Sandy Asirvatham "walks a fine line between singer/songwriter and jazz chanteuse with some Tin Pan Alley in the mix, smartly turning phrases and crafting peculiarly appealling melodies," according to John Lewis of Baltimore Magazine (July 2007).
Sandy was a professional journalist & essayist for many years before finding her way to her true calling as a songwriter, pianist, singer, and bandleader with an eclectic jazz/rock/funk sensibility. Her songs tell sophisticated, slightly mysterious, and mysteriously memorable stories, set upon warm, kinetic, modern jazz/rock grooves.
Sandy Asirvatham was a freelance writer and long-running columnist for Baltimore CityPaper, as well as a perpetually blocked fiction writer, before she got seriously sidetracked by music. Merely an amateur pianist and singer in her late 20s, by her mid-30s she had transformed herself into a full-fledged professional jazz pianist, singer, and composer. MEMOIR, her debut CD, contains 9 original songs by Sandy as well as 3 beloved standards. Bandmates on the album include drummer Frank Russo and bassist Amy Shook (both Summit Records recording artists), trombonist Jim McFalls, trumpeter Tom Williams, electric guitarist Chris Kennedy, and latin guitarist Dani Cortaza--all some of the finest jazz musicians of the mid-Atlantic region. Sandy arranged and produced every track at the studio of master musician and recording engineer (Sandy's former piano teacher), Fred Hughes.
