Reviews for:
Anywhere with You
(Album + CD Release Concert)
Music Connection Magazine
June 2023, Vol. 47, Page 47
Reviewed by Jonathan Widran
With a fascinating history of triumph over emotional and physical struggles, the soulful and charming jazz vocalist Gina Zollman builds on years of performances in L.A. with her vibrant debut Anywhere With You. Though she’s mostly singing both well-known and delightfully semi-obscure works of masters (The Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart, Hoagy Carmichael), Gina—backed by an ensemble of top sidemen—draws on her surreal life experiences and hard-won wisdom to weave an intimate personal story that reveals her to be a romantic and optimist at heart.
Anywhere With You, LA Jazz Scene
May 5, 2023
Reviewed by Scott Yanow
A fine vocalist with an appealing voice, Gina Zollman’s singing style falls between 1950s-type jazz and cabaret. A song stylist who has plenty of experience in the theatre, she brings out the warmth of the lyrics that she interprets throughout her debut recording, Anywhere With You.
The singer is joined by either Steven Applegate (her musical director) or Steve Rawlins on piano, bassist Jennifer Leitham, and drummer Dave Tull on the majority of the selections. “You Don’t Know Me” has her joined by three horns while “I Get Along Without You Very Well” (which shows off the beauty of her voice) is a duet with guitarist Terry Wollman. Cellist Merek Szpakiewicz is an asset in the background on three numbers.
Gina Zollman begins the set with her original “An Hour Or So In The Dark” and otherwise mostly performs standards including a heartfelt version of “Someone To Watch Over Me,” “Small Day Tomorrow,” “How Are Things In Glocca Morra” (a duet with Applegate), and “Mountain Greenery.” The singer, who includes the pop song “I’ll Never Find Another You,” generally sticks to the lyrics and the melody of each tune, uplifting the music with her appealing phrasing and her attractive voice.
While I would like to hear her stretch herself more in the future with some improvising, Anywhere With You is a charming set that serves as an excellent introduction to the accessible and personal singing of Gina Zollman.
Anywhere with You - Cabaret Scenes.org
March 28, 2023
Reviewed by Clifford Bell
One of my favorite things about the nightclub stage is that it provides an environment for reinvention, for retrospection, and for rebirth. Gina Zollman took full advantage of the stage at Catalina Jazz Club, Los Angeles’ premiere listening room, to launch her debut CD, Anywhere with You. Putting her best foot forward, Zollman surrounded herself with the cream of the crop of the West Coast’s most acclaimed musicians: Bill Cantos (piano), Jennifer Leitham (bass), Dave Tull (drums), Marek Szpakiewicz (cello), and sharing piano duties, Steven Applegate.
To begin the evening, Zollman quipped that the show was a combination of the themes, “Lost Love” and “What I Weighed,” offhandedly adding “two shows for the prices of one.” For better or worse, she was absolutely true to her word. On one hand, the evening offered a beautifully realized set of adult contemporary music and the Great American Songbook, artfully arranged by either Steve Rawlins or Steven Applegate. Zollman’s warm, conversational alto was perfectly presented in an exceptionally classy production. Her sincere and heartfelt delivery particularly shined on several haunting ballads, including “I’ll Never Find Another You,” “Small Day Tomorrow,” and the title track of her new CD. Less successful were the anecdotes related to weight gain and/or weight loss from her childhood to the present. I mentioned the power of the nightclub stage to reinvent because I’m aware of Zollman’s long presence in the Los Angeles music community.
Before her long-awaited debut CD appeared, she was primarily known for her cabaret performances and her one-woman shows which featured more comedy and self-deprecating humor. As a veteran performer, she is skilled and intelligent. However, I felt that this particular phase of her evolution amounted to an awkward combination of sophisticated song stylist, which she is, and jokey, distracting, storyteller. I think there’s an audience for either of these, but the two genres sat very uncomfortably next to each other. All in all, Gina Zollman offered us a first-class production, with amazing musicians and gorgeous arrangements. It also featured an excellent guest performer, Tod Macofsky, who is a handsome, genial charmer and who had the audience swooning with his two solo numbers: “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”
Anywhere With You, NoHo Arts District
March 30, 2023
Reviewed by: Samantha Simmonds-Ronceros
Another first for me! The Catalina Jazz Club. What a lovely venue!
Gina Zollman’s debut album “Anywhere With You” has been a long time coming. A seasoned cabaret performer, this album is a deeply personal exploration of her journey so far. Filled with iconic songs that mark pivotal moments in her life as well as some of her own songs, with stories drawn from experiences painful, funny, and full of love.
