“Cheryl Fisher is already recognized as one of the greatest female singers in the history of Canadian jazz.”
- Festival International de Jazz de Montreal
-2016 Global Music Award Winner
Quietly There - Cheryl Fisher has come a long way since the days when she was described as one of Canada's best-kept secrets. In her sixth album, she takes another long step putting the secret in the past. Her musicianship is bolstered by a master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Miami but there is nothing acedemic about the intensity of feeling she brings to these songs. This collection bears out the observation by the Washington Post's Matt Schudel that she has "vocal command that deepens with each recording" (...) Gee, I wonder how her seventh album can top this?
- Doug Ramsey
After several years on the Canadian jazz scene playing and recording 4 CD’s with the likes of Canadian jazz greats P.J. Perry, Tommy Banks, George Koller and Canadian composer Bob Erlendson, Cheryl Fisher spent 2 1/2 years studying and performing in Paris with brilliant Berkley 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 London’s 606 club. In the US, Fisher has performed with Portland guitar great John Stowell, Dave Friesen, Dan Brubeck, Jack Sheldon, John Handy, Sir Roland Hanna, Ira Sullivan and Randy Porter, among many others. She has studied and taken master classes with the great jazz 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 has been a regular performer on the international jazz circuit. Both her live performances and her recordings continue to receive glowing reviews for their originality, emotional depth and outstanding technical excellence from jazz lovers and audiophiles alike in both national and international jazz publications (see appendix). 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. 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 recorded in Canada by CBC at The Jack Singer Concert Hall for the Jazz At The Jack series, and was also recorded 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 jazz luminaries, pianist Randy Porter and guitarist John Stowell, Fisher’s reputation has spread further into the international markets. Her work continues to receive regular airplay across North America, and has been featured on film, radio and in jazz publications in Europe, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Eastern Europe. Her performance work and original jazz compositions have earned her a twice-aired live hour long feature on the American NPR Radio Network.
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 of the greatest living jazz musicians including Sir Roland Hanna, Ira Sullivan, and Japan jazz superstar Eddie Higgins. Featured on Fisher’s 2000 release God BlessThe 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 giant 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
Cheryl Fisher, professionally poised as one of Canada’s top jazz vocalists emerging onto the international jazz scene, released her fifth CD, Moments Like This. After recording with the crème de la crème of Canadian talent, jazz artist Cheryl Fisher waded 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 winner Oliver Jones.
For her sixth CD Quietly There, Canadian vocalist Cheryl Fisher has recorded an album unique in both its repertoire and her approach. Purposefully chosen to be on the quieter side, Fisher puts a personal stamp on these beautiful, rarely heard songs, applying her musicianship and gift for vocal interpretation in celebration of love, or the mourning of love lost. Although they come from the era of the Great American Songbook, Fisher has given them a modern jazz treatment with the brilliant accompaniment of pianist/arranger John Toomey, the singular Portland guitarist John Stowell, the bass & drum team of Jeff Johnson & John Bishop, and acclaimed woodwind artist Eric Allison. "Concept albums aren't what I usually do, but sometimes you just want to sit by the fireplace, have a glass of wine, put on an album and let it play right through, letting its mellow mood merge with your own."
“Cheryl Fisher has a beautiful voice, is both a fine scat singer and a subtle improviser who embraces superior lyrics, and has the knack for perfectly placing notes. Moments Like This is an historic album…notable for featuring Cheryl Fisher fulfilling the potential she showed at the 2001 Montreal Jazz festival when she was billed as ‘one of the greatest singers in the history of Canadian Jazz”
- Scott Yanow
(Scott Yanow is the author of 10 jazz books including The Jazz Singers, Bebop, The Trumpet Kings, and is a regular contributor to Downbeat, Jazz Times, Cadence and Coda)
“With her fourth album JOYRIDE Canadian jazz vocalist Cheryl Fisher continues to match her technical brilliance and emotionally vibrant voice with her unique approach to music (…) It’s no wonder why Fisher has turned so many heads her way over the past few years and continues to do so as one of Canada’s most important jazz singers”
- Nick Lavine, iaje Canada
“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