Jazz vocalist/poet Jeannette Lambert began singing jazz at age nine and was already performing professionally at coffeehouses at age twelve.  Born in Leiden, Holland, to a Dutch mother and an Indo (Indonesian-German) father,  she grew up in Sudbury, Ontario in Canada where her father was teaching at the local university.  She has lived at different times of her life in Toronto, Amsterdam, the south of France, Paris and New York. Her mother, visual artist Agatha Schwager, was instrumental in inspiring her in how to use her creativity and intuition, while her father, sociologist Walter Schwager, is an avid jazz fan who always has music playing on a radio or computer nearby.  Her older brother, jazz guitarist Reg Schwager, inspired her to learn a large repertoire of jazz standards which they performed together as kids.  She's has lived in Montreal, Quebec for the past fifteen years,  with her husband, jazz drummer/composer Michel Lambert and their two sons.

She has worked with internationally acclaimed musicians and  performed  in France, Holland, Indonesia, Germany, the U.S. and Canada.  Recently she travelled to Indonesia where she performed with Reg and Michel at the Toraja International Festival in Sulawesi. In past trips to Indonesia she has also performed in Jakarta, Java, and Ubud and Seminyak, Bali.  Her seventh cd as a leader, Sand Underfoot, was made with Barre Phillips, Michel Lambert and special guest Paul Bley. Like her previous recording, Lone Jack Pine, it  features improvised music that using her poetry as a starting point for musical exploration .  She appears on Michel Lambert's recording Unclouded Day, available on the Swedish  label, Ayler Records singing poems by the great Victorian writers, the Brontë sisters . Her most recent recording is Born to Be Blue, a collection of her favourite cinematic jazz standards.  She is featured on Philip May's cd Sudbury along with other jazz performers from Northern Ontario.

She co-founded the music label Jazz From Rant with  Reg Schwager, and  Michel Lambert, in 1991.  Their label has been successful in documenting a wide variety of music and unusual collaborations. Her discography includes "Sand Underfoot", "Unclouded Day", "Lone Jack Pine",  "Ask Her", "Ballads", "Ballads II", "Songs for the Last Set"; "Forget Me Not".  She began combining her love of poetry and improvising in 1986 for the vocal/drum duo Black Fungus "Endless Walk"  and also for the group Lonely Universe, "A La Plage". She also released "Jeannettically Modified Christmas Songs", which features jazz versions of Christmas carols.  Her jazz versions of classic children's songs are very popular and are documented on the recordings "Bebop for Babies" and "Bebop for Babies 2",.She was awarded funding from the CALQ to compose her latest song cycle, Bali Songs, inspired by her travels, her family history, and her discoveries as an active dreamer. She performed several of these compositions at her recent concerts and plans to record them in the near future. As well she composes lyrics in both English and French for a wide variety of performers including Hong Kong artist Tinka.  With her son Theo she has recorded music for a variety of toys and games.

Musicians she's worked and recorded with include:  Michel Lambert, Reg Schwager, Barre Phillips, Paul Bley, Raoul Bjorkenheim, Mat Maneri, Herbie Spanier, Bobby Few, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Art Johnson and many more.

In the past, back when she was a punk and enjoyed industrial music,  she performed sound poetry and led a series of bands of free jazz with 4 guitars (Plectrum Spectrum) and 3 voices (Contradiction). She studied with vocalist Jay Clayton, the legendary Cecil Taylor and many others at the Banff Jazz Workshop.   

She is a multi-media artist, having majored in film production at York University.  Much of the music she has recorded around her poetry has been included in her web art and digital films and she is considered a pioneer in internet cinema.  Her internet films and web art  have been screened in museums and festivals worldwide.  As well, she founded the Jazz Grrls online community for women in jazz. A few years ago she conducted several interviews with her favourite female improvisors and innovators which can now be viewed on her Youtube channel of these interviews . They discuss topics such as balancing life and art, and the role of mysticism in improvised music. 

© Jazz from Rant, 2014