“With three albums to her credit, Fisher is already recognized as one of the greatest female singers in the history of Canadian jazz.”

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal

“Look Out - one of Canada’s best kept secrets is getting harder to contain.  With her fourth CD JOYRIDE: Life In The Jazz Lane, Alberta born Cheryl Fisher sweeps out of western Canada to claim new musical territory… a memorable recording that can stand proudly beside any other recent disc, whether from Canada or anywhere else.”            Matt Schudel, The Washington Post

Cheryl Fisher is one of those rare Canadian artists whose artistic persona encompasses both composer and performer.  As soon as she begins to perform, her music transforms the room from a chatty crowd into a rapt audience. Her unique compositional style, commanding stage presence, and assured vocal mastery transcend artistic mediums.  Cheryl is as comfortable performing in a small intimate setting as she is outdoors or in large concert halls.

After several years on the Canadian jazz scene playing and recording 3 CD’s with the likes of Canadian jazz greats P.J. Perry,  Bob Tildesley, Tommy Banks, and Canadian composer Bob Erlendson, Cheryl  Fisher spent 2 1/2 years studying and performing in Paris with brilliant Berklee Graduate, pianist Olivier Caillard. She was a regular performer at Le Speakeasy Club, Sam Kearney’s American Bar, La Pinte and the Bibloquet. In London she appeared with Scott Hamilton at Pizza on the Park, Peter Ind at The Bass Clef, and has performed many times at the 606 club.  In the US, Fisher has performed with Portland guitar great,  John Stowell, Amos Garrett,  Dan Brubeck, Jack Sheldon, John Handy, Sir Roland Hanna and Randy Porter, among many others.  She has studied and taken master classes with the great vocalists including Mark Murphy, Nancy King,  Roberta Gambarini and Madeline Eastman.

Since her return to Canada and the release of her debut CD, Slow Hand Jazz, Fisher’s jazz career took off. Canadian legends Tommy Banks and saxophonist P.J. Perry have performed with her in many Jazz Festival circuits, concerts and on several of her recordings. Her work has garnered rave reviews nationally and internationally and Fisher was honoured at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (1996) where she was billed as “Canada’s New Diva of Jazz”.  CBC profiled Fisher’s rise on the national scene with several features on her career and has recorded her performances for both regional and national radio and television. With support from Alberta Foundation for the Arts and The Canada Council Fisher has toured twice in Canada and twice in the US in support of her recordings and has re-pressed all but her most recent release.  She was most recently recorded  in Canada by CBC at The Jack Singer Concert Hall for the Jazz At The Jack series, and for a live province-wide broadcast at the New Calgary Jazz Festival 2008 by longtime supporter, CKUA Radio Network.  Canadian broadcasting icon Vicki Gabereau welcomed her as a guest on her nationally broadcast television show introducing Cheryl as “…one of the best jazz singers we’ve ever produced in this country.”   She has also been profiled on a national television special “The Discovery Project” as one of Canada’s brightest rising stars and was nominated by ARIA as Best New Jazz Recording Artist.

With the release of her second CD, Too Late To Hurry (1997), featuring Portland monsters Randy Porter and John Stowell, Fisher’s reputation spread further into the international markets.  Besides her busy club and concert schedule in the US, her performance work has earned her a twice-aired live feature on the American NPR Radio Network.  She was invited to perform, representing Canadian artists, at the Western Alliance of Arts Administrators annual conference in the US, and is a regular performer at the Canadian Embassy in Miami, Florida.   Her CDs have received rave reviews for their originality, emotional depth and outstanding sonic excellence from jazz lovers and audiophiles alike.  Her work continues to receive royalties and airplay, and has been featured on film, radio and in Jazz publications in Europe, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Eastern Europe.

