Album Notes

"Alluring... Christina Watson's striking sound, vast range and great sense of swing make her current CD 'All About Love' a delight!" --Ron Wynn, writer for The Nashville City Paper and JazzTimes Magazine

"I enjoyed [All About Love] very much. I don't think you should have a problem getting people to recognize your talent." -- Kevin Mahogany, jazz vocalist

"Christina Watson is a promising new talent who is blessed with a naturally pleasing voice. Her debut release, 'All About Love' already shows a maturity that normally comes much later in one's career." --Cedric Dent, Grammy-winning vocalist and member of internationally acclaimed vocal group Take 6


Vocalist Christina Watson's warm, smoky sound appeals to a wide range of music lovers, including people young and old and from various cultures and backgrounds. She can swing on a jazz standard, interpret a ballad with mature sensitivity and then belt out the blues with attitude and a unique edge. Her original songs are an extension of her love for the blues and R&B styles, genres which match her voice well. Classically trained, she also possesses a powerful and moving soprano voice. Watson went into a Boston studio in early 2004 to record her debut CD, which includes jazz and blues standards, some original material and fresh arrangements of a few pop covers. Pianist / arranger / songwriter Mark Shilansky and smooth jazz saxophonist /vocalist / songwriter Walter Beasley are among the talented musicians featured on the album.

After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music in 2001, Watson moved from Boston back to her southern homeland, choosing the small-town feel of Nashville over the large city atmosphere of New York City. Soon after her arrival in Music City she discovered the Nashville Jazz Workshop and vocal coach Ron Browning, through whom she began enlarging her jazz repertoire. Having sung at the Watertown Jazz Festival and at the Germantown Oktober Fest, she has also been performing jazz and blues at venues in Nashville (such as Café123, The French Quarter Cafe, The Lipstick Lounge, Bean Central, Kijiji, BBKing's, The Madison Art Center) with trios made up of some of Nashville's finest jazz musicians, including Lori Mechem, Roger Spencer, Jim White, Chris Brown, Jamey Simmons, Chris West, Jerry Navarro, Shawn Purcell and Oscar Utterström. Watson has made appearances in Sweden and China in both the classical and jazz realms. In 2003, she sang traditional hymns and music by Mozart and Debussy at a church near Enköping, Sweden, and soon after opened for Swedish vocalist Meta Roos at a Swedish summer jazz festival. In 2007, Watson performed an aria by Puccini and a blues song with the Middle Tennessee State University Wind Ensemble on its 5-city tour of China.

Watson now has a Swedish Quintet (Watson Utterstrom Nordic Quintet) with which she toured in 2007, and performances are planned for Sweden and Belgium in April of 2008. www.myspace.com/wunq

A fan of tight harmonies, Watson sings soprano in the Nashville-based vocal jazz group 3rd Coast Vocals. The 4 members are Watson, alto Connye Florence, tenor and arranger Jeff Hall, and baritone Mark Stephens. www.myspace.com/3CV

Christina Watson was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, but spent her first 13 years in Middlesboro, Kentucky, where she started learning piano by ear and began singing at a very early age. After studying piano formally for two years and winning the "Best Student" award from her teacher, Watson moved to Knoxville and, due to the lack of a piano, began singing as first soprano in school choirs. Realizing that singing was her musical niche, she continued to sing in groups both large and small. Watson began studying classical voice privately while in high school at the Webb School of Knoxville. This love of vocal study carried on through her four years at Centre College (Danville, Kentucky) where she majored in French, as well as through her years of graduate study in French Literature at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The third and final year of Watson's Masters Degree preparation was spent teaching English in a high school in Coulommiers, France, about one hour east of Paris. While in Coulommiers, Watson began classical studies with Madame Monique Trécan and was asked to sing soprano solos in performances with various choirs. It was in France that Watson decided to follow her dream to become a professional singer... but not in the classical world. Jazz and blues had always been lurking in the background as the soul-stirring genres she wished to perform.

Upon her return to the United States, Watson finished her Masters in French and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to pursue an education in music. She earned a four-year Professional Diploma in Vocal Performance from the world-renowned Berklee College of Music, where she studied an eclectic array of genres, singing in ensembles that concentrated on jazz, smooth jazz, pop, rock, R&B and country. During her first year in Boston she sang alto with Drawn-To-Scale, the Boston-based six-part vocal jazz group, which performed all over the New England area. She studied with jazz vocalists Kevin Mahogany, Bob Stoloff, Donna McElroy, Cheryl Bentyne of Manhattan Transfer and smooth jazz saxophonist Walter Beasley, all of whom greatly influenced her as a musician and helped her cultivate the sound that she has today.