Every Sunday evening in the month of June at Cafe Istanbul, jazz singer Cindy Scott will host Heart to Heart, a unique concert series that will feature the chanteuse live in collaboration with an entirely different each week. For Scott, the desire to work with many of her “favorite musicians,” as well as to grow as a musician, herself, guided her vision. Akin to the nature of the New Orleans music scene at-large, Heart to Heart’s core focus centers on the extemporaneous experiences and the closeness Scott and her contemporaries cultivate while performing. Likewise, she seeks to utilize the venue’s intimate setting and the improvisational nature of the music as a means to impart onto the audience a sense of connectivity similar to the bonds that she and her musical family share.
Scott’s first Heart to Heart set will take place on June 2 and bring together pianist Randy Porter, drummer Jamison Ross and bassist Dan Loomis — all of whom have previously played alongside Scott, though none alongside one another. The following week, revered New Orleans vocalists Leah Chase and pianist Mike Pellera will accompany Scott as the trio will seek to revive the spirit of a prior Chase-staged engagement entitled Just Friends. June 16 will see two ensembles take the stage, as the duet of Scott and guitarist and longtime songwriting partner Brian Seeger will open the show, and cellist Helen Gillet will enter the fold (uniting the trio Now Here This) to seal the evening. Venezuelan singer Maria Marquez and Chilean pianist Jose-Miguel Yamal will rendezvous with Scott at Cafe Istanbul the next week (June 23), and for Heart to Heart’s final night (June 30), banjo master Don Vappie and a special, yet-to-be revealed guest will close the series.
To hear more about what Cindy Scott has in store for Heart to Heart as well as to find about more her forthcoming album — her first since 2009’s Let the Devil Take Tomorrow — featuring Heart to Heart guests Porter, Ross and Loomis, tune in below…
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