Doris Cales
Within this name we find many different shades and nuances, a blend of cultures, a splendid mixture. Born in Brooklyn, New York where she discovered at an early age an interest in all stage-related activities. All the members of her family either sing, or dance or play an instrument and she vividly remembers unforgettable nights listening to her brothers and sisters “doo-opping” on the stoops in summer, or electrifying percussion duels on the streets of Downtown Brooklyn.
Her years of musical formation were influenced by diverse styles: from the Motown 60’s to the physcadelic 70’s, finally flowing into her discovery of jazz through artists like Nat “King” Cole, Dinah Washington or Johnny Hartman, just to name a few.
She continues her grooming in singing with the late and great Maestro Arnedillo, music and piano with Lydia Arion and vocal improvisation with Pedro Ruy Blas. Her acting skills fell under the supervision of the William Layton Laboratory in Madrid where she met her professor and mentor Jose Carlos Plaza, with whom she works in three different plays: “La Orestiada”, “La Bella Helena” and “Interior Voyage: Pessoa”. She also works with Miguel Narros in the controversial “Marat-Sade”.
Her work in the jazz scene speaks for itself: Jorge Pardo, Jerry González, Horacio Icasto, Victor Merlo, Carlos Carli, Raimundo Amador, Antonio Serrano, Nono Garcia, Miguel Angel Chastang, Pedro Ruy Blas, Brannen Temple, Aruan Ortiz. Javier Vercher, Roman Feliu, Bobby Martinez…
After having been the lead singer in the Larry Martin Band for a number of years, Doris Cales decides to initiate the road towards her own career as a soloist artist. She records her first album with Quadrant Records “SONGS FROM MY HEART” with Bruce Barth as arranger and musical producer. A year after the release of her first album she hosts a Master Class in the Permanent Seminars in Vigo directed by the prestigious Galician musician Paco Charlin, from which her second record is born: “DORIS CALES AND THE SPJ GROUP”; a brilliant gathering of a few of the young lions from the new jazz scene in Galicia led by Doris Cales, singing with strength and know-how.
Currently the artist is preparing two albums simultaneously. One will be a live recording of her performance during her concert in the New Mood Jazz Festival in July 2008 titled DORIS CALES ALIVE: ARE YOU LISTENING?”. The other album will be recorded in studios in London, Madrid and Las Palmas, Canary Islands. In this occasion Doris Cales will be delving into the world of advanced music technology in search of a jazz Massive Attack influenced sound and will be working with some of the Canary Islands foremost advanced techno musicians. This album will be released in the fall of 2009 and will be titled “THE VOICE WITHIN ME”.
PROJECTS:
SONGS FROM MY HEART
Doris Cales went deep in her memory and brought out songs that meant something special to her and decided upon songs like “One For My Baby”, “In My Life” or “You’ve Changed”, interpreting them in her own special way.
Doris Cales has also composed a number of interesting new songs like “Falling” or “Until you’ve Kissed Me”.
For her live concerts Doris Cales plays with the best: German Kucich, Juanma Barroso, Hasier Oleada, Paco Charlin, Horacio Icasto among others.
A woman that dedicates her body and soul to her music. This is something that can be easily understood while listening to her record “SONGS FROM MY HEART”
STORMY WEATHER: WOMEN AND JAZZ
With a voice and piano ensemble Doris Cales presents “STORMY WEATHER: WOMEN AND JAZZ”, a committed and touchy subject which deals with the role of women in the predominately male jazz scene.
From ragtime to gospel, or the first musical play written for an all african-american ensemble, to Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith, Lil Hardin, Mary Lou Williams. Women that fought to be more than just “canaries”. Cales shares the anecdotes and stories of known and unknown women throughout jazz history through songs that reflect upon the legacy of women in jazz.
ALL THAT JAZZ
A voice and an 8-string guitar. Doris Cales and Dan Rochlis. Two native New Yorkers with a common passion: Broadway and cinema musicals. The songs they heard a thousand times in films like “The Wizard Of Oz”, “Breakfast In Tiffany’s”, “Casablanca” have become their Leif motif in this occasion.
Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, they all wrote songs that were used in films where we could see Fred Astaire swishing Ginger Rogers around a dance floor, or Frank Sinatra doing what he did best. A handful of beautiful songs that ring of ball rooms, silk gowns and champagne.
With Doris Cales’ elegant voice and persona and Dan Rochlis’ talent, we are assured glamour and show biz in “ALL THAT JAZZ”.
DORIS CALES AND DR. JOKER
Doris Cales shares an interest with the members of the well known house-chillout-dance group Doctor Joker; they share the curiosity and need to investigate new technologies in jazz. The group is formed by the guitar player Antonio Santos and the percussionist Wally Fraza.
The possibility of fusing vocal jazz with electronics is an offer none of them could refuse. Their accomplished presence in some of the foremost New Music Festivals proves that the alliance between Doris Cales and Doctor Joker is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
TEACHING
Doris Cales (MA Special –Education, Brooklyn College) has dedicates and still in fact dedicates a good part of her career to teaching. In the United States she worked with teenagers in the south Bronx with educational and social challenges. As part of her therapeutical focus she coordinated gospel, soul and rhythm and blues choirs. The result was a success and extremely beneficial.
In Spain she gives private singing lessons and as far as vocal groups are concerned she has given Voice Workshops in the Vigo Permanent Seminar, Escuela de Música Peñaranda de Bracamonte (Salamanca), and in the Escuela de Música Ruperto Chapí (Colmenarejo, Madrid). Her teaching motto is: “it’s important that singers understand that their bodies are their instruments”.