Sandra Locklear
“Music is a language of the human spirit. I can’t imagine a world without music and love lifting people up through the power of song!” - Sandra
A FRESH SOUND EMERGES
Seattle-based artist Sandra Locklear is both musician and singer with a natural gift for connecting with her audiences. With intuitive ease and passionate virtuosity, she pairs a rich alto voice with jazz piano stylings refined over many years of playing venues in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Canada and Europe. Sandra effortlessly crosses over from jazz to blues, to bossa nova to pop and her own songs, with a technical proficiency honed since she took her first piano lesson at age 7. As a composer and performer Sandra sets a fresh standard full of vitality and soul.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST VENUES AND CLIENTS
VENUES include the: Seattle Art Museum, Washington Convention Center, Space Needle, Boeing Museum of Flight, Seattle Trade Center, Bellevue Collection, Bellevue Conference Center, Maydenbauer Center, Emerald Queen Casino, Chateau St. Michelle Winery, Salish Lodge; 13 Coins Restaurant; Olympic Four Seasons, Sheraton, Westin and Camlin hotels; Skansonia, Children’s Hospital, Thirteen Coins; the Seattle, Overlake, Harbor, Sandpoint country clubs; Hollywood Schoolhouse; Sunset, University and Ranier Clubs; Woodland Park and Point Defiance zoos; NW Folklife and IKEA Renton River Days Festivals; Seattle Unity Church.
CLIENTS include: Microsoft, Levi-Strauss, Real Networks, IBM, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Navy, Majestic American Cruises, Puget Sound Access TV, Bellevue Square Merchants Association, Perkins-Coie, Muzak, Fluke Capital management, Trillium Corporation, Seattle Girls, Jennifer James, Highline School District, Women of Wisdom, B.F. Goodrich, Figi Industrial, ArtsTime.
SANDRA AS PERFORMER AND COMPOSER
The unconventional road this disciplined artist has travelled has made her music more resonant with the times. Juggling family responsibilities with the demands of a music career, early on as a single parent Sandra took her son on the road to finance her college education. To satisfy her soul she went to West Africa to study the roots of jazz with the Sierra Leone National Dance Troupe. Her dynamic path includes overseas and stateside tours.
Writing intuitively from a woman’s perspective, says Sandra of her composing, “... my style can change from song to song because I try to be true to what’s being conveyed. You can't do that if you're stuck in a box." As a songwriter she wraps jazz-like harmonic and melodic sensibilities around her tender and forthright observations on life.
RECORDINGS
Eventually Sandra was compelled to break out and do her own thing. With her own sure vision, in 2000 she recorded an album of original music with her band and special guests. Energetic and sensual, Sandra’s finely wrought debut CD “Goddess Rising” melds smooth jazz and easy-listening rock, Latin grooves and poignant solo ballads.
In 2006 executive producer Douglas Hughes spotted Sandra in a Seattle dinner club and paved the way for “Girl Gone Jazz”, Sandra’s latest release. In this elegant collection Sandra and her quartet return to her jazz roots to present fresh swinging standards, sensual bossa novas, riveting ballads and three more of Sandra's original songs.
EARLY INFLUENCES
Sandra began jazz and classical keyboard training with her lifelong music mentor, Hollywood B-3 jazz organist Margo Beecher. The music of Ellington, Jobim and Bach was standard fare for Sandra’s weekly lessons. By junior high, Sandra was performing at weddings, fashion shows and church. In high school she won Yamaha’s Young Artists NW Regional Organ competition and went on to compete in California.
A year studying jazz organ in San Francisco inspired Sandra to enroll in a college music program back in Washington State. Unable to resist the lure of the road, she soon accepted an offer to tour with a dance quartet. “And that’s when I really started singing. The band leader stuck a microphone in front of my mouth and ordered me to sing!” she recounts.
STUDIES
Between performing with two bands and then as a solo artist regionally and overseas, Sandra continued jazz studies at Cornish College of the Arts and the University of Washington. She eventually earned music degrees Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude in music composition and education.
At Cornish College of the Arts, NPR jazz producer Jim Wilke, bassist Gary Peacock, horn players Julian Priester and Jim Knapp, pianists Art Lande, Peggy Stern and pianist-singer Joni Metcalf, all influenced Sandra’s distinctive sound and understanding of the art of jazz.
At the University of Washington, clarinetist William O. Smith guided her composition efforts while pianist Marc Seales honed her playing. Along the way, Sandra studied with pianist Jerome Gray and trained with vocal coaches George Peckham and Augusta Palialunga.
INSPIRATIONS
Sandra spent her childhood listening to the British rock invasion and protest music of the 60’s while learning jazz and Latin standards from her music mentor. Alongside the indigenous sounds of the planet, many artists soothed her soul and shaped her ears, including Bill Evans and Jimmy Smith to Astrud Gilberto, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughn. Sandra says simply, “I just sing and play what I feel.”
CONTACT INFORMATION
Ms. Locklear is available as a solo singer-pianist or with her jazz combo Inner Circle. For bookings and information please write to info@sandralocklear.com.