Believe the hype. Brookline-native Grace Kelly is a preposterously talented young woman: She plays all sizes of saxophone with the verve and authority of an old soul. She knows how to construct and perform an award-winning pop song. She sings jazz and pop equally well. She dances in the manner of a sequin-laden pop diva. (Her LinkedIn page describes her occupation as “Touring Musician/Singer/Saxophonist/composer/arranger/educator”.)
This effervescent force of nature will appear at the Lee Meeting House on August 28 at 7 p.m. in a show co-produced by Berkshires Jazz, Inc. and her own production company, GK Entertainment. The show is one stop on a U.S. tour supporting Kelly’s upcoming album, “All That I Need.” The tour theme, “Good To See You Again,” was inspired by Kelly’s time away from audiences during lockdown.
Local jazz buffs may remember Kelly’s appearance, at the age of 14, in the 2006 Pittsfield CityJazz Festival, sitting in with her late mentor, the alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer Phil Woods. Her August 28 appearance in Lee will be her first in the Berkshires since she led a memorial concert for Woods in 2016 at Barrington Stage in downtown Pittsfield.
Although her highest accolades have been in recognition of her alto saxophone playing generally (e.g. Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll winner, 2017), it’s her treatment of certain standards that really commands my attention. There’s something about that gritty low end, honking away in the service of well assimilated blues and bebop scales, all emanating from such a diminutive figure. Is this performance of “Summertime” not an example of deeply satisfying saxophone playing? What more do you want?
When Grace started playing the saxophone, she was too small to lift the instrument, so she rested it on a pillow and sat behind it to play. Here she is, at the age of 10, after six weeks of saxophone lessons.
Kelly earned high praise—”a performer with electric charisma”—from Jon Batiste, the Grammy- and Academy-Award winning bandleader of Steven Colbert’s Late Show, when she sat in with the band and got invited to stay for a six-month stint.
The New York Times in 2018 wrote of her “broad tone and tenacious flow on the alto saxophone, clearly in possession of virtuoso talents … impressive singing voice, flitting among a range of styles.” Downbeat Magazine wrote of Kelly, “Charismatic and immensely talented … all the chops in the world.”
But here is the best endorsement of all, from NPR’s David Was:
“What if I told you that the future of jazz, which many have pronounced dead or dying in the last two decades, rested in the hands of a 16-year-old Korean American saxophonist named Grace Kelly? … I’ve heard the future of jazz and it is Grace Kelly.”
If you’d like to learn to play the saxophone, go to Grace Kelly’s YouTube channel, and she will show you how.
See singer-saxophonist Grace Kelly at the Lee Meeting House, 25 Park Place, in Lee, Mass., on Sunday, August 28 at 7 p.m. Purchase tickets here.
