V O C A L I S T
JOHN WINN
NOT JUST A JAZZ STANDARD

The selector’s said: John Winn is a singer’s singer who has traveled near and afar sharing his gift of music. His unique approach to delivering a song always leaves the audience wanting more. John’s scat singing has hints of Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé all rolled into one. He also has the versatility to sing jazz, R&B and rock. His saxophone playing as as mellow as his singing, and for more than 15 years, he’s fronted large bands and small ensembles, both as lead vocalist and instrumentalist.
How you consistently play well while on the road is this: You get talented players, like bassist Curtis Blaine Fye, pianist and vocalist Daniel Clarke, and drummer Robby Sinclair, and you wrap around them the saxophone and clarinet playing of John Winn, in addition to his distinctive singing voice. You respect the music but don’t shy away from playing around inside the notes and improvising.
“At its core essense,” Winn explains, “jazz is not a type of music. It’ a way of approaching music.”
His inclusive musical philosophy is evidenced by the recordings on which he plays or sings or both: the Great American Music Ensemble, Modern Groove Syndicate, Fighting Gravity, Your Father’s Mustache Band, Junk Food Buddha (his own rock excursion), and One Ring Zero.
“I first learned to sing with my father, then with The Beatles,” Winn wryly says. His father, Jack Winn, was director of music instruction in Chesterfield’s public schools.
He and the band Neighborliness in 2004 toured South Korea, Cambodia, Russia, and Mexico through the jazz ambassadors program of the U.S. Department of State. Winn says, “The hip think is, we’d play where nobody spoke English, but we’d start playing ‘Autumn Leaves’ and everybody knew it.”
After their grand reception in Russia, Neighborliness was invited back through the Japanese Embassy as the opening band for the first ever Vladivostok International Jazz Festival. Winn now serves on the Jazz and Popular Music faculty at both the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition, he recently started a jazz program at St. Christopher’s School.
He’s currently composing for clarinet and strings for a performance at Loon Lake Live!, in Chatauqua, NY with his wife, Susanna Klein, a violinist in the Richmond Symphony and the mother of their son, Killian. This is their fourth year st the festival. “This year I’m writing a modern-day song sycle,” says Winn. “Songs for our modern times...explore various aspects, how our lives are better and worse, and have some real different points of view.’
A CD of Winn’s music will be available by spring; until then you can check out www.johnwinnjazz.com.

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