Nancy Marano

Nancy Marano grew up immersed in music, with a pianist father and a singer mother. Her training started young, first through classical piano lessons from her father and later from a Juilliard instructor. Vocal study followed, shaped by the examples of Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, and Doris Day. While enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, she earned a living performing commercials, jingles, and background vocals. Commercial sessions brought her to a producer’s attention, which led to a Columbia Records contract and a session with a 35-piece orchestra. She began teaching jazz voice on the Manhattan School of Music faculty in the late 1980s and joined William Paterson University a decade later. The 1989 release The Real Thing marked her debut, a collaboration with jazz accordion player Eddie Monteiro that yielded two further duo albums: A Perfect Match in 1992 and Double Standards in 1994. In 1999 she recorded with the Metropole Orchestra, resulting in the album If You Could See Me Now, and two years afterward she issued her first true solo recording, Sure Thing.