Gina is a wonderful performer. She has that rare ability to charm her audience while remaining modest, human and authentic. A great singer who relies on nothing but her strong, soulful voice. No tricks, no flash, all truth. She is a storyteller, whether singing a classic song, recounting an anecdote, or telling one of her many self-effacing jokes.
She’s the real thing. A wonderful entertainer and a woman who knows herself and the long journey to where she is now. I loved the show. The Catalina Jazz Club is the perfect venue for Gina and her band -full of brilliant musicians playing their hearts out.
During the evening Gina shared many stories of her life and what drew her to music and performing. Some of the songs she wrote were from a solo show she performed a few years ago and, I have to tell you, they were absolutely hilarious. She’s a wonderful comedian.
We were also treated to the dulcet tones of Gina’s guest vocalist Tod Macofsky, who was absolutely fabulous, and also a great entertainer. Tod accompanied Gina on a couple of songs and their duets worked perfectly. They make a great team actually!
Gina Zollman’s “Anywhere With You” album is available through her website, where you can also learn more about the artist herself and see if she is performing anywhere soon. I would highly recommend any evening spent in her company as a performing artist. Bravo and congratulations on your debut album, Gina Zollman! Sometimes the best things in life are worth the wait…
The Band:
Steven Applegate, Piano/Music Director. Bill Cantos, Piano. Jennifer Leitham, Bass. Dave Tull, Drums. Marek Szpakiewicz, Cello.
The new CD, “GINA ZOLLMAN: Anywhere With You” features Gina Zollman on Vocals; Steve Rawlins on Piano; Steven Applegate on Piano; Jennifer Leitham on Bass; Dave Tull on Drums; Terry Wollman on Guitar; Merek Szpakiewicz on Cello; Wayne Bergeron on Trumpets; Ira Nepus on Trombone and Tom Peterson on Tenor Saxophone.
The album was produced by Steven Applegate. The album was recorded at Capitol Records engineered by Nick Rives; at East/West Studios engineered by Jeremy Miller and at Clear Lake Recording Studios engineered by Ara Sarkisian.
Anywhere with You, Cabaret Scenes
March 9, 2023
Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach
Gina Zollman has harvested songs she has sung her whole life, and she shares the emotions she attaches to those songs in her debut CD called Anywhere with You, which she describes as “a passion project.”Zollman has a crisp, clean vocal quality that eschews histrionics and gets to the heart of each song in a pure, unfettered style, with stellar accompaniment from a variety of musicians in a variety of combinations. Three of the album’s 12 tracks feature stupendous cello backing from Merek Szpakiewicz, who adds a mellow, sensuous tonality to Zollman’s plaintive take on “Someone to Watch Over Me” (George and Ira Gershwin); to her sense of wonderment on “My Romance” (Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart), which also features Steven Applegate, the CD’s producer, on piano; and her delicately romantic vocal on the title track, “Anywhere with You” (Christopher Denny).
She hits her peak on two songs in the middle of the CD, both accompanied by Steve Rawlins on piano: a nicely shaded performance of Hoagy Carmichael’s “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes),” which has impressive guitar backing from Terry Wollman, and a sweet, sincere take on Tom Springfield’s “I’ll Never Find Another You,” with Dave Tull joining on drums.
The album also features a powerful, uplifting big-band sound on “You Don’t Know Me” (Eddy Arnold/Cindy Walker), the only track featuring horns, that has Wayne Bergeron on trumpet, Ira Nepus on trombone, and Tom Peterson on tenor sax, all backing Zollman’s soft, steady vocal.
The CD offers only brief instrumental solos over its 40 minutes of mostly basic cabaret-style singing, although Zollman adopts a slightly more jazz-focused interpretation on a bouncy version of “Mountain Greenery” (Rodgers & Hart), in which she handles the clever wordplay and inner rhymes of the lyrics quite effectively. She’s ably abetted by Rawlins on piano, Jennifer Leitham on bass, and Tull on drums. The same trio backs Zollman’s somewhat shaky vocal on “Small Day Tomorrow” (Bob Dorough/Fran Landesman).
The disc opens with a song for which Zollman wrote lyrics, “An Hour or So in the Dark” (music by Wayland Pickard), a brisk, upbeat number about the likelihood of successful seduction “(if) you and I could spend an hour or so in the dark.” Zollman was particularly effective handling the melodically complex “Don’t Miss You at All” (Duke Ellington/Norah Jones). She also offered a tender vocal on “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” (Burton Lane/Yip Harburg) and a touching reading of “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (Manning Sherwin/Eric Maschwitz), both of which feature impressive solo piano backing by Applegate.
