String Of Pearls - Gems (2013)

STRING OF PEARLS is a female jazz vocal trio that performs vintage "girl group" music and modern vocal jazz with style, sass, and superb musicality. The group’s repertoire ranges from the 1930s sounds of the Boswell Sisters and Andrews Sisters to Brazilian, bebop, and pop music. String of Pearls has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Avery Fisher Hall, Town Hall, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Cape Cod Jazz Festival, the Provincetown Jazz Festival, and in clubs and concert halls in France, Germany, and Japan. In the New York area, the “Pearls” have recently been on the bill at The Metropolitan Room, Sweet Rhythm, The Blue Note, and many other clubs and festivals.

String of Pearls is comprised of singers Susan Halloran, Jeanne O’Connor, and Holli Ross. Sue, Jeanne, and Holli were all working as professional solo singers in New York when they were brought together to perform a 20-minute set at a nostalgia-oriented concert. The singers immediately loved their special “blend” and began to expand their repertoire. They created authentic transcriptions of tunes by the likes of the Boswell and Andrews Sisters, and began to commission and create original arrangements. And, Jeanne and Holli both began to contribute lyrics to songs by contemporary jazz composers for the groups to sing, plus new lyrics to older standards like “Girl Talk” and Glen Miller’s “String of Pearls.”

The “Pearls" have delighted audiences and critics with their superb musicality, sophisticated arrangements, swing, and charming stage show. Says legendary jazz singer Jon Hendricks, “I am often asked what the future of vocalese will be. Right now, it is resting comfortably in the hands of three lovely girls – String of Pearls. String of Pearls has produced a version of vocalese that is, to me, breathtaking in its beauty, startling in its simplicity and overpowering in its swing, without which, as friend Edward Ellington so aptly says, ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing.’" And Michael Bourne, jazz DJ and host of the popular “Singers Unlimited” at WBGO-FM in Newark, says, "String of Pearls shows an authentic and affectionate spirit with an extraordinary kaleidoscope of group singing styles, from the Boswells to the bossas. They sound good. They look good. Pearls of great price indeed."