STYLE: jazz, pop, folk.  Kelsey Jillette sings lyrical, groovy takes on wide-ranging straight ahead jazz.
Rooted in the classic jazz tradition, her repertoire ranges from Latin traditional to folk-pop, funk to hard swing to mellow groove. “The Kelsey Jillette Group is not simply a backing band for a talented vocalist,” (Jazz.com) but a gifted and generous group of players who seek to reach aficionados and new listeners alike. 

Born in Washington, D.C., Kelsey Jillette holds degrees in Theater Arts (Brown University) and Jazz Performance (New School University). Based in NYC, she leads The Kelsey Jillette Group, an organ quintet, and fronts the 10-piece Big Bang Big Band, a classic dance orchestra. Her most recent record, The Water is Wide released on Consolidated Artists Productions (CAP 1016) in January of 2009.

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"These musicians do sound like an actual working group with Jillette's voice just one of the lead instruments along with organ, baritone sax and guitar. Individually Jillette has a malleable voice and bends notes well, Tom Abbott wields his baritone as deftly as Gerry Mulligan, Brad Whitely provides brooding organ backdrops, and Hiro Honma throws in gutty, sharp guitar solos and rhythms. As good as all the jazz playing is, the high point in the session comes on "His Eye is On the Sparrow" where the entire band takes it to church, Jillette really wailing and Abbott blowing chilling gospel Blues"
— Jerome Wilson, Cadence Magazine, Vol. 36 (Jan-Feb-Mar 2010)
"Kelsey Jillette cuts to the heart of a song with a canny incisiveness that belies her age. Her voice, all honey dewed ripeness, seems to inhabit disparate styles as naturally as taking successive breaths. It’s been ages since I’ve heard such self-possession in a young jazz stylist. 'The Water is Wide' is her album and Jillette’s prospective horizon stretches as far, and beyond."
— Kevin Lynch, award winning jazz journalist and author of the forthcoming “Voices in the River: The Jazz Message to Democracy.”
"Your singing is wonderful! Absolutely! Unique, lyrical, individual. Believe you’re the best female vocalist I’ve heard in a long time. "
— Norm Weinstein, winner of Deems Taylor-ASCAP award for jazz journalism, currently covering jazz for The Christian Science Monitor
"What a pleasure it is to hear the talented jazz vocalist Kelsey Jillette...an intriguing voice...breathy, yet has a deepness at the same time...a cool emphatic manner that compels you to listen to every word. The Kelsey Jillette Group is the real deal. You need to give them a listen."
— Walter Kolosky (reviewing Turn out the Stars) JAZZ.COM
"[Jillette] owns some well-honed pipes and the emotive powers to use them effectively...Together, vocalist and musicians creatively transform historic material into an engaging modern mode. This is what playing the standards should be all about."
— Walter Kolosky (reviewing Hot House/What is This Thing Called Love?), JAZZ.COM
"With a musical landscape chock full of female singers, the thing that gets your interest is some special quality...Whatever it is, Kelsey Jillette has this elusive quality that makes one's ears perk up and take notice.”
— Mark Kirby, WWW.MUSICDISH.COM (Associate Writer)
"The vocalist Kelsey Jillette...is one of the best in the business today. Totally soulful and rich in taste. She is a major talent! You ought to hear her. You have to. I hope you do."
— Tim Price (performer, author, educator), TIMPRICEJAZZ.COM

With a musical landscape chock full of female singers, the thing that gets your interest is some special quality that can’t be measured in sharps and flats. Call it pizzazz, personality, or the content of one’s character. Whatever it is, this elusive quality is what makes one’s ears perk up and take notice. Kelsey Jillette has this quality.

It comes across in a breathy, natural voice- conversational, but full of intensity and with loud bouts of joy, humor, pathos, and the blues. It is found in the expressiveness with which she sings every word, every line of a song. While she can use her voice in a Dianne Reeves style scat-singing mode, her forte is smooth, emotionally nuanced expression of a song’s melody. This is perfectly in keeping with her live performance style which favors relating to the audience and the listener with the unpretentious naturalism of the really cool girl next door over the pompous grandiosity of the diva. This comes in part from the path Kelsey Jillette has taken to become a singer-musician....
-Mark Kirby, WWW.MUSICDISH.COM (Associate Writer) 

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