From Corporate Executive to Singer in Later Life, Baby Boomster.com
April 14, 2023
Reviewed by Rebecca Forstadt-Olkowski
Did you ever wish you could have pursued a career in an artistic field but the responsibilities of real life made it difficult? Gina Zollman is a Baby Boomer who was Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Flame Gard, an innovative restaurant kitchen filter company. It revolutionized kitchen safety and was integral in setting innovations in that industry.
Singing has been a part of her life since she was in the 4th grade when she performed for a full house at a school PTA event. That experience sparked her enthusiasm for music and she sang in choirs and appeared in stage shows from then on and through college.
She graduated from the University of California in San Diego with a B.A. in linguistics and a minor in music appearing in The Messiah, Carmina Burana, The Magic Flute, and Riders to the Sea. She was also featured in Guys and Dolls at ACT San Francisco directed by Sabin Epstein.
Zollman studied voice with John Large at UCSD, and opera in Gottingen, Germany with Simone Rist at the Deutsche Teater.
After she graduated from college, she landed a high-profile job as a stockbroker on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody & Co. She became a retail registered representative with over 400 clients before moving back to Los Angeles to work for her family’s restaurant equipment consortium.
Performing as a singer was still a passion of hers and she eventually quit her job to pursue it as a career.
Her business and marketing backgrounds helped her immensely and after taking a UCLA Extension class called How to Put on Your Own Cabaret Act, she was able to sell out her one-woman show at Gardenia Restaurant and Lounge in Hollywood.
She has performed at sell-out houses in venues such as The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Cinegrill, The M Bar where she produced a benefit performance for gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, Miceli’s, The Magic Castle, The Comedy Store, The Improv, The Rose Tattoo, and The Catalina Jazz Club.
She originated roles at The NoHo London Music Hall as Aunt Greta in Heidi the Musical and as Susie in the country western musical Lake Balboa.
Zollman studied acting at The Actor’s Center and took private coaching from Second City alumna Sandy Holt. Television appearances include The New Gong Show where she earned her membership in SAG-AFTRA. She also studied vocal technique with Broadway stars Marilyn Child and Udana Power and won runner-up in the KABC Radio vocal competition for Crazy for You singing Someone to Watch Over Me.
Her CD Album Gina Zollman: Anywhere with You was produced by Steven Applegate and recorded at Capitol Records in Hollywood. It is a compilation of standards that include Someone to Watch Over Me, An Hour or So in the Dark, How are Things in Glocca Morra? and other oldies but goldies.
Gina Zollman is a wonderful example of how it is never too late to live your dream.
Reviews for Single “Where I Begin”
Song Review: Gina Zollman “Where I Begin”
July 22, 2024
Review by Megan Moore
Newly label signed recording artist Gina Zollman has just released her first single “Where I Begin” on the boutique New York record label “Tribeca Records” (A SohoJohnny Enterprise) on July 19, 2024. The song speaks of a lost love and beginning all over even though time might be running away with your dreams, yet it’s also a song of empowerment, and self-reflection…..although the pain of losing someone is unbearable, we must find a way to survive.
The song was written by Gina Zollman herself and co-written by Kevin Fisher, who has written for Rascal Flatts, and Uncle Kracker as well as the HBO series True Blood. Gina is an entertainer and live performer on the West Coast. She discovered her love of singing at age six and after a college education and a stint in the job world as a stockbroker, she returned to her dream of singing and writing songs.
Gina also auditioned for “In Living Color” and landed a co-starring role on “The New Gong Show.” Her live performances are sold out as she raises the roof with her singing and comedy.
“Where I Begin” is a musical diamond with lyrics that chant out emotions and heartfelt pain. While the past never gets lost we leave it behind when the future calls. This song vows to find a future in a world that has become sad and lonely….something most of us have experienced at one time or another. “Where I Begin” is available worldwide on all digital platforms.
5/5 Stars
Ballyhoo Magazine
Single Review: Gina Zollman “Where I Begin”
July 11, 2024 Review by Nolan Bellamy
“Where I Begin” is a hauntingly beautiful song of reflection by the talented live entertainer Gina Zollman and co-written by Kevin Fisher. The song is set to release July 19, 2024 via Tribeca Records (a SohoJohnny enterprise) and will be available on all digital platforms worldwide.
Gina is a Palm Springs based singer/songwriter/entertainer who has been spreading her joy throughout the West Coast. Singing since age 6, Gina graduated from UCSD Revelle College and then became a high-profile stockbroker. She soon became Vice President and COO of Flame Gard, an innovative restaurant kitchen filter company that revolutionized kitchen safety. Then she left it all to follow her heart and her dream as the allure of showbiz called to her. Music became her destiny. Since then, her career has successfully taken off and her live shows touch people beyond the obvious.
