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Singer and actor Nicolas Bearde, longtime
Rockridge resident, one of Bobby McFerrin's original and ongoing "Voicestra"
vocalists and a favorite at Bay Area clubs, will record his next CD
live, performing Yoshi's Jazzhouse in Jack London Square next Tuesday,
October 16, 2007.
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After honing his art and craft for many years with
discipline and singular imagination, Bay Area-based vocalist Nicolas Bearde
is due for broader recognition, and soon. A supremely gifted
singer/entertainer who is fluent in soul, jazz and R&B stylings, Bearde has
been compared to vocal icons like Lou Rawls, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway,
and Jon Lucien. But such comparisons fail to capture his vocal artistry or
do justice to his musical accomplishments on record or in performance.
"He´s a breath of fresh air amidst a mass of polluted ozone-unfriendly pop,"
declared Blues and Soul magazine in the U.K., where Bearde´s music
has been accorded an especially enthusiastic reception and where he placed
high on the list of Best Male Newcomers in the publication´s 1998 poll.
In addition to his high-profile role with Bobby
McFerrin´s Voicestra – the innovative a cappella group of which Nicolas was
a founding member – and SoVoSó, the artistic offshoot of Voicestra, with
whom he´s toured and recorded since the mid-1990s, Bearde has worked
steadily with an array of artists from Patti Austin, Michael Bolton and
Janis Siegel to McFerrin, John Handy, Chris Camozzi, and his own outstanding
group, the Right Groove.
Listen
You'll Never Get To Heaven (if you break my heart)
Nicolas Bearde