Datri Bean

Steeped in hot muggy weather, Datri Bean's original music blends pre-war jazz with folksy Americana and sepia-toned vocals, for a lazy afternoon on the porch feeling.

Bean was raised in a rodeo family on the plains of Wyoming. Listening to her mother's scratchy Scott Joplin records, at the age of five, she began to study piano. She attended the Boston Conservatory of Music. Soon, though, she high-tailed it for Austin, Texas, leaving the classical world in favor of early jazz, songwriting and warm weather. She landed in a big house full of jazz musicians, hooligans, exchange students and bike mechanics, from whom she learned to improvise, fix bicycles, speak Russian and drink hooch- all at the same time.

"Bean's vocals recall Billie Holiday, only with sheer joy replacing all that pain." The Seattle Post Intelligencer