Winnipeg's Amber Epp releases first jazz album

Vocalist Amber Epp has made a name for herself singing with Papa Mambo and Trio Bembe.
Her effortless singing in Spanish, grooving to a Latin beat is memorable.

Now she's about to release her first solo jazz cd. It's called Inside Outside and it features 12 wide-ranging songs, including five that she wrote herself.

SCENE asked Epp to explain how a Mennonite girl from Steinbach landed up singing jazz and Latin music.
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I grew up with a very strong choral tradition (Mennonites are hearty singers!), and I seized every singing opportunity that came my way. I discovered jazz as I finished high school, when my choir teacher, Kristel Peters, played It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing for us in class. I went home and looked up the song, and was introduced to jazz giants like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. I was hooked!

For my 18th birthday, my parents took me to the Hang, a weekly jazz jam session put on by the University of Manitoba jazz faculty, and that was it - I knew what I wanted to do. It took a few months to build up the courage to sit in and sing a tune. I finally did it - and fell flat on my face! But I got up the next week and tried again.

Six months later, I was in the Jazz Program at the University of Manitoba, having the time of my life. I loved all the cool chords, new rhythms, and the excitement of improvisation - things that I hadn't experienced while growing up performing mostly classical music.

Once I moved to Winnipeg, I met more of the city's musicians, particularly those who play Latin music. I loved it right away. I would follow Rodrigo Muñoz (Papa Mambo) around, asking him to show me how to play the claves and ask what they were singing. I even faked my way through Spanish for quite a while, and I tried to keep up with the dance moves too. Mennonite rebellion!.
Read more: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/winnipegs-amber-epp-releases-first-jazz-album-202827993.html