about Kris
KRIS GAYLE AT ST IVES JAZZ CLUB - PHOTO BY TONY BROWN
UK trumpet legend Humphrey Lyttelton, previewing Kris Gayle's CD '8.00 am' on one of his final BBC radio shows, descrobed Kris as "A favourite vocalist - her quality sticks in the memory". On a previous occasion he described her as "Cornwall's best kept secret", and it is certainly a fact that most of her singing career has involved appearances in the South Western region.
Kris first visited West Cornwall from London as a teenager, fell in love with the area and decided to stay. After winning a talent contest at a Penzance holiday camp, her first gig was as a singing waitress. She then served a serious musical apprenticeship with Matrix, an innovative West Country jazz-rock group, and quickly established herself as the region’s leading female vocalist.
MATRIX DAYS
Kris’s real breakthrough came when she formed her own band Gayle Force, a five-piece jazz/soul fusion group. This group became very popular in the South West region and released two well-received albums, ‘Gayle Force’ and ‘Which Way Is Up?’.
GAYLE FORCE PUBLICITY SHOT
During the Gayle Force period Kris made many local and national TV appearances, both with her own band and as a soloist, and also guest appearances with Georgie Fame and Salena Jones. Concurrently she worked for 4 years as a studio session singer at Sawmills studio.
BBC TV APPEARANCE
Just as Kris’s popularity in the region was it its height, she decided to take a break from the touring treadmill to pursue one of her other talents, cookery, and set up a very successful restaurant in West Cornwall.
In september 2003 Kris marked her comeback with an appearance at the opening concert of the annual St Ives Music and Arts Festival, accompanied by top West Country pianist Viv Rodd. The gig was so well-recieved that Kris and Viv decided to play together on a permanent basis, and for seven years performed around the West Country and at London's prestigious 606 Club. Kris also made two very successful appearances in New York.
KRIS GAYLE AT ST IVES JAZZ CLUB - PHOTO BY TONY BROWN
Kris and Viv made two albums, "Dedicated to You" (2004), a live duo recording, was followed by '8.00am' (2008), which went in a completely different direction with lush arragnements and guest appearances by some of the West Country's finest musicians. '8.00am' was voted no. 8 in the Jazzwise 'Top Ten Jazz Albums of 2008', and was also highly rated in the London Evening Standard and other publications. In 2009 Sir Michael Parkinson featured the album on his website for a year.
KNIGHT&GAYLE
Away from her regular jazz work, in 2006 Kris formed a duo with vocalist/guitarist John Knight, a masterful guitarist/vocalist who was the musical lynchpin of Kris's first group. This duo, called knight&gayle, performs a stylish range of the finest songs from across the years. Their repertoire encompasses everything from Bille Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Randy Crawford to Bill Withers, Sting and Van Morrison, and their comprehensive and wide-ranging mix of quality music has become very popular in the South West. In 2010, when Kris and Viv Rodd came to an amicable parting of the ways, Kris decided to concentrate on knight&gayle, together with her work as a vocal coach. To hear some demo tracks by knight&gayle, click on http://www.knightandgayle.co.uk /
KNIGHT&GAYLE