Biography
Born in the United States, Blade launched her career in the early 1980s before audiences seeking refined artistry. Drawing exclusively on the classic standards of the 1930s and 1940s, she has delivered vocal performances at jazz clubs and festivals across both domestic and international stages while also making appearances in cinema, on television, and via radio broadcasts. Her recorded sessions have featured pianists such as Bill Mays alongside bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Joe LaBarbera. Beyond vocals, she plays guitar and maintains an active dance practice. Now based in the Pacific Northwest, she has long contributed to Seattle’s percussive dance community. Her tap studies include work with masters Charles ‘Honi’ Coles and Howard ‘Sandman’ Sims, and she has attained expertise in American clogging, Southern Appalachian flat-footing, French-Canadian step dancing, and the Lancashire, England variant of clog dance. She has appeared both solo and alongside the Step Sisters, the Taptone Syncopators, and the Mill Creek Cloggers. In her one-woman production Ya Gotta Wannit she unites her identities as jazz vocalist and tap dancer. She further extends her practice through educational programs that cover 1930s and 1940s jazz repertoire and through jazz vocal clinics she conducts.
Albums
