In California since 1985 this native New Yorker has captivated audiences on four continents and more than twenty countries. He has graced the stages of the world's most prestigious Jazz festivals, Night Clubs, and Concert Halls. From the Montreaux Jazz Festival to Carnegie Hall with the Village Vanguard in New York and the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles included in the many venues in which he has performed . Leonard Feather considered by some the foremost Jazz authority in the world describes The …

Nancy Kelly's circuitous journey to jazz excellence began in Rochester, N.Y. Music was a pervasive presence in her upbringing. Nancy's mother was an accomplished pianist and her father's love of music provided the impetus for what was to become her trademark; the epitome of style, swing and intonation. Eventually a mixture of intimacy and a take no prisoner scatting style would complete the transformation from student to star. Studying piano, drama, clarinet, voice and dance at The Eastman …

The clouds of war were gathering over Europe in 1937, when Milcho Leviev was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. His journey to jazz fame had begun and he recalls it thusly: "During W.W.II Bulgaria was, for the most part, a fascist country, on the German side. My father was Jewish, but the Bulgarian Jews didn't go to the gas chambers, they were saved, like the Danish Jews. When the war ended I was 7. I experienced some bombing of my town at the end of the war; Hitler ordered Bulgaria to declare war o …

There is an intriguing, sylphlike quality to London born Danielle Thompson, with a whisper of vulnerability dancing just below the surface. These are attributes that quite simply vitalize and enhance all of her performances. Solid British resolve and a firm belief in Kismet produce an energy and tender urgency that is hard to resist. Ballet at the age of three, family singarounds and a natural flair for drama provided the initial impetus for the eventual journey she would take to the stages o …

The Crowne Plaza in Los Angeles was packed, and the crowd was abuzz with excitement. Nancy Kelly, vocals, Llew Matthews at the piano, Roy McCurdy on drums and Chris Colangelo on bass swung like trapeze artists on steroids. Nancy Kelly phrases like no other singer. Her range is amazing and her interpretive powers are legendary among the jazz cognoscenti. She scatted, she balladized and she ran the gamut from sweetly defining the ballads to power punching the up tunes. Cameras f