's debut album “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” was released. She describes this album as her love letter to the ‘20s and ‘40s traditional and swing areas of jazz as well as danceable fun to listen to tunes. She wanted to make an album that creates that sense of warmth, joy and nostalgia.
With the competition moved to June of this year, Brinnel pointed out that competition organizers at NJPAC have been keeping an open communication with her and rest of the finalists in order for them to have a safe in-person competition at the center. Currently, Brinnel lives in Philadelphia and is trying to book gigs. She has a live stream gig on March 13 which will be her first mini release show with her bassist Joe Plowman and another live stream event on April 10 at Chris’s Jazz Cafe with her full band, which will be the album release celebration. The links to both events can be found on her website at haileybrinnel.com. Besides that, Brinnel said she’s just trying to plan ahead anywhere that is booking outdoor music and get ting out to perform because she misses it so dearly.
“I’m truly just happy to have made it this far as I have and I’m looking forward to actual being able to meet everyone and perform in-person in June,” said Brinnel.
“I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” is available on Amazon, Spotify and Apple Music. For more information and updates, go to haileybrinnel.com.