Sip & Swing Sunday featuring the Sid Fendley Quartet with special guest vocalist Louise Whitney

This week we proudly welcome the Sid Fendley Quartet! We’ll also feature special guest (and Tracey Whitney’s mother) Louise Whitney, who will join the band for a short set of her own (you’ll see that apple didn’t fall far from the tree!)

Sid Fendley is an award-winning Albuquerque-based jazz pianist, vocalist, audio engineer, and composer who has been a staple of the New Mexico music scene for over 30 years. He is widely recognized as a versatile performer and the owner of a local recording studio. He performs extensively across the region as a solo artist and group leader and is the resident band leader for “The Art of Jazz with Tracey Whitney”, the celebrated former Ray Charles “Raelette” with whom Sid has performed for many years, playing classic jazz standards and sophisticated soul at her nightclub, Babydoll’s House of Jazz & Blues. Sid also plays keyboards for several area bands, including Tapestry. The band includes Rodney Bowe on bass and John Bartlit on drums.

A renowned Los Angeles area entertainer, Louise Whitney began singing professionally at just sixteen in Portland, OR, and has an impressive career that’s spanned six decades. In the 1960’s she toured with legends of soul Solomon Burke and Johnny Otis. Later, under the moniker Whitney, Whitney & Whitney, she performed with her brother Jimmy Whitney (a Carlos Santana alumnus) and sister Mary Lee Whitney (who would go on to become a member of Stevie Wonder’s “Wonderlove,” and be the featured female vocalist on his hit Songs In The Key of Life single AS). Local celebrities, the trio were L.A. area nightclub staples. Louise had a thriving solo career as well, and in 1969 was tapped by Quincy Jones to perform He Said He Loves Me on the soundtrack to the Sidney Poitier film, The Lost Man, also performed the Emmy Award nominated Early In The Morning from 1977’s Minstrel Man starring Emmy Award winner Glynn Turman.