In 2000 Fisher attained her Master’s of Music degree in Jazz Vocal Performance from the University of Miami School Of Music. While in Miami Cheryl had the opportunity to perform and record with some great jazz musicians including Sir Roland Hanna, Ira Sullivan, and Japan jazz superstar, Eddie Higgins.  Featured on Fisher’s 2000 release God Bless The Child is Fantasy Records recording artist, horn man Eric Allison.  Fisher and Allison completed a very successful cross Canada tour together with guitar great John Stowell, promoting God Bless The Child which culminated in an encore performance at Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (2001) where she was billed as, “…one of the greatest female singers in the history of Canadian jazz.”

Fisher’s Fourth CD ,  JOYRIDE (Life In The Jazz Lane) features Canada’s best jazz musicians including Neil Swainson, Terry Clarke, Reg Schwager, Eric Allison and Japan’s jazz piano monster Phil Strange.  The tour for JOYRIDE included one of the last performances at the Montreal Bistro and culminated February 2007 with a sold out performance at the 600 seat Broward Center For The Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale, where she performed JOYRIDE (for Big Band) with the University Of Miami Concert Jazz Band.  Highlights from this performance can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo5fqlKVWFI.

Some of Fisher’s recent career highlights include a concert appearance and CBC Recording at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in the successful Jazz At The Jack concert series as well as being a featured performer at the 4^th and 5^th Annual Cjazz Festivals in Calgary. Fisher also performed at the Jazz City International Jazz Festival in Edmonton, and was a featured performer at the third annual Jazz At The Lake Festival held in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, with Alberta’s own Prime Time Big Band.  In 2007 Fisher was presented in Concert with the Dan Brubeck Quartet.   She has become a master vocal clinician at the University Of Miami, has been featured in concerts with the Gold Coast Jazz Society Band, The Treasure Coast Jazz Society, and the Deerfield Beach Festival Of The Arts.  She has served as judge for the Gold Coast Jazz Society Jeanette M. Russell Jazz Scholarship Competition for the past four years, the National PTA Reflections Music Competition, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.  

Internationally and nationally, Fisher has had rave reviews of JOYRIDE in Jazz magazines Cadence, Jazz Now and IAJE Canada, and major Canadian newspapers including Geoff Chapman’s review in the Toronto Star.  The recording has received critical acclaim for Fisher’s own vocal pyrotechnics, its beautiful arrangements, and the outstanding sonic quality of the CD.  Feature articles about her recent career accomplishments have been published in the Ft Lauderdale Sun Sentinel and Heat Beat Magazine.   Besides regularly being played across Canada through CBC, CKUA and SIRRIUS, she has had several radio broadcasts featuring her music in the U.S. and was the featured artist on WLRN Radio’s hour long Tropical Currents program, recorded live and rebroadcast nationally twice on National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S.  Joyride: Life In The Jazz Lane  has also been featured on the nationally syndicated jazz program Dick Robinson’s Standards By The Sea,  WLRN FM, WDNA FM (Miami), South Florida Arts Beat broadcast worldwide on the web, and also was featured on Jazz And Bossa Nova in Brazil.  Her music has also been profiled on Dianne Donovan’s Women In Jazz, as well as Ross Porter’s After Hours program.

Cheryl is now poised as one of Canada’s top jazz vocalists emerging onto the international jazz scene with her fifth CD,  Moments Like This.  After recording with the crème de la crème of Canadian talent, acclaimed jazz artist Cheryl Fisher sweeps into deeper international waters with an historic recording pairing her sultry vocals with two genuine jazz legends:  Five-time Grammy Award nominee Ira Sullivan and Juno-Award winning Oliver Jones.

“When I was just starting out in Calgary at a place called Mr Risty’s , I got a great review in a British Jazz Magazine called Crescendo written by Jim Goatham.  When he sent me the copy he said ‘There’s a pianist in Montreal I think would be perfect for you.  His name is Oliver Jones’.  I was just a kid barely into my 20’s at the time.  It is such a thrill now, when I’m ready, to have that opportunity come true.”          -Cheryl Fisher