Shelli's alluring vocal style is partly due to intensive study as a jazz vocal major at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey - a university that is nationally acclaimed for its jazz music program. She has studied and performed with such distinguished jazz artists as bassists Rufus Reid and Earl Sauls, guitarist Vic Juris, pianists Norm Simmons, Jim McNeely, Eric Olsen and Noreen Grey Lienhard, and drummer Horace Arnold.
While a student at William Paterson, Shelli LaTorre perfected a magnificent voice with warmth and radiance one rarely hears. Her natural range and expressiveness comes from a lifetime of listening to and absorbing the sounds and styles of singers in every category. She has a sophisticated rhythmic sense, flawless intonation and subtle harmonic sensibility. Versatile and inventive, Shelli evokes a passion and emotion with her ballads, yet a playful, seductive joyful interpretation in her upbeat standards.
Although Shelli's vocal style cannot be narrowed down to any particular vocalist, one can detect the influence of such great jazz vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, and Billie Holiday. Simply put, her performance and enchanting voice seems to be just right. One would not want it any other way. Nor can one imagine it any other way.
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