Cat No BM002

Jazz vocalist Kris Gayle was once described by Humphrey Lyttelton on his Best of Jazz BBC radio show as ‘Cornwall’s best kept secret’, and in the Jazzwise review of this album (May 2008 issue) Peter Quinn wrote : “Gayle has an immensely likable tone, an alluring way with ballads and a dramatic credibility”.

On “8.00 am”, Gayle brings her considerable vocal talents to a wide variety of material - including selections by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Ray Brown and Leonard Feather - plus standards by Kern, Rodgers and Hart and Legrand; a rarely heard jazz waltz and the title track, composed by Kris & superb pianist-arranger Viv Rodd.

His equally talented son, Damian, produced the album, played drums & many other instruments and co-arranged and orchestrated with his father. A number of fine soloists give support, including : Paul Haywood (saxes), Monty Ray (trumpet) and Marc Hadley (tenor sax).

Kris moved to Cornwall as a teenager, worked with jazz-rock group Matrix, as a session singer and later with her own soul-jazz group Gayle Force. She has made a number of TV appeances and worked with Georgie Fame, Salena Jones and saxophonist Danny Moss.

She has also regularly appeared at the Williamsburg Music Centre, NYC - Brooklyn’s only black-owned jazz club - where her accompanists included bassist Bob Cunningham (ex Dizzy Gillespie) and guitarist Gerry Eastman (ex Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson). She also sang with legendary New Orleans drummer Barry Martyn, and will join him again on his February/March 2008 European tour.