Local Musician Spotlight: MaryLynn Gillaspie
Rare Silk! Most of our active jazz listeners know MaryLynn Gillaspie’s history with Rare Silk, the 1980s Grammy-nominated vocal group. What a story! I’ll try to share some of the interesting stuff I learned about it when I sat with MaryLynn recently. Since she’s currently creating a whole new musical history for herself, I’m certainly going to get to that as well.
REVIEW: MARYLYNN GiLLASPIE – SECRET LANGUAGE
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Colorado is known for world class jazz, strange as that might sound. Colorado is also known historically for world class vocal jazz. Denver native Dianne Reeves has earned five Grammy Awards and an honorary Doctorate from Julliard for her work in that genre.
Boulder based Rare Silk earned two Grammy nominations for their vocalese / vocal jazz in the early ’80s, and Lannie Garrett blessed area stages into the 21st century with her torch and big band jazz stylizations.
MaryLynn Gillaspie started out with Rare Silk, a vocal quartet that she, her sister Gaile and Marguerite Juneman formed in the late seventies as a trio to sing songs influenced by and in the style of swing-era acts like the Andrews Sisters. Their debut, New Weave, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Vocal–Duo or Group category. Rare Silk ended their run in 1988.
MaryLynn Gillaspie wouldn’t be heard from again until 2012, when she began showing up with local Boulder/Denver musicians, sitting in for a song or two. That gave her the confidence to step into the studio, twenty-five years after Rare Silk ended.