Susie Arioli

Born in Toronto, Ontario, on December 19, 1963, Susie Arioli developed an early interest in singing, which she practiced as a child with her parents, including her father, actor and children's film director Don Arioli. Her taste for jazz standards led her to the stage with her regular guitarist, Jordan Officer, who became the arranger for the Susie Arioli Swing Band recordings. The group, formed in 1998, made a name for itself by opening for Ray Charles at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and signed with the Justin Time label, releasing It's Wonderful (2000), Pennies from Heaven (2002) and That's for Me (2004). The quartet's lead singer, Susie Arioli, also plays snare drum on these records, which feature covers from the swing era. In 2005, Learn to Smile Again focused mainly on Roger Miller compositions, to which the performer imprinted her intimate, blues-tinged jazz sensibility. Now under her own name, and still accompanied by her two guitarists Jordan Officer and Michael Jerome Browne, the Canadian returns to the classics of the 1930s/1940s on Night Lights (2008), followed on Spectra Musique by Christmas Dreaming (2010), All the Way (2012), featuring four saxophonists on certain tracks and including a version of "Un jour de différence " created in 1934 by Lys Gauty, then Spring (2015), the latest album to date.