"Audiences have become so devoted to her beautifully strange tales, dangerous glamour and evocative performances that she has “expanded the kingdom” well beyond the music scene - into filmmaking, acting, writing, storytelling and theater. Jill Tracy is redefining the image of modern day renaissance artist. It is no wonder critics hail her "a femme fatale for the thinking man."
"Jill Tracy will transport you into a seductive and magical realm far beyond the Everyday. The place where we wished we lived. A dark, elegant netherworld full of hidden passageways, wonder cabinets and opium dens. Of monsters, marvels and mayhem, You know it’s not safe here; but with Jill Tracy as your guide, you’ll be in no hurry to leave."
The summing up:
In the autumn of 1994, word crept through the San Francisco underground concerning an East Coast émigré with a fondness for black feather boas and Baudelaire...a mysterious pianist and singer, with a sultry theatrical presence and captivatingly dark sound.
Her very first performance dangerously over-packed a tiny Hayes Street art gallery. Frantic, the owners attempted to stop the onslaught, but the crowd cheered for an encore; The police and fire engines came onscene, as did the San Francisco Bay Guardian who proclaimed her "an elegant and mysterious siren...a stunningly hypnotic performer!" Indeed, JILL TRACY had arrived.
She soon became a fixture at the subterranean speakeasy Cafe du Nord, masterminding "Jill Tracy’s Mysteria," a trail-blazing extravaganza of carny theatrics and sideshow acts, scored live by her macabre parlor music. Quite apparent was her fixation with turn of the century conjuring; a desire to entrance an audience with a musical milieu of curiosities. Opulent stage sets hosted magicians, snake oil peddlers, contortionists, sword-swallowers and puppeteers. "Mysteria" was one of the first modern variety events of its kind in the Bay Area, well ahead of any trend or scene at the time. In fact, it was difficult to get club bookers to understand her unique vision. She persisted despite the naysayers... And Mysteria captured rave reviews, packed houses, and an ardent following for the music of Jill Tracy. The plot thickens.
1996 unveiled the self-released live CD Quintessentially Unreal. The daring album (just Jill Tracy and a grand piano) won critical acclaim and achieved national press and airplay, with next to no promotion. Atlanta’s WRAS proclaimed Quintessentially Unreal as one of the best discs the station had ever received, remaining in the Top Five Phones for months on end. In addition to 1997 and 1998 California Music Award nominations, selections from the CD were featured as the soundtrack for an NBC Hard Copy segment on the allure of the green liqueur absinthe. Interviews appeared in the most diverse of publications, from Electronic Musician to Redbook.
With the release of her first studio recording Diabolical Streak, Jill Tracy has taken a refreshingly authentic approach to create her cinematic backing ensemble, aptly named The Malcontent Orchestra. With no electronics or computer trickery, the band features cello, violin, double bass, bassoon, drums and percussion achieving an intensity that is lavishly intoxicating... and a sound quite unlike anything else. Contra Costa Times stated "It’s an evocative sound, all right, and Jill Tracy has pretty much cornered the market on the genre."
Diabolical Streak garnered Jill Tracy with a 1999 SF Weekly Music Award nomination, along with four Bay Area magazine covers, national features and airplay. SF Weekly deemed Diabolical Streak,"an exquisite, even luscious record." Pacific Sun called the CD "a dark delight from start to finish, with a spine-tingling signature sound" and the East Bay Express hailed it "Extraordinary." The album found its way on Top Ten Lists of 1999 including Berkeley’s KALX and Wired Planet, proclaiming Diabolical Streak as "One of the Best Albums of the Year, major or indie." Shift Magazine named Diabolical Streak as one of the "Top Ten Essential Neo-Cabaret Albums of All Time."
With no distribution, tour or label support, Diabolical Streak still impressively sold in the thousands. When Jill Tracy CDs were later made available on Amazon and CD Baby, thousands more orders flooded in from all over the US and abroad: Spain, Greece, UK, Canada, Australia, Russia, Canary Islands, Germany, Portugal, the list goes on. The CD even charted on radio in Siberia! Swedish National Television traveled to San Francisco to interview Jill Tracy concerning her passion for dark history and her singular style. In May 2004, the footage was turned into a televsion special which prompted a flurry of CD orders and fan mail from Norwway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.
Jill Tracy was personally invited to create a one-woman show for the acclaimed UNO Festvial in Victoria, British Columbia. The show had a sell-out run.
