Shawnn Monteiro & Cape Cod Jazz Quartet with Steve Ahern (trumpet & flute), Fred Boyle (piano), Ron Ormsby (bass), and Bart Weisman (drums) at Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth

Shawnn Monteiro & Cape Cod Jazz Quartet with Steve Ahern (trumpet & flute), Fred Boyle (piano), Ron Ormsby (bass), and Bart Weisman (drums) at Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth

Cultural Center of Cape Cod, 307 Old Main Street, South Yarmouth, Massachusetts

Discovered in the early 1970s by Afro-Cuban jazz pioneer Mongo Santamaria while performing at a San Jose club, Shawnn spent years on the road with his band before launching a solo career rooted in the jazz tradition she was born into. Her father, the renowned bassist Jimmy Woode, played with Duke Ellington and later introduced her to the European jazz community—a connection she's nurtured ever since through tours across the continent and ongoing master vocal classes in Rome and Genoa since 1995.

Her voice has drawn comparisons to Carmen McRae—that same conversational storytelling, that same command of a lyric—but the personality is unmistakably her own. Across seven albums and countless stages from Rhode Island to Siberia, Shawnn has built a reputation as both a first-class interpreter of standards and a beloved educator. In 2024, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.

Joining her for this special evening: the Cape Cod Jazz Quartet—Steve Ahern on trumpet and flute, Fred Boyle on piano, Ron Ormsby on bass, and Bart Weisman on drums. Together, they'll create the kind of intimate, swinging conversation that only happens when seasoned musicians share a stage.7:30pm - 9:30pm: Shawnn Monteiro (vocals) & Cape Cod Jazz Quartet with Steve Ahern (trumpet & flute), Fred Boyle (piano), Ron Ormsby (bass), and Bart Weisman (drums) at Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth ​​​

Tickets $35, $30 for Members

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Shawnn and Benny Green surprise perrformance at the Mad Monkfish

Hall Of Fame - Thank you everyone for coming out!

Hall Of Fame Highlights video

Take Five: Shawnn Monteiro’s Top Five Jazz Recordings

Take Five: Shawnn Monteiro’s Top Five Jazz Recordings

by Kim Berry

Shawnn Monteiro is a gifted vocalist with a four-decade career as a singer with an international following. She is also jazz royalty: her father is renowned bassist Jimmy Woode and Clark Terry is her godfather. She is a former Adjunct Professor at the Hartt School of Music/Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz, the University of Hartford, and Rhode Island College.  Shawnn’s latest recording is “You Are There.”

“The first song that influenced me was when I was five years old, a recording by Sarah Vaughan called ‘Lullaby of Birdland,’ released in 1954. My parents owned the record, and I played it so much. I knew it by heart and could scan the solo exactly like Sass. That was my first introduction to how jazz would affect my life.

“The second recording was again, Sarah Vaughan in 1959. It was a big hit for her on the radio called ‘Brokenhearted Melody’ and I believe she crossed over for the first time then.  I was only eight, but there was something in Sarah’s voice that spoke to me then and has through my whole career.”

“The third recording was when I had enough allowance to go to the record store and buy an album called ‘Nancy Wilson Live at the Coconut Grove’ recorded in 1965 I heard music I had never heard before, and it was from the Great American Songbook. I played that record until I wore out and learned such beautiful gems as ‘Guess Who I Saw Today’ and ‘You Can Have Him.’ Nancy was a totally different singer from Sarah, but then my ears were starting to open, and I knew where my career was headed.

“The fourth record that really affected me was ‘Song for My Father’ by Horace Silver, and in 1965 I started scatting to the recording, trying to repeat the melody in the solos, and really started to get me deep into the jazz vernacular. I can still sing/scat every song on that album.”

“The fifth album is Carmen McRae’s ‘Carmen Sings Monk’ released in 1990. I think it speaks for itself. By then I was performing and was totally amazed by her. I learned every single tune on that album and really got deep into McRae’s career, which brought me where I am today. There are so many more albums, but I think these are the records that really influenced my life and my career to this day going into 56 years of performing.  Those recordings were the beginning and the rocket ship to send me off into this great journey.”

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Private Lessons with Shawnn

Private voice lessons with Shawn

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Bill Copeland Music

You Are There- Review

Shawnn Monteiro’s latest album You Are There is a fine documentation of her high caliber vocal prowess. This Providence, Rhode Island chanteuse showcases her prodigious talents in a variety of musical settings, arrangements, tempos employing everything from breathy vocals, sustains, scat, and a large vocal presence.

Monteiro has accomplished a great deal on her latest album, You Are There. She swings. She scats. She croons. She features giants like Michael Renzi, Kenny Barron, and Dave Zinno in a true artist’s effort to flesh out her musical vision. What this album, years in the making and showcasing decades of knowledge, has to offer is huge. Produced by Monteiro and Steve Rizzo at Systems Two Sound and at Stable Sounds in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, You Are There can be appreciated for its resonance as well as its talent.

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BLACK WOMEN IN JAZZ

Take a walk through

jazz history with

Shawnn in a tribute

to the great voices of the

black women of jazz, Carmen,

Ella, Sarah, Nancy, Dinah,

Abbey, Billie and

so many more heroines

of our great American art form. 

From the perspective of a black

jazz singer.

 

 

 

 

 

YOU ARE THERE - Nominated for best vocal jazz album- Jazz Awards

Available now!