Andrea Wright was born in Lansing, Michigan. She grew up listening to her parents’ extensive LP collection including Detroit’s greatest jazz, blues and soul artists. At age 15, she was accepted to Interlochen Arts Academy for classical piano, after which she attended Oberlin and the University of Chicago.

Wright migrated to New York City to pursue a performance career. In 2003, she met Jon Hendricks’ protégé, jazz/bebop vocalist Marion Cowings at his New York Smalls Jazz Vocal Workshop. There she found her own identity and style through improvisation and has built a considerable jazz standard repertoire.

In 2009 she released her first studio jazz album September in the Rain with musicians Harry Whitaker, Saul Rubin, Noriko Ueda, Quincy Davis and Warren Vaché. Wright has performed at New York City Jazz spots such as Birdland, Carlyle Hotel’s Bemelman’s Bar, Fat Cat, Friar’s Club, Smalls Jazz Club, and Symphony Space. She has toured internationally in Japan, France, Canada, and on a State Department tour in Cyprus. Mentored by Mercedes Ellington and Phoebe Jacobs, Wright continues to work closely with The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts (DECFA) to promote American jazz education and history.

As a singer/songwriter she debuted an EP entitled Riverside (2014) and went on to released Buoy Lights (2015), a live studio album. During the pandemic, Wright wrote and recorded Bruno (2021) in her apartment, playing the piano and guitar with her own background vocals. It is a deeply personal album about her difficulties of having a child of her own.

Wright resides on the Upper West Side in New York with her fiancé Kyle and their beloved chihuahua Machito aka “Chichi.”

BRUNO

The album is called Bruno.

It’s an intimate reflection of 5 years of my life.

I made it in my apartment in New York City with just me playing guitar and piano and singing all the vocals.

I know some people will see the images, think I’m pregnant, and congratulate me. That’s ok because it’s starts a conversation about pregnancy loss and terminating wanted pregnancies.

I have been pregnant three times. I terminated the first of those pregnancies at 6 months, almost the last legal week to do so in New York State. My pregnancies were wanted. However, as my first pregnancy progressed my medical team began to discover serious concerns with viability and I had to make the hardest choice I’ve ever had to make. A little more than a year later, I became pregnant again and was thrilled for a second chance, but that pregnancy also ended early.

For five years, there has been a fantasy constantly running in my mind about the way things would look if what happened didn’t happen. Looking back there’s a nostalgia, sadness and longing.

In 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, I found out I was again pregnant. My partner and I were ecstatic. This time, I was filled with optimism and a belief that my previous losses were not for nothing. However, the same life threatening issues were discovered and again at 6 months, I had to make the decision to terminate.

I am childless but I do have this album to share with you.

Andrea

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