The premiere of Jill Tracy and The Malcontent Orchestra’s original score to F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent vampire classic Nosferatu created quite a stir with a sold-out stint of Northern California performances and transfixed audiences. This project has only enhanced Jill Tracy’s reputation of sophistication and musical virtuosity. Critics at the San Francisco Examiner called the work "remarkable...lyrical and lovely." The Marin Independent Journal described it as "unforgettable." The original music for the Nosferatu score prompted the 2002 release of Jill Tracy's first instrumental CD, Into the Land of Phantoms.
In the Erica Jordan feature film In The Wake, Jill Tracy not only provides music, but also lends her distinctive voice as the movie's narrator. In The Wake was chosen by Film Threat, Hollywood’s Independent Voice, as one of the "ten best indie films of 2001."
The song "Evil Night Together" was named International Grand Prize Winner in the SIBL (Songs Inspired By Literature) Competition. Jill Tracy performs the opening track on the SIBL Artists for Literacy benefit CD with the likes of Suzanne Vega, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Aimee Mann, Ray Manzarek, Grace Slick and others.
San Francisco Magazine named Jill Tracy in its September 2002 issue listing the "Top 100 creative forces in the Bay Area." Celebrated by the classic film and literary community, Jill Tracy was invited to perform at both the San Francisco Film Noir Festival (at the historical Castro Theatre) as well as the Hollywood Film Noir Festival (at the legendary Egyptian Theatre) for the past two years.
Her 2003 animated musical short film, The Fine Art of Poisoning (directed by Bill Domonkos (the Residents/Sweeney Todd) has won close to 30 national film festival awards, including being named one of the “Best Short Films of the Year” by the New York City, Colorado and Chicago Film Foundations." Clive Barker stated "The Fine Art of Poisoning is uncanny: with the simplest of means Bill Domonkos and Jill Tracy guide us into a haunted netherworld which is both seductive and terrifying." Domonkos and Jill Tracy are currently at work on several new film projects. The Fine Art of Poisoning continues to screen at film festivals, both in the US and internationally.
Enamored by her distinctive sound and glamorous style, Hollywood veteran Joel Plotch sought out Jill Tracy to appear as herself in his 2004 FOX Searchlight short film Heavy Put Away with Gretchen Mol.. Shot on location at the infamously haunted Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Jill Tracy not only performs as the siren in sultry nightclub scenes, but also recorded the film's original incidental music and title song.
Acclaimed Bay Area theater director/producer and Thrillpeddlers founder Russell Blackwood (also one of the nation's leading authorites on Grand Guignol) became so inspired by Jill Tracy's music and dramatic performances, that he decided to create an entire theatrical event around her, resurrecting the wondrous shock shows of 1920s Paris. Welcome to the Hypnodrome featured Jill Tracy as fearsome and blood-soaked leading lady, as well as her peculiarly haunting live score on an ornate nineteenth-century pedal reed organ. The Hypnodrome was unveiled in 2004, orignally as a pre-Halloween season show, but was so successful, it turned into a four-month sell-out run until Christmas! Blackwood and Jill Tracy are discussing upcoming stage projects.
Showcasing her penchant for the dark side of history, Jill Tracy has also collaborated with author/UC Berkeley professor Mel Gordon (Voluptuous Panic, Hanussen) and Film Noir Foundation founder/crime author Eddie Muller (Dark City Dames, The Art of Noir.) Jill Tracy has performed alongside renowned magicians Jay Alexander, Paul Nathan, and acclaimed mentalist Bob Taxin.
Her compelling cross-over appeal and devoted cult fanbase has enabled her to share the stage with legendary icons such as Nina Hagen, Lydia Lunch and Richard Strange.
As a youngster, Jill Tracy was drawn to classic suspense, film noir, and horror movie scores which she cites today as some of her strongest influences. These passions are evident in her unusual playing style. Virtually self taught, her singular blend of dark, dreamy flourishes, hypnotic grooves and classical-cum-parlour piano conjures up shades of another era, but at the same time, the sound is shockingly new. She successfully combines elegance and intellect with a highly distinctive flair. And with her trademark voice of cut-velvet smoke, Jill Tracy reveals a talent for making rather unsettling subjects seem remarkably alluring.
Like the sailor heeding the Siren's call, the addict enamoured of the opium's smoke, the hopelessly distraught lover self-flung from the cliffs?. You will be lured into the magical musical kingdom of Jill Tracy. You may never want to leave again...
