Press Quotes for Nancy Harms Jazz Vocals

“…she engages the listener by seeming to put her whole soul completely forward…after hearing her just once, you’ll never want to let her go.” – Will Friedwald, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“Harms is an original”  with “a truly special voice and style… She could–and should–go a long way.” – Bob Protzman, DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE

“In her own unique fashion, whatever song she chose was transformed by her creative expression. The results were musical magic…Nancy’s show was a banquet of musical riches. After the closing numbers what remained was the feeling of having seen and heard a singer whose work transcends the familiar and opens the door to new experiences.” – Don Heckman

“… her renditions were stream-of-consciousness reflections by a singer reining in emotions until they exploded from within…The final impression left by Ms. Harms was of an enigmatic woman of mystery forging her own path.” –Stephen Holden, New York Times

“Now, with her new release, Dreams in Apartments, Harms takes another leap, this one farther into the realm where voice and imagination come together to define the highest art of jazz singing”. – Andrea Canter, JAZZ POLICE

“Her voice is warm, with a touch of vulnerability, and a believability…a young jazz singer worth discovering.” –NPR

“…on her rise to the top.” — ALL ABOUT JAZZ

“An intimate vocalist who sounds as if she is singing directly at each listener…clearly a singer with a potentially significant future.” – Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene

“…Finally got around to listening to NANCY HARMS – my loss all these months – she is very good; good selection too ….. Her timbre has a delicious edge to it, and her time is very fine….” – Award-winning NYC-based author-critic GARY GIDDINS

“She has a genuinely beautiful voice…and a spacious yet precise sense of timing. She knows how to tell a story and make a lyric spark and hum with emotion and truth. She has courage, and she means business…..Dreams in Apartments’ is about dreams in strange places and anonymous spaces that don’t yet feel like home. It’s about restlessness and change, the need to keep moving, the awareness that time is short, a life in flux and on the cusp. (A) line from ‘And It’s Beautiful’ could be the theme: ‘Every step is a new creation.’ Well-planned and well-paced, Nancy Harms’ second album – only her second – has moments of real magic.” – Pamela Espeland, BEBOPIFIED

“…a truly unique artist with an incredibly compelling voice. She is totally updating and reinventing the jazz standards repertoire!” – Niels Lan Doky, internationally-acclaimed pianist and co-founder and music director of The Standard Copenhagen

“Nancy Harms….has a marvel of a voice that will do anything she asks of it. It can be sweet and simple or sultry and dark. She colors her voice to suit whatever a particular song demands. She has a sure sense of both rhythm and pitch and can float some high notes that would make an opera singer jealous….For Dreams in Apartments, Harms, having moved to the Big Apple, assembled a stellar group of New York musicians and came up with a first-rate song list …. Nancy Harms is a singer who is sure of herself and has fresh insight into standards. She has an amazing voice and very good compositional talent.” – Rad Bennett, SOUNDSTAGE NETWORK

“Harms’ soft grained vocals deftly render…symbolically potent lyrics…longingly delivered meditation…” –Franz A Matzner, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

 “Nancy Harms… toyed with us. Her throaty contralto caressed the lyric. Just when we settled in, an octave rose, folk-like, causing palpable frisson…” –Alix Cohen, BROADWAY WORLD

“Vocalist Nancy Harms has a welcoming vocal tone, exceptional pitch and fine diction. ….she lets her voice get breathy, and the combination of the soft vocal sound and her remarkable flexibility reminds me of Gretchen Parlato and Sara Serpa.” –Thomas Cunniffe, JazzHistoryOnline.com

“Harms’s voice has the power to light cigarettes and then make them smolder all night long.” – Dave Sumner, eMUSIC