Straight-ahead jazz vocalist Greta Matassa brings veteran nightclub experience to Great American Songbook standards while frequently improvising through contemporary scat. A Seattle native, she first encountered jazz through her parents and spent her high-school years absorbing recordings to hone her skills. During her junior year she left school and relocated to Oregon, where she worked as one half of a lounge duo alongside a pianist. After returning to Seattle she briefly performed with several metal and rock groups before entering the jazz circuit through weddings and private functions. There she began collaborating with area players including pianist Marc Seales and guitarist Michael Powers.
In 1989 her vocal work secured a replacement role for Ernestine Anderson in a Pacific Northwest Ballet production drawn from the songs of Kurt Weill; the show ran for a decade and cemented Matassa’s local reputation. Although she had issued a mid-’90s album and maintained steady work, she stepped away from solo pursuits to raise her children. Matassa reemerged in 2001 with All This and Heaven Too: Live at Bake’s Place, a club recording that highlighted her affinity for lesser-known standards and prompted favorable comparisons to June Christy, Carmen McRae, and others. She soon reestablished herself as a leading Northwest attraction while expanding her reach on the national jazz circuit.
Thereafter she issued further recordings, among them 2003’s Two for the Road: Live at Bake’s Place with guitarist Mimi Fox, 2005’s Favorites from a Long Walk, 2007’s Smiling Hour, and 2009’s I Wanna Be Loved.
