| PRESS
QUOTES about DEBORAH HENSON-CONANT |
New
York Times
“Reshaping the serenely Olympian
harp into a jazz instrument by warping it closer to the Blues.”
|
Boston
Globe
"A combination of Leonard Bernstein,
Steven Tyler and Xena, the Warrior Princess."
Ed
Siegel
"Whatever
it is that transfixes an audience, she has it." Catherine
Peterson |
The
Wall Street Journal
“A
phenomenal harpist-performer." B.
Schortt |
| Scott
Simon, NPR
“Imagine
the talented love-child of André Previn and Lucille
Ball.” Scott
Simon
|
CBS
“Sunday Morning”
“A confident and exciting entertainer
... Deborah Henson-Conant delights in musical adventure”
Billy Taylor |
NBC
“Today Show”
“Pushing the envelope ... freeing
herself and her instrument... that’s what Deborah Henson-Conant’s
music is all about.” Jamie
Gangel |
Los
Angeles Times
"Indeed,
her hands and voice alike speak wth an unprecedented eloquence."
Leonard
Feather, |
Denver
Post
"She's doing for the harp what Chuck
Berry and Elvis did for the guitar...Electrified and unzipped
..." Jeff
Bradley |
Chicago
Tribune
“Deborah
Henson-Conant has played with the best in the mainly male genre
and is drawing raves from those who encounter her intriguing
music… she has also become a role model."
Brenda
Herrmann |
San
Francisco Examiner
“She
set the crowd afire ... Strong fingers, quick mind… [she]
puts harp and soul into it.” Phil
Elwood |
The
Salt Lake Tribune
"A performance artist to say the
least … [her performance] immediately mesmerized the audience
and established Henson-Conant’s extreme skill as an entertainer.
She ended with her own “Baroque Flamenco.” This
was a real tour de force – especially the cadenza section
where Henson-Conant let loose every harp trick imaginable."
Jeff Manookian |
Grand
Rapids Press
Calling
Henson-Conant a harpist is like referring to Joe DiMaggio as
a guy with a bat. Technically, it’s accurate, but you’re
just scratching the surface. ... She sings like a gospel singer
with a hint of an Irish lilt. She writes quirky songs such as
“Belinda,” a Spanish-flavored love song about a
willow tree. ... She acts in character and costume, tells stories
and cracks up an audience with insightful observations about
aging, record sales and lugging around a harp…Oh, and
she certainly does play a wicked harp.” Jeff
Kaczmarczyk |
Christian
Science Monitor
“In
concert, Henson-Conant looks like an athlete at times …
shoulder muscles strain and flex… Other times …
the lift and sweep of her arms could be a ballet move from ‘Swan
Lake.’” Laura Van Tuyl
|
Downbeat
Magazine
“…a harp of a different color. She’s making
it swing, she’s improvising and taking chances, she’s
stretching out like a horn player."
Bill Milkowsi |
Doc
Severinsen
“You play the !@#%! out of that
thing!” |
The
Boston Phoenix
“She set up songs with anecdotes
that balanced whimsey, innocence and sophistication, then tightened
the screws with solid music.” Bob
Blumenthal |
Rex
Reed
“…a
harpist and poet who knows how to blend rhapsodic harmonies
with dark purple lyrical twists that force you to listen twice
before final comprehension sets in.” |
Buffalo
News
"Plays the harp like a dream, sings and plays the blues
with a deep spirituality, expressiveness and harmonic sense
matched by few other performers today, and animates everything
she touches with a spine-tingling sense of gently propulsive
rhythmic drive.” Herman Trotter |
Joan
Rivers
“She may look like an angel, but she plays devilishly
well.” Joan
Rivers |
Amazon.com
"With her cobalt-blue electric Irish
harp slung around her neck, she gives Celtic bardery a new image."
John Dilberto |
The
Washington Times
“Bright, brash and beautiful, Deborah
Henson-Conant bares her sensual allure to win over an audience.
After all, playing jazz on the harp takes pluck, so Ms. Henson-Conant
has to bank on an electric performance…”
Patrick Butters |
Pittsburgh
Tribune
"…a mischievous performer who
can take off on extended jazz jams and return to classically
inspired licks. Playing her harp at one moment like an electric
guitar, like a percussion instrument the next, Henson-Conant
proved she is master of a highly unusual musical niche" |
Plain
Dealer (Cleveland)
“[She] dresses like a showgirl, plays the pants off the
harp and tells tall tales with the ease of a stand-up comic.
Imagine a talkative Harpo Marx in a mini-skirt
and you begin to get the picture.” Donald
Rosenberg |
Richmond
Times Dispatch
“...a
stunning original musician and a warm and amusing raconteur
... who dispells the stereotype of the introverted jazz musician.”
