NEW ORLEANS MUSIC - Rebecca Barry and the Headhunters CD

A new voice on the tenor sax is turning heads on New Orleans’ vibrant jazz scene, a voice with a playful, warm, swinging quality, rich tone, deep sensitivity…and then some. That voice is Rebecca Barry, a twenty-three year old who grew up in Fairhope, Alabama. Remarkably, she was classically trained and didn’t really encounter jazz until the age of eighteen when she came to New Orleans on a Loyola University music scholarship. There she discovered sax wizard Tony Dagradi (Astral Project), who became not only a model but a mentor, unveiling for Barry the brilliant worlds of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Rick Margitza, Michael Brecker and others.

“She went on to study under Ellis Marsalis and sax guru Ed Petersen at University of New Orleans, where Barry achieved her masters degree in just a year and a half, even while she began to gig more frequently around town. Today, her hard work has paid off, as she is considered one of the most consistently impressive young tenors in a city where talent is abundant.” .: Jonathan Tabak, offBeat Magazine