Cyrille Aimee to visit Jazz SLC

Provided by Jazz SLC

By Jeff Metcalf
For the Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Oct. 16 2014 9:45 p.m. MDT
The Jazz SLC series will feature French vocalist Cyrille Aimee in concert Oct. 18 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m.

Gordon Hanks, founder of Jazz SLC, had not heard of the 30-year-old Aimee until an accidental conversation with a talent agent.

“This was such an unexpected eye-opener, to find somebody new with such incredible talent," Hanks said. "It reminds me of the early days of the concert series when we’d bring Diana Krall to the series before people began to take notice of her.”

Aimee was born to a Dominican mother and French father and found herself drawn to music. She grew up close to a town that held an annual Django Reinhardt music festival. She would visit gypsy camps during the festival and listen to the music they played.

“I think I was greatly influenced by their music and their culture," Aimee said. "I was also influenced by their way of life, the openness and warmth. One night I was asked to sing a song at the camp and I did. I could see the smiles and feel the warmth of the gypsies and decided that this is what I wanted to do — to sing, to make people happy.”

Aimee’s musical influences range from Reinhardt and Ella Fitzgerald to Chet Baker and Nancy Wilson and said she shuns the idea of letting people categorize her.

“For me, jazz offers so much freedom in the way the music can be interpreted," she said. "It’s natural to me. It’s where I feel most free.”


Between her busy touring schedule and time in the studio recording a second album, Aimee takes acting lessons and is working on a musical for an off-Broadway production.
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