Kendra Shank

Kendra Shank is an American jazz vocalist.

Shank's mother was an actress and playwright and her father was a playwright^[1] and teacher at the University of California.^[2] When she was five, she appeared onstage with her mother in Threepenny Opera.^[3] In her early teens she started playing guitar.^[4][1]

Shank attended Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Washington, receiving a degree in art and French.^[1] During the 1980s, she performed in clubs in Seattle as a folk singer, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. In 1989 she studied with jazz vocalist Jay Clayton^[1] at Cornish College of the Arts.^[5] She was a busker on the streets and subways of Paris and while in Paris heard her first Billie Holiday album.^[1] Although she had been working as a folk singer in clubs, she bought a method book to learn a few jazz standards.^[1]

In the early 1990s, she went on tour with Bob Dorough.^[1] Shirley Horn saw her perform and became a mentor, introducing at the Village Vanguard in 1992.^[5] Mapleshade released Shank's debut album Afterglow on which she sang and played guitar.^[6] She met Frank Kimbrough through Horn, and he became a member of her quartet which recorded A Spirit Free (Challenge, 2007), a tribute to her mentor and friend Abbey Lincoln.^[3] She has also recorded with Gary Bartz, Peter Leitch, Ben Monder, John Stowell, and Larry Willis.

• Afterglow with Larry Willis, Gary Bartz (Mapleshade, 1994)
• Wish (Jazz Focus, 1998)
• Reflections (Jazz Focus, 2000)
• A Spirit Free: Abbey Lincoln Songbook (Challenge, 2006)
• Mosaic (Challenge, 2009)
• New York Conversations with John Stowell (TCB, 2013)
• Half Moon: Live in New York with Geoffrey Keezer (Ride Symbol, 2016)

• Abbey Lincoln, Over the Years (Verve, 2000)

• Official site