StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The song stylings of Sara Gazarek

Today, we're going to look at some video clips featuring singer Sara Gazarek, who's coming to St. Louis to perform next Saturday, May 5 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Gazarek studied music at the University of Southern California, winning the Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Collegiate Vocalist in 2003. She released her first album, Yours, in 2005, and made her St. Louis debut in October of that year at the now defunct Finale Music and Dining.

Her other albums include Live at the Jazz Bakery, a download-only recording from 2006; the 2007 studio effort Return To You;, and 2010's Where Time Stands Still, recorded with the German jazz group Triosence. Gazarak also has been back to St. Louis a couple of times since that first performance in 2005, headlining at Jazz at the Bistro in February 2008 (when she was featured here in a previous Saturday video post) and March 2009.

In the embed window up above, you can see and hear her singing "Nice N Easy" at the 2008 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, accompanied by her usual pianist, Josh Nelson, along with guitarist Graham Dechter, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Jeff Hamilton.

Down below are three more selections from 2008 featuring Gazarek and her backing trio: "Makes Me Feel This Way," "More," and a medley of the Beatles' "Blackbird" and the standard "Bye Bye Blackbird."

The final two videos are from 2010, showing Gazarek singing "O Pato" with her trio at Cafe Metropol in Los Angeles, and "Like The Wind" with Triosence at a concert in Köln, Germany.

For more about Sara Gazarek, check out this 2010 audio interview at AllAboutJazz.com; her page at NPR Music; and this 2010 video interview for the website SingingTV.com.