Debbie Deane hails from a musical world without boundaries, where singer-songwriters and top-tier jazz musicians breathe the same creative air. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Debbie grew up listening to Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Steely Dan. As a teenager she explored the fertile ground of the Great American Songbook. Introduced to folk, funk and fusion by her older brother, she studied the great divas of the jazz and pop worlds developing an intense interest in jazz harmony. Music was the ultimate refuge.

 

After earning a degree in English Literature from Harvard, Debbie embarked on a career in music. She studied jazz intensively at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, honing the piano skills that she continues to display as a singer-songwriter. At first her songwriting and singing came as an afterthought, but then took center stage.

 

In her performing and recording life, Debbie had the good fortune to work with  acclaimed jazz musicians who share her interest in quality songwriting — people like drummer Brian Blade and the late, great bass player Jeff Andrews.  Moving back to Brooklyn, she lived in a “jazz den” with some of the city’s most promising jazz musicians, including saxophonists Seamus Blake and Terry Deane, drummer Marc Miralta and pianists John Stetch and George Colligan. “Everyone came through our place,” says Debbie. “The people I’ve played with, they’re all my friends and they’ve known me, they’ve been my roommates and people I went to school with.” Their presence on Debbie’s recordings and at her live shows is a powerful endorsement.

 

Debbie continues to gig extensively in New York and beyond. She is proud to be a part of Brooklyn Above Ground, a diverse music collective that has donated proceeds from its compilation CD to the grass-roots organization World Hunger Year...