Lynne Fiddmont, Smooth jazz Artist

This week’s Featured Artist has a warm smooth voice that caresses your soul as it holds you captive.  She spent most of her early musical career providing background vocals for other artists such as Stevie Wonder, Yolanda Adams, Patti Austin, Phil Collins and the late Lou Rawls to name a few.  Meet jazz vocalist – Lynne Fiddmont

Born in St Louis, Missouri, USA

Genre: Vocal Jazz, Soul/R&B

St Louis native, Lynne Fiddmont grew up in the close-knit community of Maplewood/Richmond Heights.  Her early years consisted of school, hopscotch, Double Dutch, selling Girl Scout cookies and things every other little girl in Richmond Heights was doing.  Hers is a life that took a turn that changed an ordinary life into what many would consider extraordinary.  Besides an occasional Easter speech or Little Flower dance recital, Lynne’s early life was free of any big dreams as a performer.  Her career goals ranged from being a hair stylist, a dancer, an engineer, an umpire, but not a singer.  “I had no idea that I could sing.

Her life was not void of music, in fact her family was known for music.  Her aunts and uncles made up the popular gospel group, Doris Frazier and The FiddmontSingers.  Her cousin Leon Burke III is an accomplished conductor, and her brother Keith Fiddmont is a gifted jazz saxophonist.  But Lynne has no recollection of consciously choosing a profession in music.  “I DON’T REMEMBER BEING DRIVEN, BUT EVERYONE REMEMBERS ME THAT WAY.”  At 15, Lynne’s mother took her to New York to see The Wiz on Broadway, starring Stephanie Mills.  She was so impressed with the production that it peaked her interest.

That same year Lynne got the lead in a school play, Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”.  Her next role was Dorothy (The Wiz), a school production featuring a medley of Broadway Musicals.  Her teacher, Vicky Boren asked her if she could sing.  Lynne shrugged her shoulders and said “Kind of.” “I don’t know”, “I’ll try it”.  So try she did.  She received a standing ovation after singing her trademark song, “Home”.  That moment was truly a turning point for Lynne.

Miss Boren saw promise in Lynne and set up a meeting with jazz vocalist AsaHarris who gave Lynne her first professional experience by letting her sit in on her set. “Home” carried her a long way.  She won the local Junior Miss Miss Pageant and placed third runner up in the regional pageant.  She spent her first year of college at Drake University where she sang in small coffee shops but in her desire to sing on a bigger stage, Lynne transferred to Boston U where her career took another step forward.  She earned her BS degree in Public Relations at Boston U.  The entire time she was in school, she sang 4 nights a week.  After graduating and very little luck getting a job, she began to sing in the Boston Commons during lunch where she made enough money to sustain herself.  While singing in the Commons, a professor from Berklee School of Music saw her and offered her a Scholarship, which she gladly accepted.  There she formed many professional relationships.

Next stop, Los Angeles CA.  Lynne left Berklee to move to the west coast.  She spent the summer in St. Louis, working and saving money for her move.  While there, she met Jerry Williams who sent her demo tape to the Crusaders who hired her sight unseen for their summer tour.  She was on her way.  Soon after arriving in LA and working temporary office jobs, She was offered a tour with Bill Withers.  When they finished the tour, she quickly got popular on the Los Angeles music circuit as a local artist doing her own gigs and as a background singer.

Her next big audition was with Lou Rawls.  She landed that job and met RickeyMinor, who provided her a constant stream of television work including The Grammy’s, MTV Music Awards, The UNCF Telethon, VH1 Awards, America’s Got Talent, American Idol and most recently A Performance at the White House for President Barack Obama.

If there is such a moment, the single most defining moment in her career was the opportunity to join Stevie Wonder’s band in 1986.  The audition was a cattle call with hundreds of singers and Lynne was the only one who was chosen that night.  Besides touring with Stevie Wonder, Lynne has explored many musical ventures with artists such as Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Babyface, Christian McBride, Queen Latifah, Stanley Clarke, Joe Zawinul, Barbara Streisand,B.B.King, Elton John, Nancy Wilson, Dave Brubeck, George Duke, Kenny Loggins, James Ingram, Patti Austin, Eric Benet, and many more.

Her recording career as an artist began in 1990 as part of a duo, Linsey, where she was the voice of the group on their Quiet Storm debut “Perfect Love”.  Her solo debut release, ”Flow” in 2006 gained critical acclaim here and abroad, is still a favorite today.

“Lady”is a ten-song tribute to Miss Billie Holiday.  This much-anticipated release promises not to disappoint with such guest artist as George Duke, Christian McBride, Billy Childs, Kirk Whalum Gerald Albright and many others.  Lynne co-produced “Lady” with producer, Andrew Ford.  They first collaborated on of Flow’s more popular songs, Cupid.

Biographical information courtesy of Lynne Fiddmont website.

http://www.lynnefiddmont.com/bio.html