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(b Sydney, Feb 8, 1947). Australian singer. She first studied piano. From 1968 to 1971 she sang with a cooperative group, the Affair, touring Australia and England, after which she joined the Daly–Wilson Big Band and worked as a studio musician and in cabaret. In 1973–4 she toured North America, where she appeared on television and performed with her ensemble Compared to What. Following her return to Australia she presented her own radio program, “Kerrie Biddell and Friends,” for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. During the 1970s she recorded three albums as a leader. In 1982 she formed a duo with the pianist Julian Lee and joined the faculty of the New South Wales Conservatorium in Sydney to teach jazz. She remained active through the 1990s. Biddell possesses a powerful voice with an uncommonly wide range and is a gifted improviser; she may be heard to particular advantage on the track ...

(b New York, NY, Jan 29, 1939; d Tijuana, Mexico, Oct 25, 2000). American jazz singer, lyricist, composer–improviser, multidisciplinary artist, and educator. During her 40-year career she performed internationally and recorded more than 40 albums, working with such artists as Carla Bley, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Enrico Rava, Andrew Cyrille, Roland Kirk, Jimmy Lyons, Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, Cecil Taylor, and Reggie Workman. Her vocal style reflects the influence of early mainstream jazz vocalists, including Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington, and the intellectualism of postwar avant-garde jazz and experimental music. Starting in the 1960s Lee forged a new path in multidisciplinary performance that fused the aesthetics of modern dance, vocal improvisation and sound poetry (intonation, non-verbal utterances, and vocalizations), and visual arts (paintings, slide projections, and film). In the 1970s she established Earthforms Rituals, a nonprofit corporation that promoted concerts and educational programs. She also completed an MA in education at New York University in ...

[née Silverman, Judith; Lovano, Judith Silverman]

(b Philadelphia, May 8, 1951). American singer. Her professional name is a combination of her maiden name and her married name. She studied education at Temple University, Philadelphia (BS 1974), and toured the USA and Europe in various modern dance groups (1972–6); from 1973 to 1975 she was an adjunct faculty member at Temple and at Antioch College, Ohio. She later studied arranging with Bob Brookmeyer and Manny Albam (both 1992–4) and performance with Barry Harris (1992–5). In 1976 Silvano moved to New York, where she continued to work as a dancer. In 1981 she began performing with Joe Lovano, whom she married, and Kenny Werner, and from 1982 to 1987 she and Lovano led the Windance Ensemble, which combined jazz and modern dance. From the late 1980s she recorded and toured with a number of Lovano’s groups, notably World Ensemble (from ...