Gordon
Bly |
Glasgow
Herald
“Melodic warmth, harmonic sophistication and the ability
to swing her head off…” Elliot
Meadow |
Arizona
Daily News
“She
dresses like one of the Rolling Stones and strums an instrument
that’s as close to heaven as many of us get... never has
a musician seemed equally at home at Wolftrap and Lollapalooza”
Exact
Source Unknown |
Austin
American-Statesman
Deborah
Henson-Conant, the guest artist, was born to entertain. She
drew on an unlikely combination of dazzling harp playing, gorgeous
jazz/pop singing, comic timing and impressive songwriting. Her
program shows that the harp is at home with flamenco and Latin
American music as it is with Arabic and Celtic music. Henson-Conant
is astonishly deft at imitating those styles with orchestrations
that are as fresh and exuberant as her stage personality.
Jerry
Young |
Buffalo
Beat
Expect fire, folks; this will not be your average evening
at the orchestra where audience members politely applaud and
feign interest. Henson-Conant will have the audience and the
orchestra members on the edge of their seats... Jeff
Miers |
The
Blade (Toledo)
"Deborah Henson-Conant is a one-woman dynamo,
a visionary harp virtuoso with a sense of humor, a flair for
showmanship, a gorgeous voice, and a jazz artist's love of adventure."
David
Yonke |
The
Baltimore Sun
“She’s
uprooted the instrument from its traditional place at the back
of the orchestra and used it to play her own jazz-and-blues
and Latin-influenced compositions and for her one-woman shows,
which approach what is commonly thought of as performance art.”
Stephen
Wigler |
Springfield
Union-News
“Striking flamenco sparks from the strings … wrenching
distorted bends worthy of Eddie Van Halen …
belting gutbucket blues and crooning lullabies … It’s
impossible not to be mesmerized. Henson-Conant brings utter
sincerity, prodigious technique and courageous, elegant invention
to the intense focus commanded by a master storyteller.”
|
The Scotsman
“...this sassy dame can make her harp howl like
a tortured Stratocaster, or strum out Mexican cantina music,
or swing like Brubeck…Henson-Conant has visited
Edinburgh before, as a jazz harpist, but this, her first visit
to the Fringe, is a one-woman extravaganza that combines review
with cabaret with playing… actually, playing, slapping,
pummeling and waltzing with the electronic Clarsach, which has
enabled her to step out from behind the big unwieldy concert
harp. [Note to Americans: “Clarsach” is the Scots
word for the traditional Scottish harp on which Deborah’s
“Body Harp” is based.] … And boy, does she
step out, all breathy reminiscence one minute, gentle nocturnal
murmurs from the harp, then a shake of those cascading rainbow
hairbraids and that soaringly powerful voice lets rip…
The audience laughed, got to their feet and cheered, or simply
sat open-mouthed as she gave us the blues, on a blue harp –
plucked, not blown, but fired up with soul nonetheless.”
Jim Gilchrist |
Boston
Globe
"... a night with Henson-Conant is some enchanted evening
... although the sound that comes out is still heavenly, it's
a far more sensual notion of heaven than the ones we learned
from Sunday school or Saturday morning cartoons ... with a presence
that seems to combine Carly Simon and the comedian
Catherine O'Hara, Henson-Conant commands the
intimate setting ... from the outset ..."
Ed Siegal |
Webster
Post
“… a voice that crisscrosses between the huskiness
of Carly Simon and the refinement of Celine
Dion.” |
Grand
Rapids Press
“Deborah Henson-Conant is why they call making music “playing.”
She’s doing her job, but she’s having more fun than
most people have on vacation.”
Jeff Kaczmarczyk |
Boston
Herald
"Henson-Conant is a creature of fantasy in appearance:
her long braids interwoven with colored ribbons hanging down
her back, short black dress, one red shower of stars for an
earring and silver-spangled cowboy boots. The lyrics are delivered
in styles ranging from poetry to scat, as if there's nothing
a harp and its mistress cannot accomplish together ... you must
see the infinite possibilities Henson-conant brings to the instrument."
Iris Fanger |
SW
- METRO - Edinburgh Festival Fringe
“Few
have blown the cobwebs off harp music quite so comprehensively
… Wielding a bright blue, custom-designed electric harp,
fitted with a pick-up on every string and an array of digital
effects, she wears it strapped on a la Stratocaster… thus
replacing the sedentary stillness enforced on most harpists
with plenty of dynamic movement. Her appearance, too, goes head-to-head
with convention - miniskirt, cowboy boots, colourfully beribboned
dreadlocks - but it’s her dazzling range and depth of
technique, combined with a warmly energetic stage manner, that
ultimately makes this such a memorable show …
Effortlessly traversing genre boundaries from blues to folk,
jazz to world music, she’s conjuring entire sound of a
traditional Mexican street band one minute, laying into a ferocious
Hendrix-inspired rock workout the next, all with equally unerring
flair and finesse, while her bright-toned muscular singing proves
equally adept at switching between styles. As she weaves one
number into the next via whimsical takes of her childhood and
snippets of ancient harp lore, you soon see why the Boston Globe
couldn’t decide whether to send a drama or a music critic
to review her show - they ended up sending both.”
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