Grace Testani

Grace Testani stands out as an adventurous jazz vocalist whose wide vocal span and faintly husky timbre set her apart. Though born and raised in upstate New York, she has made Manhattan her home for the greater part of her adult years. Her stylistic influences stretch from Anita O'Day to Sarah Vaughan, and after earning a BA in psychology from New York University during the 1970s she worked numerous club engagements throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The list of artists with whom she shared stages includes saxman Sonny Fortune, pianists Harold Mabern, Jim McNeely and Phil Markowitz, guitarist Jack Wilkins, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Danny Gottlieb. In 1983 she joined Sheila Jordan and additional colleagues to co-lead a jazz vocal clinic, the same year she established Grace Notes Enterprises, an organization devoted to musical training, workshops, clinics and related programs for jazz singers. She also directs Creative Computing Center, a firm offering computer training and consulting services. Her debut album, Something's Coming, was tracked in 1994 and issued several years afterward on the Grace Notes imprint.