Andrea Wolper

Born on 16 January 1950 in Redwood City, California, USA, Wolper has earned primary recognition as a vocalist while displaying wide-ranging talents that extend into theatre work and freelance writing. Since establishing residence in the New York area in 1993, she most often appears fronting her own ensemble, whose members have featured guitarist Ron Affif, drummer Lou Grassi, and bassist Ken Filiano—her husband, born in 1952 in Patchogue, New York, USA. Additional collaborators have included drummer Victor Lewis, trumpeter Frank London, and bandleaders Terry Vinyard and Art Lillard. Beyond vocal performance she composes both music and lyrics for her own material and has developed a strong command of arrangement. Artists she has cited with admiration, many of them jazz vocalists, encompass Aretha Franklin, Mark Murphy, Betty Carter, Charles Mingus, Joni Mitchell, Anita O’Day and Nancy King. Her studies were undertaken with Dominique Eade and Connie Crothers. As an actor she appeared in west-coast theatres and, after moving to New York, took part in several off-Broadway productions. She has also produced poetry, books and magazine articles. For a number of years she has served on the board of directors of International Women In Jazz, assuming the role of vice-president in 2002.

Wolper’s vocal delivery remains warmly engaging; although she prefers material from earlier eras, she infuses such selections with a modern awareness of the musical shifts that have occurred across intervening decades. Of her former student, Crothers has observed with precision, ‘She sings with an intriguing inventiveness and a sensuous, swinging lyricism that causes the hearer to feel what she is singing.’