Jeannette Lambert

Jeannette Lambert has displayed notable versatility across her singing career, moving fluidly between jazz standards and ballads while also pursuing bold improvisational explorations. Her warm vocal timbre renders even challenging material more approachable. Born Jeannette Schwager to Dutch and Indonesian parents with a shared enthusiasm for jazz, she grew up alongside her brother, jazz guitarist Reg Schwager. Beginning at age twelve, she joined him for performances at coffee houses and music festivals. During her teenage years, regular jam sessions took place at the family home, where she drew particular inspiration from participating older jazz musicians, above all Herbie Spanier, whose guidance urged her toward the freest possible improvisation.

Between 1984 and 1986 she pursued studies in film production at Toronto’s York University, and in 1985 she participated in the Banff Summer Jazz Workshop, performing with the Cecil Taylor Workshop Big Band and receiving instruction from Jay Clayton, Dave Liebman, and Julian Priester. After residing for periods in Paris, New York, and Amsterdam, she made her home in Montreal. Married to drummer Michel Lambert, she established the Jazz from Rant record label in 1991 together with her brother and her husband. Lambert views her work as shaped by fellow jazz vocalists as well as by flamenco, fado, and jaipongan. Beyond singing and recording, she composes music for her own poetry and creates films for the internet. Her output, issued chiefly on Jazz from Rant, encompasses free improvisations, collaborations with pianist Paul Bley, and the two volumes of Bebop for Babies, which present jazz treatments of children’s melodies.