Jamie Broumas Biography

Declared by The Washington Post to be “one of Washington’s, best-kept secrets”, jazz vocalist Jamie Broumas is an exciting and sensitive musician who possesses a rich voice, an ease of range as well as an innovative and thoughtful sense of phrasing. Cadence Magazine has written that “Jamie is a gifted musician who always pushes the boundaries of the jazz singer label”.

Jamie grew up in an Army family that traveled widely throughout the United States until her father’s death in Vietnam in 1969. Her interest in singing began very young through the music of the Greek Orthodox Church and through popular recordings played at home. Jamie took up the flute in elementary school under the guidance of Philmore “Shorty” Hall, the music instructor at Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna, VA, where Jamie attended school in the mid-1960s. In the 1920s, Philmore Hall was a cornetist in the Mississippi jazz band, The Black Birds of Paradise. He went on to become a music educator in the 1940s and eventually moved to North Carolina where he became Dizzy Gillespie’s high school trumpet teacher. A friend of Duke Ellington’s, Philmore Hall brought Duke’s trio to perform at Jamie’s elementary school in the late 1960s, where she met the jazz legend when she was a small child. Her interest in jazz began at this auspicious meeting. The facilitator of the meeting, Philmore “Shorty” Hall, was perhaps Jamie’s most influential teacher. “Mr. Hall had an unforgettable and distinctive habit in music class of keeping time by thumping his cornet mouthpiece on a wooden desk. He loved jazz and infected me completely with his enthusiasm.”

After pursuing the flute for a few more years, Jamie eventually switched to singing in high school. After flirting with rock, R&B and other pop styles, she heard the recording, Ella in Berlin in her late teens and was utterly transformed by the experience. “It was as though all of my musical life and instincts had led me to that moment. Everything I felt about the world was encapsulated in the free and swinging musings of Ella. I was resolved to committing myself to this kind of music -- music that was intense, endlessly interesting both rhythmically and harmonically, and which bore the full range of human expression”.

Jamie has been captivating audiences throughout the United States for more than two decades. A graduate of Vassar College and an alumna of the Berklee College of Music, she has received recognition from musicians and critics alike. A former member of the Grammy-nominated jazz vocal group, Rare Silk, she was also a founding member of the Washington, D.C.-based group, Mad Romance. As a soloist, she has worked with many noted jazz musicians, including Cyrus Chestnut, Larry Willis, Herb Ellis, Steve Rudolph, Billy Hart, Steve Williams, Tom Williams, and Charlie Young. In 1997, Jamie was a featured performer for WNET (Channel 13 New York) television’s Going Places: New Orleans, hosted by Al Roker. She has also appeared at numerous festivals, including The East Coast Jazz Festival, and the Central Pennsylvania Jazz Festival.

Critical reviews :

“Jamie Broumas could sing the proverbial phone book and make it sound like something Cole Porter wrote.” --Mike Joyce, The Critic’s Place

“…Broumas has the vocal ability and harmonic finesse to join the ranks of horn players, and charm ours.” –The Washington Post

“…a gifted musician… always challenges the boundaries of the jazz singer label.” –Cadence Magazine

“…one of Washington’ best – kept secrets…Her voice has such a supple, hornlike quality, that glides from sultry chest tones to gossamer highs.” - The Washington Post

“…as graceful and alluring as her scat passages and harmonizing can be, Broumas clearly knows the value of a good lyric, and is careful to make sure her technique serves them…” –The Washington Post

“…One of the city’s true jazz singers.” -Washingtonian Magazine