Melissa Collard, a Northern California–based singer and guitarist specializing in swing, spent her formative years in Southern California. Her grandmother, a performer of ragtime and stride piano, first acquainted her with early jazz, while her teenage years brought equal fascination with contemporary jazz and rock; during that period she served as a backup vocalist alongside her brothers’ rock ensemble. Guitar studies began for her at age twelve, encompassing the styles of Django Reinhardt and Eddie Lang as well as those of Pat Metheny and Jimi Hendrix. At fourteen she commenced regular vocal appearances at a lounge situated on the Redondo Beach Pier. Following high-school graduation she pursued English studies at Berkeley, where encounters with the area’s traditional-jazz community ensued. Among the early-jazz artists with whom she performed were Dick Oxtot, Bob Mielke, Bob Helm, Ray Skjelbred, Leon Oakley, Jim Goodwin, and Bob Schulz; she additionally collaborated with a quartet modeled on the music of Django Reinhardt. Upon relocating to Sacramento in the late 1980s, Collard interpreted modern standards with hotel piano trios, appeared with the ghost bands of Tommy Dorsey and Nelson Riddle, performed Western swing alongside the Lost Weekend big band, and journeyed to Europe as a member of the Cosumnes River College Jazz Band. Her recording debut arrived in 2004 with the release of Old Fashioned Love, a CD that also showcased trombonist Dan Barrett and banjoist/guitarist Eddie Erickson.
