JACKIE PERKINS (USA)
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With a pianist mother, her father a trombone player and her sister a violinist, Jackie Perkins (Sparta, South Carolina, USA 1963) was born under the sign of music.
At eighteen she enrolled at university and began singing, up to the double degree in languages and singing. A scholarship from the Rotary Foundation took her to Italy: first to Siena, to Rome where she studied the opera, then to Perugia, and finally to Parma, where she has lived since 1995. The following year the first concerts arrive: she, a guitar, the initial shyness, and the first folk ballads inspired by Joni Mitchell. She then records Go Forth Living Arrows, which will be released only in 2000.
From ’97 she has collaborated in the creation of more than forty records including singles, compilations and collections, she has participated as a voice and acoustic guitar in three tours with the guitarist Paolo Giordano (behind collaborations with Lucio Dalla and Biagio Antonacci) and the bassist internationally renowned Michael Manring. With them she worked on the album Kid in a Toyshop, released in 2000 by the independent record company Step Musique.
Over the years, the live activity continues with appearances in Italy, as well as in the USA with a continuous growth of success and esteem in the new acoustic music circuit. She refined both composition and live performances, where her particular guitar style, full of open tunings and original rhythms, is harmoniously combined with a beautiful and wide-ranging voice.
In 2008 she worked intensively on the recording of her CD The Still Awakening, which came out in March 2009. In addition to the extraordinary Michael Manring on bass, some other international musicians such as the brothers Gabin and Paul Dabirè, Africans from Burkina Faso, Adriano Molinari (Zucchero) on drums and Alex Acuña (Weather Report) on percussion, took part in the album creating a multi-ethnic project. After the release of the album, the entire Exotique Band left for a long and appreciated tour in Italy, under the direction of the Armadillo Club.
In 2011 she gave voice to the album Christmas Paradise Brazilian Love affair with songs arranged by Elio Baldicantù. In 2012 she was the first American singer-songwriter to participate in the IFSGF in Shanghai, China, invited by Huang Chia-Wei’s Naga Guitars, and opened the concert for Tommy Emmanuel in the Shanghai Grand Theater. Since 2013 she continues to compose original songs for acoustic guitar, piano and ukulele. In February 2014 she shared the stage with Alessandro Finazzo (Finaz) of Bandabardò on tour with Michael Manring.
From 1999 to 2014 she participated in the prestigious acoustic guitar festival “Acoustic Guitar Meeting” in Sarzana, not only as a requested and beloved performer, but also as presenter of evening concerts and translator in seminars and workshops. She participated as a protagonist in the first edition of the Acoustic Guitar Village in Cremona Mondomusica in September 2014 and in March 2015 she went on tour in various Italian cities with Manring and with the English guitarist Clive Carroll. In October 2016 and September 2019 she participated in the tours of the Italian-American singer-songwriter Giulia Millanta opening concerts and singing harmonies on her songs, in seven stages in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium. In 2017 she began performing in a Joni Mitchell tribute concert series on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the release of Mitchell’s first album. Her next EP “What Is Truth?” was completed at the beginning of 2020, and will come out once the crisis caused by the “Covid 19” will be over.
PERFORMANCES AND APPEARANCES
Bataclan, Salsomaggiore – Folk Club, Torino – Corte Del Macchione, Parma – Festa dell’Unita 2001, Reggio Emilia – Arcipub, Parma – Storyville, Arezzo – Bluebird, Affida – Estival Jazz 2002, Mendrisio (CH) – Rassegna Fermaposta, Sarzana – I Giorni della Chitarra, La Spezia – Kabala, Pescara – Nidaba, Milano – Saint Patrick’s Day Festival, Tre Casali (PR) – Spazio Musica, Pavia – Gallery Music Bar, Moniga di Garda -Guitar Land, Genova – Arcilive, Fidenza – Teatro Manzoni, Pontremoli – Piazza della Rotonda. Lerici – La Taverna, Vasto – Parma Lirica, Parma, Acoustic Guitar International Meeting 2001, 2002, 2006, 2008, Sarzana – Rio Dell’Acqua – Noceto Teatro Comunale – Bormio Guitar Festival – Madame Guitar, Udine – varie apparizioni negli USA – ecc.
Televisione-intervista, “Radio Break”, TV Parma, Sabato, 9 Novembre, 2002
PRESS REVIEW
…she sings beautifully, and rhythmically accompanying the guitar with intriguing harmonies…
Chitarre, July 2002
….hidden between the lines of beautiful songs that have a strong American west coast echo, very well sung by JACQUELINE PERKINS…
Chitarre, February 2001
Kid in a Toyshop-Grande importanza va data alla presenza di Jacqueline Perkins, sia perché la maggioranza dei testi le appartiene, sia perché con la sua voce calda impreziosisce parecchi pezzi….
Jam, Febbraio 2001
“… girl with a sweet Gaelic voice but warm like the wind of her land … suggestive music and deep lyrics”
Gazzetta di Parma – February 2002
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