As the final performance of the night, Kari Kirkland and The Savannah Jazz Orchestra rounded off the day’s festivities at the Savannah Jazz Festival.
Kirkland has a fascinating background spending eight years in Seattle as a professional circus artist, vocalist, and former co-owner of Emerald City Trapeze Arts. Departing from the big top, she left Seattle to take the stage as a full-time musician in Southern California before she would eventually return to the Emerald City. This would later lead Kirkland to travel throughout Canada and the U.S. in the early 2000s performing in a variety of groups spanning from pop, rock, cabaret, and jazz.
Four-time Grammy nominee Shelly Berg arranged and produced Kirkland’s debut album, Wild is the Wind, and the two would continue to have an ongoing partnership.
Berg would go on to describe Kirkland’s voice and style as being uniquely her:
“There is a depth of truth and heart in her singing that is very, very compelling. I’m proud and blessed to have done this project with her.”