“ Self- Titled”
by
MARY BARRY
Mary Barry’s first CD was produced by CBC Radio (Glen Tilley and Glen Meisner) and recorded at CBC St. John’s and CBC Halifax.
The St. John’s contingent features la crème de la crème of Newfoundland jazz performers: John Nugent on saxophone, Jeff Johnson on piano, Jim Vivian on bass and Michael Billiard on drums. The Halifax musicians were: Chris Mitchell on saxophone, Bruce Dixon on bass and Dave Burton on drums. Mary Barry plays piano on January, Moonlight Café and Sagittarius Rising.
All songs are compositions by Mary Barry and the CD features two originals in French ( Basse Ville and La Lune Autour). The first track, entitled January, took first place in the CBC Atlantic Song Contest and Running Away won a Newfoundland & Labrador Arts and Letters Award.
Songs: January, Basse Ville, Never Never, La Lune Autour, Moonlight Café, Running Away, Sunday Morning Airport Blues, and Sagittarius Rising.
MARY BARRY BIOGRAPHY
A native of St. John’s, Mary Barry is a multiple award-winning singer, composer and teacher who trained in voice, piano, puppetry, theatre and dance. She was recently won both Female Artist and Jazz/Blues Artist of the Year at the 2007 Music NL Awards.
Mary is a bilingual artist who has thrilled audiences across Canada, the US and France, moving easily from jazz to blues to ‘chanson’. Her music has been described as a gold mine of nuggets for collectors of original jazz and blues, with a glowing hint of torch in her voice. Throughout her career, she has performed and recorded with such stellar musicians as Jesse Zubot, Jeff Johnston, Jim Vivian, John Nugent, Mike Billard, Miles Black, Rick Kilburn, Graham Ord, and Craig Scott. Her performances include the Writers Festival at Woody Point, the Gros Morne Theatre Festival in Cow Head, Le Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver, Le Festival d’Ete in Quebec City, the Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival and the Vancouver, St. John’s and Montreal Jazz Festivals.
Barry is the recipient of several songwriting awards, including the CBC Atlantic Song Contest, the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts & Letters Awards, FACTOR Professional Publishers/Songwriters Demo Award and, just recently, she was a semi-finalist in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition, the only Canadian to make it that far in the Jazz category. Her critically acclaimed CD “These Days” was nominated for the 2005 ECMA Jazz Recording of the Year. In the fall of 2005, Mary was chosen to be the Gros Morne Musician in Residence, traveling to the west coast of the island where she performed and conducted vocal and songwriting workshops in the community. In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Female Artist of the Year award from the Music Industry Association of Newfoundland & Labrador.
Mary’s third independent recording entitled Red Eye Tonight which features musical giants Patrick Boyle, Bill Brennan, Gary Davis, Rick Hollett, Mark Peddle, Brian Way and Gary Tilley, was recently released in July to rave reviews at the St. John’s International Jazz Festival.
Mary Barry lives in St. John’s, where besides performing and teaching, she also works as a writer, puppeteer and voice-over artist.
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