KCC Productions and the Van Dyke Cafe present A Celebration of Music of Legendary Jazz Divas featuring Debbie Orta
Thursday, December 15, at 9 PM
The Van Dyke
846 Lincoln Road
South Beach

Featured are: Pete Wallace, piano, Nicky Orta, bass, John Yarling, drums, and Ed Maina, woodwinds.
For more information, call 305-534-3600 or visit thevandykecafe.com.

Born in New York, Debbie performed American music until moving to Miami, where her Spanish roots drew her to the Latin sounds of the city where she performed for several years with a salsa band called “Clouds”. She was later offered a spot as lead female vocalist with an American show band at Bally’s Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was there that she later auditioned for the main showroom at the Sands, featuring Jose Luis Rodriguez (“El Puma”). She was hired on the spot as a backup singer on his world tour, also playing flute parts in the show for several years. During this time she performed as singer/dancer with another Latin heartthrob, Chayanne. Back home to raise her two children, Debbie has returned to her jazz roots, enriched by years of travel in the U.S., South America, Mexico, Canada, Australia and Europe. She has shared the stage with notable jazz musicians such as Mike Orta, Othello Molineaux, Turk Mauro, Jim Gasior, Brian Murphy, Carlos Averhoff, and Silvano Monasterios.

Now based in South Florida, Debbie Orta is accompanied by an outstanding quartet of esteemed jazz musicians. Since its inception, “The Debbie Orta Jazz Quintet” has performed at Jazz Festivals and clubs including the SunTrust Sunday Jazz Brunch Series, Hollywood Beach Concert Series, Arturo Sandoval’s Jazz Club, The Seminole Hard Rock Casino, Jazziz, The Van Dyke Café in South Beach, and is a regular performer at the world famous Setai Jazz Brunch on South Beach, among others. She is a featured performer in the prestigious Sunshine Jazz Organization of Miami. Debbie was the only South Florida jazz artist invited to perform at South Florida’s premier music festival, SunFest 2009, opening the Sunday Jazz Brunch for jazz fusion group, “Spyro Gyra”.

Debbie recently presented her 2010 seminar, entitled, “Jazz Gals” at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida; a retrospective of the great female jazz vocalists of the 20th Century and today. The multi-media seminar included a slideshow, video clips, discussion and a live performance by Debbie accompanied by a pianist.

Debbie and her smokin’ band perform a terrific jazz repertoire from the Great American Songbook, as well as Brazilian and Latin jazz arrangements, and jazz/funk feels flexing her voice over several octaves. Debbie’s swinging jazz and smoky ballads are always intriguing, whether classic or contemporary, sad or joyful.