UK born and bred Wendy Kirkland is a world class jazz pianist and vocalist whose debut album 'Piano Divas' made such an impact when it was released in March 2017 that it was immediately snapped up for distribution by Discovery Records and made the Album of the Week slot twice in one year on The Jazz UK radio, shortly followed by overwhelming critical acclaim from the national mainstream and jazz press. More airplay of the album followed on Clare Teal's Radio 2 show, Alyn Shipton's Jazz Record Requests on Radio 3, Helen Mayhew's shows on JazzFM and latterly BBC Radio Scotland by Clare Teal's Scottish counterpart Seonaid Aitken. All have noted her swinging style, equally as adept with the Great American Songbook as with Brazilian bossa nova and her own original songs.
Described as "the unsung heroine of British Jazz" by esteemed jazz critic Ian Mann and "mellow and stylish" by Clive Davis of the Sunday Times, Wendy will be performing songs from her new album 'The Music's On Me' which explores jazz melodies, lyricised work by Michel Petrucciani, Michael Brecker, Russell Malone, Wes Montgomery and Don Grolnick with some standards, bossa nova and original songs deliberately created to fit with the nature of the album, music that comes from within and draws in the listener with its joyous and heartfelt sound. Wendy tells the story of her inspirational journey and how she was motivated to strive to become the UK's leading exponent of jazz piano and voice, with equal merit in both. Wendy tours with a band who have performed with the UK's top jazz players as well as US stars such as Darius Brubeck. Pat Sprakes (guitar), Paul Jefferies/Mike Green (double bass) and Steve Wyndham/Jon Richmond/Caz Boaden (drums).