Miss Tess is a young, Boston-based songstress, whose "Modern Vintage" sound mingles freely between eras and genres. Tess strums and picks her way through an array of rhythms, from ragtime, to jump blues, to 30's swing, her vocals soaring, powerful, and smooth as satin. Equally at home in the elegant, and the low-down, she writes songs from her own life, infused with the flavors of early jazz that conjure a cast of dreamers and lovers, down on their luck and charming their ways in and out of trouble. Familiar faces are known to mix in this crowd, courtesy of folks like Bessie Smith and Tom Waits, perpetual muses to her style.
In her Maryland youth, Miss Tess was lullabied to sleep by the sounds of her father's Big Band rehearsing in a basement below her bedroom. Home, her debut album, is in homage to those days. A compilation of original songs, it features her mom on the upright and pops on sax and clarinet.
Having found her way to Boston and the storied Cambridge folk scene, Miss Tess put together The Bon Ton Parade, a dynamic, solo-swapping combo, comprised of drums, upright bass, lead guitar, sax and clarinet. Her second album, Modern Vintage, features this band, and her original songs. On her third album, When Tomorrow Comes, Tess mainly takes on jazz standards, and finds herself in the amicable company of several D.C. area notables. Beyond Boston and the nation's capital, Tess has played regularly in New York City and is now launching a full-time touring career. –Jason Rabin
