Album Notes

Biography

Rebecca Sanborn was fortunate enough to grow up in a home with a piano. At the age of 5 she began taking private lessons and thus began her double life in music. Throughout the ensuing years one hand prepared for her lessons and the other strayed from her classical practice to improvise and compose. Being active in dance and theatre as well as music, she chose to continue her studies at The College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. There she expanded her musical outlet by composing scores for a stylistically diverse range of student films including, Science Fiction, Horror, and a documentary on early on-set Alzheimer’s. While studying dance in New Mexico, Rebecca also had the opportunity to work closely with Juanita Barry, long time personal demonstrator for 20th century arts icon and dancer/choreographer Martha Graham. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre, she returned to her hometown of Portland Oregon to pursue music and performance. In Portland, Rebecca met local jazz drummer Ji Tanzer and the two formed a personal and musical alliance. They have since performed Rebecca’s music at both festivals and concerts throughout the Northwest.

Ballads & Namesakes

This record documents five years and 6 months of the creative process! In August of 2000 Rebecca and Ji recorded 3 songs at legendary jazz pianist Randy Porter’s Heavywood studios. In demo version, they released these 3 songs as an EP entitled Gratitude. Shortly after completing Gratitude Rebecca began to have an artistic vision for her full-length album and once again called upon Randy to help arrange some of her songs. Around five years later--horrible jobs, lost loved ones, carefully selected musicians, gained loved ones, and nearly every ounce of money they had--the sonic vision was complete. What they had finished was Ballads & Namesakes, a unique blend of jazz, classical, and folk in a grand scale production of horns, strings, voice, and rhythm section played by:

Rebecca Sanborn : piano & voice
Ji Tanzer : drumset
Dave Captein : upright bass
Bill Stalnaker : french horn
Dick Titterington : flugel horn
Tim Jensen : bass clarinet
Megan Moran : violin
Annie Harkey : cello
John Witalla : bass