Tulivu-Donna Cumberbatch
Encyclopedia
Tulivu-Donna Lynn Cumberbatch, daughter of Harold Cumberbatch (a baritone saxophone
player), is a jazz
singer from Brooklyn
, and has been compared to Bessie Smith
, Carmen McRae
, Sarah Vaughn, Gloria Lynn, Ella Fitzgerald
, Nancy Wilson
, and Aretha Franklin
in terms of her singing ability.
Her Africa
n name "Tulivu" translates from Swahili
loosely to "beautiful," and her English
name, "Donna Lynn" is derived from "Donna Lee," the jazz piece made popular by Charlie Parker
.
s, specifically the All City High School Chorus as a child, then studied formally at Herbert H. Lehman College. After training, she began her solo career, influenced by such artists as Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nancy Wilson. Eventually, she was joined by a band of three called "The Magnificent Trio," which consisted of Mark Johnson, Donald Smith
, and Rachiim Ausar-Sahu.
In live performances, when not performing with her Trio, Cumberbatch has sung with Hannibal Peterson, Kimati Dinizulu and the Kotoko Society, Brooklyn Philharmonic
, Diedre Murray
, the Kronos Quartet
, Akyenee Baako and Drumsong Productions, The Hank Doughty/Ray Abrams Big Band and The Cliff Smalls Septet, among others. She has performed in the Caribbean
, Europe
and Canada
, and frequently at jazz clubs and festivals in Brooklyn and New York
.
She gained additional recognition for work with composer
Yoko Kanno
on songs for her solo album Song to Fly, and her Cowboy Bebop
soundtracks. Cumberbatch also recorded with another acclaimed composer, Yuki Kajiura
, doing a jazz rendition of the Noir
song Lullaby for Kajiura's solo album Fiction. (This is the third time that Kajiura's composition Lullaby had been recorded: the first time by Yuriko Kaida, and the second time by seiyuu TARAKO
.)
Baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
player), is a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer from Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, and has been compared to Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
, Sarah Vaughn, Gloria Lynn, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson (singer)
Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...
, and Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
in terms of her singing ability.
Her Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n name "Tulivu" translates from Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
loosely to "beautiful," and her English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
name, "Donna Lynn" is derived from "Donna Lee," the jazz piece made popular by Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
.
Her career
Cumberbatch participated in church and school choirChoir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
s, specifically the All City High School Chorus as a child, then studied formally at Herbert H. Lehman College. After training, she began her solo career, influenced by such artists as Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nancy Wilson. Eventually, she was joined by a band of three called "The Magnificent Trio," which consisted of Mark Johnson, Donald Smith
Donald Smith
Donald Smith may refer to:* Donald Smith , head college football coach at Kentucky State University * Donald Smith , English cricketer* Donald Smith , Australian tenor...
, and Rachiim Ausar-Sahu.
In live performances, when not performing with her Trio, Cumberbatch has sung with Hannibal Peterson, Kimati Dinizulu and the Kotoko Society, Brooklyn Philharmonic
Brooklyn Philharmonic
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City...
, Diedre Murray
Diedre Murray
Diedre Murray is an American cellist and composer specializing in jazz, improvised music, opera, and contemporary classical music. She is also active as a producer, and curator...
, the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, Akyenee Baako and Drumsong Productions, The Hank Doughty/Ray Abrams Big Band and The Cliff Smalls Septet, among others. She has performed in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and frequently at jazz clubs and festivals in Brooklyn and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
She gained additional recognition for work with composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Yoko Kanno
Yoko Kanno
is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...
on songs for her solo album Song to Fly, and her Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop
is a critically acclaimed and award-winning 1998 Japanese anime series directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and produced by Sunrise. Its 26 episodes comprise a complete storyline: set in 2071, the series follows the adventures, misadventures and tragedies of five bounty...
soundtracks. Cumberbatch also recorded with another acclaimed composer, Yuki Kajiura
Yuki Kajiura
, born August 6, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as one of the Kimagure Orange Road movies, Noir, .hack//SIGN, Aquarian Age, Madlax, My-HiME, My-Otome, .hack//Roots, Pandora Hearts, Puella Magi...
, doing a jazz rendition of the Noir
Noir (anime)
is a 26-episode Japanese anime television series produced in 2001 by the Bee Train animation studio. Kōichi Mashimo directed Noir, it was written by Ryoe Tsukimura, and the soundtrack was composed by Yuki Kajiura...
song Lullaby for Kajiura's solo album Fiction. (This is the third time that Kajiura's composition Lullaby had been recorded: the first time by Yuriko Kaida, and the second time by seiyuu TARAKO
Tarako
, known simply as Tarako, is a Japanese voice actress and singer-songwriter. Her debut role was as a preschooler on Urusei Yatsura. Tarako is currently employed by the talent management firm Troubadour Musique Office.- TV :...
.)
Solo discography
- Harmony (1990)
- Lullabies in the Key of Life ~ For the Child in All of Us (1997)
- Daughters of the Nile (1999)
- In the Company of You [Single] (1999)
Featured Discography
- Spirit Within Us / Andrei Strobert (1993)
- Universal Dancer / Masujaa: The X Factor (1994)
- Springboard / Lucy Galligher (1995)
- Cowboy Bebop: Original TV Soundtrack 3- "Blue" / The SeatbeltsThe Seatbeltswas a Japanese blues/jazz band led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno.-Band history:The name of the band, according to the fictional description given in the anime series Cowboy Bebop, derives from how the performers wear seatbelts to be safe while they play hardcore jam sessions.The band...
(1998) - Cowboy Bebop: Original TV Soundtrack 2- "No Disc" / The SeatbeltsThe Seatbeltswas a Japanese blues/jazz band led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno.-Band history:The name of the band, according to the fictional description given in the anime series Cowboy Bebop, derives from how the performers wear seatbelts to be safe while they play hardcore jam sessions.The band...
(1998) - Song to Fly / Yoko KannoYoko Kannois a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...
(1998) - Brooklyn Bebop: The Brooklyn Four Plus One / Cecil PayneCecil PayneCecil Payne was a jazz baritone saxophonist born in Brooklyn, NY. Payne also played the alto saxophone and flute...
(1999) - Cowboy Bebop: BOX SET / The SeatbeltsThe Seatbeltswas a Japanese blues/jazz band led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno.-Band history:The name of the band, according to the fictional description given in the anime series Cowboy Bebop, derives from how the performers wear seatbelts to be safe while they play hardcore jam sessions.The band...
(2001) - Passport to Brooklyn / Brooklyn Reportory Ensemble (2002)
- Fiction / Yuki KajiuraYuki Kajiura, born August 6, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as one of the Kimagure Orange Road movies, Noir, .hack//SIGN, Aquarian Age, Madlax, My-HiME, My-Otome, .hack//Roots, Pandora Hearts, Puella Magi...
(2003) - For My Brothers / Dwight Carson (2003)
- Cowboy Bebop: Tank! The! Best! / The SeatbeltsThe Seatbeltswas a Japanese blues/jazz band led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno.-Band history:The name of the band, according to the fictional description given in the anime series Cowboy Bebop, derives from how the performers wear seatbelts to be safe while they play hardcore jam sessions.The band...
(2004)