"A Little Closer,” the debut collaborative album of vocalist Lena Seikaly and guitarist Steve Herberman, is a snapshot of the duo dynamic the two have cultivated over the past few years, starting with the first of many regular appearances at the Tabard Inn in Washington, DC in 2014. This cozy, living-room style venue has provided a setting to explore repertoire from the 1920s and ‘30s through the hard bop and bossa nova eras -- some choice favorites are featured on this record. Ever inspired by the work of historic collaborators and stylistic influences Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, Seikaly and Herberman seek to capture and interpret the exciting, spontaneous and mellifluous world of guitar-vocal work, and bring everyone “a little closer” to the art.
Named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers" and "brightest voices in jazz” (The Washington Post), as well as a “major league young talent in jazz” (Duke Ellington’s biographer, Dr. John Hasse), jazz vocalist and Washington, DC area-native Lena Seikaly is already making her mark in national and international jazz circles as a revivalist of traditional jazz vocals, as well as an innovator in contemporary vocal jazz styles. She was one of eleven semi-finalists for the prestigious 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition in L.A., and is an alum of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program in DC, the Jazz Aspen Snowmass program directed by Christian McBride, and the Strathmore Artist-in-Residence program in Maryland. As the leader of her own trio, quartet and quintet, Lena has performed to sold-out crowds at national and international venues and festivals including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Blues Alley, the Elkhart Jazz Festival, Mel Bay Jazz Festival, Chestertown Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival, and has appeared as a guest vocalist with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Byron Stripling and his Columbus Jazz Orchestra, the U.S. Army Blues, The Capitol Bones Big Band, the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, and at West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage.
Steve Herberman has performed with a wide range of artists including Keter Betts, Steve LaSpina, Buster Williams, Luther Hughes, Chuck Berghofer, Gary Bartz, Larry Willis, John Pisano, Jeff Hirshfield and Jim Snidero. A professor of jazz guitar at Towson University in Baltimore, Herberman earned his degree at Berklee College of Music where he studied with Gary Burton and John LaPorta. He writes an ongoing column for Modern Guitars web magazine and has written instructional material for Downbeat, Just Jazz Guitar, and Mel Bay’s Guitar sessions. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Seventeen years ago Steve Herberman switched over to the seven-string guitar, which extends the bass range of the instrument. He adopted a technique that better fit the new instrument; playing with the fingers of his right hand more often than using a pick. “It enhances my feeling of closeness with the guitar, improves the tone, and allows me to play chords below the melody line, independently,” offers Herberman. Jazz guitarist Jim Hall notes, “the clarity and balance Steve gets with his right hand is amazing”and Just Jazz Guitar magazine writes, “Herberman’s fingerstyle technique creates a rich sound; it evokes comparisons to Joe Pass.” Equally adept at fingerstyle and pickstyle playing, Bill Milkowski writes “Herberman gets the best of both worlds on his instrument.”
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