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A vocalist of extraordinary passion and range with a penchant for free-spirited improvisation (she prefers the term voicist to jazz singer), Barbara Sfraga is also a savvy bandleader-composer-lyricist and gifted arranger who delights in putting a new spin on the familiar. On Under The Moon, her second release and a leader and debut for A440 Records, she breathes new life into well-worn jazz standards by Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Lerner & Lowe and Rodgers & Hammerstein while also offering vivid interpretations of pop pieces by Angela Bofill and Bob Dylan. The result is a musically diverse and highly appealing package that showcases Barbara's beautiful voice along with her considerable skills as an arranger and her restlessly creative streak as an improviser.
A native of Long Island, Sfraga started out as a church organist who also played rock ‘n' roll keyboards while studying classical voice during her high school and college years. Inspired by recordings of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Hartman, Betty Carter, Jon Hendricks and Anita O'Day, she got heavily into jazz and began working with a sucession of teachers including Janet Lawson, Sal Mosca, Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton. After working as a solo act playing piano and singing, Barbara joined Sal Salvador's quintet Crystal Image. She began leading her own band in 1990 and released her first cd, Oh, What A Thrill, on the Naxos Jazz label in 2000. That initial outing, which featured Fred Hersch and David Berkman on piano, John Hebert on bass, Eric Halvorson on drums and Bruce Saunders on guitar, drew rave reviews from critics, including Alex Henderson of All Music Guide, who wrote: 'An unpredictable artist who can be bluesy one minute and abstract the next, Sfraga takes more than her share of chances on her promising debut album Oh, What A Thrill. It is highly recommended to those who are seeking something fresh and personal from jazz singing.'

Sfraga's followup for A440 Records, Under The Moon, features Chicago musicians Paul Wertico on drums, John McLean on guitar and Kevin Patrick on percussion along with New York bassist Christopher Dean Sullivan, one half of her regular working rhythm tandem that also includes drummer Michael T.A. Thompson.

As Bill Milkowski writes in the liner notes to Under The Moon: 'Barbara Sfraga straddles the inside-outside aesthetic with great aplomb, balancing her genuine love of standard jazz repertoire with her need to ‘tweak' those familiar tunes in playfully subversive ways. Her renditions of familiar tunes are passionate and highly personal, imbued with a sense of sheer abandon that can catch an audience up in the act of search and discovery with her. In a very real sense, she is of the tradition while actively seeking to reinvent it. It's what places her well outside the realm of the run-of-the-mill jazz chantuese who is content to play it by the book.'

On the acclaimed debut Oh, What A Thrill, Sfraga put her personal stamp on signature pieces by Billie Holiday ('Good Morning Heartache'), Lee Morgan ('Free Wheelin''), the ‘60s rock group Cream ('Sunshine of Your Love') and ‘50s rock ‘n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis ('Great Balls of Fire'). On Under The Moon this unique vocal stylist brings her highly interpretive powers to bear on standards like Duke Ellington's 'Sophisticated Lady,' 'Prelude to a Kiss' and 'Mood Indigo' as well as Hoagy Carmichael's 'Stardust,' Lerner & Lowe's 'I've Grown Accostumed To His Face' and the Rodgers & Hammerstein nugget 'It Might As Well Be Spring.' Perhaps the most dramatic and affecting piece on the collection is her stirring bass-voice duet rendition of Bob Dylan's 'Every Grain of Sand,' which she delivers with an uncanny balance of power and finesse.

The next step finds the engaging voicist on a journey that taps another side of her creativity in an even deeper way. Collaborating with her cohorts Chris Sullivan and Michael 'T.A.' Thompson, as well as the newest member of the unit, triple threat pianist/keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter Mala Waldron, Sfraga and Center Search Quest are genre-bending their way to a whole new sound. With roots firmly planted in jazz and with the improvizational element always in place, Sfraga and company are on a quest to leave no groove unturned. All four musicians lend their creative as well as their physical voices to this project in three and sometimes four part harmony, with a little spoken word thrown into the pot. It's music without borders! A demo of the project is included in this press kit.

In 1996 Sfraga founded In Concert With Our Community (ICWOC). The organization generates time and talent to raise funds for children's organizations by bringing together local artists, residents and businesses with a goal to create an arts program for inner city children. Sfraga, along with poet Golda Soloman, is co-founder of ICAAN ASSOCIATES, an organization which brings interactive poetry and jazz workshops and performances into schools. She is also a clinician offering seminars and workshops on the business of music, vocal technique/improvisation and performance preparation. Sfraga is a member of the IAJE, JJA and NARAS. She is the recipient of a Meet The Composer grant and endorses Sennheiser TM microphones.

On stage at the Cornelia Street Cafe, that intimate haunt in the heart of Greenwich Village that has fostered a vital alternative jazz scene in New York City, voicist Barbara Sfraga is lost in another song. Closing her eyes tightly while holding the microphone gingerly by the fingertips of both hands, she bobs and weaves to the surging flow generated by her telepathic rhythm tandem of bassist Chris Sullivan and drummer Michael Thompson (collectively known as Center Search Quest). Bending at the waist when digging for a low note, throwing her head back in rapture when chasing after a high note, she communes with the groove. Immersed in the moment, her fingers begin depressing invisible valves on the microphone as she freestyles her way through another wordless verse like a trumpeter riding the peak of a scorching solo. It's Sfraga in full stream-of-consciousness stride, going out on a limb...again. -- Bill Milkowski