Terrie Richards Alden

Sacramento-born vocalist Terrie Richards Alden started her performing career when she was just 15 years old, backed by her jazz pianist father. She started with Dixieland and gradually moved to mainstream material. In 1982, Alden moved to Orlando, FL, where she worked with Harry Allen at Disneyland. One result of that collaboration was a 1982 recording with Allen, Feeling Groovy, for the Disney label. In 1986, she signed a contract with the Village Lounge, the Disneyland jazz nightclub. Over the years, she sang there with Wild Bill Davison, Don Scaletta, Milt Hinton, and others. In the early '90s, Alden moved to New York after marrying jazz guitar great Howard Alden. In the Big Apple, she's worked with such jazz notables as Dick Hyman, Peanuts Hucko, Ken Peplowski, Randy Sandke, and Jake Hanna. In addition to the Disney recording, Terrie has appeared with tenor man Rex Allens in 1994 on his Swing Express album for Nagel-Heyer and on his I Cried for You for the Mastermix label. For Nagel-Heyer, she was on drummer Butch Miles' 1995 release, Cookin'. In May of 1998, Nagel-Heyer released Alden's first solo album, Voice With a Heart, sharing billing with the Warren Vache Quartet, which included her husband. The album collects 13 mostly upbeat standards that set off her Mildred Bailey-like voice. There are also hints of Ella Fitzgerald and Blossom Dearie in her renditions of these songs. She continues to perform here and in Europe with her husband at clubs and at jazz festivals in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Edinburgh, and at the JVC Festival.