Yvonne Sánchez didn’t mean to be a jazz singer, but destiny has brought her down this path. This Polish-Cuban jazz vocalist, with her honey-smooth voice, has wooed audiences across the world. Having performed briefly as a percussionist with some of the top musicians in her native Poland , including Jozef Skrezek, she moved to Germany and left music behind her. In 1994 she moved to Prague .

Within months Sánchez had become a staple of the Prague jazz scene, playing with the country’s top musicians including bassist Robert Balzar, pianist Jan “Najponk” Knop and saxophonist Karel Ruzicka, Jr. Her repertoire spanned jazz standard by Duke Ellington, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, to the Bossa Nova sounds of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Yvonne is completely self-taught, and has a unique style of interpretation.

The journey of a musician is never planed and Yvonne is no different. She has performed in Germany , Israel , Portugal , France , Cuba , Brazil and the United States . These different cultures have acted as a catalyst for development. As she strays outside conventional jazz she has embraced the music of her Latin roots, Bossa Nova and Samba. The results of this can be heard on her debut 2001 album “Invitation”, recorded with the renowned Robert Balzar Trio. The following year “Invitation” was nominated for a Czech Grammy.

Yvonne is currently preparing for her second album which will be mainly jazz.

Equally at home in bebop, bossa nova and the blues, Yvonne combines the stylish elegance of Ella Fitzgerald, the phrasing of Mel Torme and the spice of Rita Moreno to create something rare: true originality. Her repertoire swings from Thelonious Monk and Billy Strayhorn all the way to Antonio Carlos Jobim, and she makes each of the tunes sound as if they had been composed just for her. Her arrangements of, for example, Ellington's "Lover Man" or Monk's "Well, You Needn't" are fresh and exciting.

www.yvonne-sanchez.com