Jeannette Lambert

A very versatile singer, Jeannette Lambert’s career has found her singing everything from standards and ballads to engaging in very adventurous improvisations. Her warm voice makes even the most forbidding music seem more accessible than expected. Jeannette Schwager was born to Dutch and Indonesian parents who loved jazz. In addition, her brother is jazz guitarist Reg Schwager. From the age of 12, she performed with her brother at coffee houses and music festivals. She did not have to venture far to perform regular jam sessions, which were held at her house when she was a teenager. She was particularly inspired by the older jazz musicians who participated, especially Herbie Spanier, who encouraged her to improvise as freely as possible. While she studied film production at Toronto’s York University during 1984-1986, she also attended the Banff Summer Jazz Workshop in 1985, singing with the Cecil Taylor Workshop Big Band and taking lessons from Jay Clayton, Dave Liebman, and Julian Priester. After periods living in Paris, New York, and Amsterdam, she settled in Montreal. Married to drummer Michel Lambert, she co-founded the record label Jazz from Rant with her brother and her husband in 1991. Jeannette Lambert considers her music to be inspired and influenced not only by other jazz singers but by flamenco, fado, and jaipongan. In addition to her singing and recording, she writes music to her own poetry and is an internet filmmaker. Her recordings, primarily for the Jazz from Rant label, include free improvisations, match-ups with pianist Paul Bley, and two volumes of Bebop for Babies, jazz versions of children’s melodies. ~ Scott Yanow