GIACOMO GATES

A smoky-voiced jazz singer from the East Coast, Giacomo Gates is an expressive interpreter of lyrics who is proficient with scat singing and vocalese. Gates was born and raised in Connecticut, where he started singing at seven and was turned on to jazz by his father, a classical violinist. He studied the guitar at the age of eight and continued to study it until he was 14, but he gave the instrument up when he decided that singing was the best way to express himself musically. As a young adult, Gates wanted a change of environment and decided to move to Alaska, where he spent 12 years and earned a living doing everything from operating bulldozers to working as a bouncer in a bar. At a summer arts festival in Fairbanks, he performed a set and caught the attention of headliner Sarah Vaughan, who seemed to feel that he had read more...