Topically Yours - Singer Sarah E. Charles

Deardra Shuler talks to New Yorker Sarah Elizabeth Charles, a vocalist and composer whose musical stylings are unique.  The intricacies to her art focus on modernizing classics and composing distinctive originals. Sarah is a member of two performance/recording projects Manner Effect and The Enoch Smith Jr. Trio. She is also the bandleader for her own group, the S.E.Charles Quartet.  Sarah has performed at The Apollo Theatre with Geri Allen, Blue Note NYC, The Iridium, Smalls Jazz Club, Zinc Bar NYC, and New York Couture Fashion Week. She has performed at the and Kennedy Center in Washington DC as a selected member of the 2009 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Composers Residency. Gillette Stadium, and The Northampton Center for the Arts.

A Springfield, MA, native Charles studied and played throughout the New England area.  She earned her  BFA from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and a BA from Eugene Lang College. She has worked with Jimmy Owens, Geri Allen, Dr. Billy Taylor, Sheila Jordan, Cecil Bridgewater, Reggie Workman, George Cables, Junior Mance, Richard Harper, Janet Lawson, and Carmen Lundy. Her CD "Red," touches on everything from her own originals to contemporary arrangements of jazz standards and re-workings of Haitian folklore music.

Her CD, “Red” is the culmination of two years of honing the intricate aesthetics of the S.E.Charles Quartet.