Sylvia Brooks is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

singer and songwriter. Sylvia Brooks started her career in classical theatre, having studied at The American Conservatory Theater under the direction of Allen Fletcher and Bill Ball. In 2009, Brooks began singing jazz and collaborated with Thomas Garvin, who wrote the arrangements for her debut album ''Dangerous Liaisons''. Brooks made her performing debut as a jazz singer at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles. In 2012, Brooks released her second album, ''Restless'', which introduced what she calls "jazz noir". In 2017, Brooks released ''The Arrangement'' . She collaborated with Kim Richmond, Jeff Colella, Christian Jacob, Quinn Johnson, and Otmaro Ruiz. ''The Arrangement'' also began her journey into songwriting with three original songs co-written by Christian Jacob, Patrick Williams and Quinn Johnson. The Arrangement was named one of the top 15 Jazz vocal albums in 2017 by the 39th annual Jazz Radio Awards. On May 30, 2022, Brooks released her 4th album ''Signature'' on Rhombus Records. It features seven original pieces with collaborators Tom Ranier, Christian Jacob and Jeff Colella. C. Michael Bailey, in his review of the album, called Brooks a "master stylist". On September 10, 2023, Brooks released her fifth album- her first live album "Sylvia Brooks Live with Christian Jacob", recorded live at Herb Albert's Vibrato Jazz Club in Los Angeles. In January 2024, while at the Jazz Congress at Lincoln Center in New York, Brooks made a pilgrimage to the 9-11 Memorial, where close to 3000 people lost their lives. Deeply moved, she was inspired to honor them with a musical memorial through the 18th Century English hymm 'Amazing Grace'. She approached Mutli-Grammy® winning Jazz composer John Beasley to transform that aurel vision into reality. As Goldmine Magazine has said, "this is your 2025 Grammy-winning Jazz Vocal of the year- it is Jazz's magnum opus for this year".

Early life

Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Sylvia Brooks was born Sylvia Victoria Ippolito. Her father, Don Ippolito, was a jazz pianist who has played with various other icons such as

Ira Sullivan Ira Sullivan (May 1, 1931 – September 21, 2020) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, flautist, saxophonist, and composer born in Washington, D.C., United States. An active musician since the 1950s, he often worked with Red Rodney ...

Buddy Rich Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, ...

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...

, and

Dizzie Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but add ...

, and her mother, Johanna Dordick, was an opera singer who founded the

Los Angeles Opera The Los Angeles Opera, originally called the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler P ...

Theatre. After her studies, she moved to New York, and started working in the theatre. It was a fall after returning from playing Anita in West Side Story that ended her career in New York. She relocated to Los Angeles and began working in Episodic Television, but when her father died, while going through his archives, she realized she wanted to return to her roots in Jazz.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Sylvia Living people American jazz singers American women jazz singers Year of birth missing (living people) Entertainers from Miami Beach, Florida 21st-century American women