"A throaty peach named Joyce Breach has
been adding a new luster to Manhattan’s after-dark scene.
Her husky voice and superb taste in songs are gracing half a
dozen CDs on the market and although I just got around recently to
catching her unique way with a classy tune in person, she’s
worth waiting for...she is intensely listenable, running through a
first-rate repertoire of songs that sparkle like silver in a world
of dirty old copper.
She has humor and class,
and her material shows a keen knowledge and appreciation of songs
from old movies and shows. She has a thrilling way of handling a
complex lyric line, warm and soft of voice, with a rough texture
around the edges that adds pain to a ballad instead of pattycake.
So many of today’s crop of song stylists are
brain-dead cold fish, far out or dangerously close to hysterics.
Ms. Breach concentrates on intimacy, directness and tenderness.
Joyce Breach is a singer paying her dues and
reaping tertiary rewards: I doubt if there’s much in her
pockets to keep her in groceries for all of her talent. Still,
there’s something valiant about her dedication to quality
that deserves a wider audience. Thank heaven she is around to
breathe some life into an extraordinarily listless year in the
cabaret business.
Rex Reed
The New York Observer
"Joyce Breach pours each song as if the drink order is scotch neat
and hold the ice. She never strays far from the standards and gives them their due without
trying to call attention to the skilled way she's doing it."
Dave Finkel
The Village Voice
"What a pleasure it is to listen to Joyce Breach sing.
Her voice is like a warm honey (mind you, I’ve never tasted
warm honey, but if it isn’t exactly like her voice, it should
be) and with her beautifully fluid technique, words and music pour
forth effortlessly. With no frills no gimmicks, she gets right to
the heart of the matter, and her choice of material shows imagination
and great taste."
BACK STAGE - Roy Sander
The Performing Arts Weekly
"Breach is in top form -- and that means
some of the best singing you’ll hear. As usual, Breach
doesn’t waste a breath on melodrama or on boffo pyrotechnic
displays. Instead, her considerable technique is pressed into the
service of extraordinary subtlety... A fierce intelligence
communicates itself in every gentle dip or step or curve... a
torch singer, not a flame-thrower."
Peter B. King
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(3/6/98 Review of "Nothing But
Blue Skies")
"A New York singer with a warm, vibrant
sound and excellent taste... Like many of the best singers,
she is part cabaret, part jazz."
Robert Cushman
BBC, Toronto
"She has that smart jazz-flavored elegance
that most of us associate only with over-priced bistros in
Manhattan... She is unfailingly drawn to superior material,
the real art of popular song, and she sings it with seemingly
effortless ease and grace."
George Anderson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Joyce definitely belongs in the company of
the best... Highly recommended to those who like their songs
served up with class."
Wendell Echols
JazzBeat, New Orleans>
"Boy, can she sing!"
Mike Rapchak
WGN, Chicago
"... a fresh-voiced charmer with a feel
for fine songs."
R.C. Smith
The Herald-Sun, Charlotte, NC
"Her voice is warm, smoky, and attractive,
her technique is impeccable, her jazz-influenced interpretations
are clean and direct, and her tast
Roy Sander
Back Stage
"For those of us who approach the world with
a raised eyebrow, Joyce Breach is a gift from the gods. In her
caramel-colored voice are echoes of our own bemused regret and
detached longing."
Ted Hoover
In Pittsburgh
"Joyce Breach walked on stage for her opening night at
Danny’s, looked at the assembled throng and commented, "this
is a killer audience", as she started her new show The
Best of Everything. With her rich voice and selection of songs
from motion pictures, she charmed both the cabaret goers and the
cabaret pros in her audience. Her voice and her subdued style is
made to order for the melodic numbers of the great films of the
‘forties. As good as Joyce is, it was no mistake for her to take
on The Boy Next Door. Equally well done was Jimmy Van Heusen
and Sammy Cahn’s The Tender Trap. Much of the Show was
focused on the prolific but largely uncelebrated composer, Harry
Warren. Joyce included Warren’s Academy Award winning You’ll
Never Know. Her low tones offering a sultry rendition.
If seeing Joyce leaves one wanting more, one can always emulate
this reviewer, who headed home and sat down to work accompanied by
the rhythmic arrangements and melodic numbers on her recent CD,
Nothing But Blue Skies. From the opening Blue Skies,
through the finale, Joyce Breach and her five-piece Hal Smith Band
musicians provide a low-key delight, minus any intrusive vocal
gyrations, perfect for listening in the wee hours."
Peter Leavy - Performance Reviews
CABARET SCENES
"A throaty peach named Joyce Breach has
been adding a new luster to Manhattan’s after-dark scene.
Her husky voice and superb taste in songs are gracing half a
dozen CDs on the market and although I just got around recently to
catching her unique way with a classy tune in person, she’s
worth waiting for...she is intensely listenable, running through a
first-rate repertoire of songs that sparkle like silver in a world
of dirty old copper.