Jo Ann Daugherty, keyboard

Pianist, conductor, musical director, recording artist, composer and arranger Jo Ann Daugherty loves making all kinds of music. Her most recent jazz trio album Bring Joy earned a 4-star review from Downbeat Magazine (January 2017) and was listed as one of their “Best Albums of 2017.”

Christy Bennett, vocalist

Vocalist Christy Bennett began performing straight-ahead jazz in 2006. Classically trained, with a degree in Vocal Performance from DePaul University, she had also been drawn to jazz through elective classes and combos.  In 2010, Bennett reconnected with a high school friend who introduced her to the 1930’s and 40’s music of Django Reinhardt and The Hot Club of France and ignited her love of gypsy jazz.  Another high school friend, in 2012, asked Bennett to sing two songs at her wedding with an instrumental gypsy jazz duo, that immediately inspired Bennett to form her own gypsy jazz band—Fumée—based on this European style.