“Where I Begin” is her debut single with Tribeca Records and is beautifully written and performed. The song seeks to connect and to communicate the truth of being human. Her music fills the air like waves filling holes in the sand on the beach. Her sensitivity has a strength and the music is fluent with emotion.
It’s hard to put yourself out there and be vulnerable. However, the people that can do that are the dreamers, the creators and the thinkers. They are the magic in this world and Gina Zollman is one such person….
“Where I Begin” will be available July 19th, 2024.
Sing it like Zollman: Anywhere With You, The Hollywood Times
April 25, 2023
Review By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 4/25/23 – “They are the harvest of my singing life” singer/songwriter Gina Zollman powerfully declared about the songs in her latest project Anywhere with You released March 2023. The album takes you through ballad-heavy stories of love, loss, and adventure through the full and bright vocals of Zollman.
The 12-track album begins with An Hour or So in the Dark, immediately immersing the listener in the shared human experience of the moments when life becomes dauntingly encompassing and needs to find some semblance of quiet stillness. The renditions in the album like Someone to Watch Over Me, My Romance, I Get Along Without You Very Well, How Are Things in Glocca Morra? A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square, and You Don’t Me, catapult fans into that old American feel; escorted of course through the soft yet powerful vocals of the talented Gina Zollman.
The songstress continues throughout the album, exquisitely guiding listeners through tales of sadness and loss accompanied by dazzling vibrato and enchanting tone with her remake of classics such as I’ll Never Find Another You and Don’t Miss You At All. The smooth jazz sounds mixed with Broadway-style singing make this album appropriate for any occasion.
ELF WILL PUT YOU IN A HOLIDAY MOOD
Coachella Valley Theatre World
December 4, 2023
Review By Laura Bloom Farber
Palm Canyon Theater’s production of Elf, a feel-good Christmas musical, will put you in a holiday mood. It tells the story of Buddy Hobbs, a young orphan child, who mistakenly crawls into Santa Claus’ bag of gifts and is transported back to the North Pole. After discovering the baby, Santa and his elves decide to raise the child as an elf. Years later, at age thirty, Buddy learns that he is not an elf, but actually a human being and, prompted by Santa, heads off to New York in search of his father.
Scott Clinkscales gives a spectacular performance embodying Buddy’s innocence with an excellent voice, great spirit, and good moves. David Brooks portrays Santa Claus with quirky charm. Eric Stein-Steele, as Walter Hobbs, Buddy’s father, grows from a jaded businessman to a loving parent. Completing the cast are Georgia Smith as Buddy’s stepmother, Desmond Seiders as Buddy’s half-brother, Jessica Lenz as the girl with whom Buddy falls in love, Keith Alexander as the manager of Macy’s, Tim Steele as Mr. Greenway (Walter’s boss), Michelle Davis as a co-worker in Walter’s office, and an ensemble consisting of Darrin Dikes, London Dikes, Fuz Edwards, Jackson Enzler, Danny Hargreaves, Reagan Kaminsky, Bogdona Koltsovva, Radmira Koltsova, S.J. Layne, Glenn Liggett, Darin MacLoed, Leilah Mendivil, Jackie Padgett, Janet Murphy Patterson, Finneus Stein-Steele, Lisa Walters, Sanai Wright, and Gina Zollman. All give fine performances. Special kudos to Lisa Walters who splendidly filled in for an ailing cast member as television reporter Charlotte Dennon.
Alison Logan’s wonderful choreography captures the spirit of the play. The three-piece band, composed of Musical Director Jaci Davis on keyboard, Larry Holloway on bass, and Allen Carter on drums, provide the lively accompaniment. The costumes, sets, props, and projections all contribute to the beautiful, finely detailed visuals.
For a happy holiday time, come see Elf.
The rest of the performances are on Sunday, December 3, Thursday December 7, Friday, December 8, Saturday, December 9, Sunday, December 10, Thursday, December 14, Friday, December 15, Saturday, December 16 and Sunday, December 17. All Thursday performances start at 7:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday performances at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday performances at 2:00 p.m. October 13th and 14th at 8 p.m., and Sunday, October 15th at 2:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $38 for most adults, $34 for seniors, and $17 for students and children). For tickets, call 760-323-5123 or visit here: https://palmcanyontheatre.net/show-tickets-1
The theater is located at 538 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262, between N. Palm Canyon Drive and Indian Canyon Drive, on the north side of E. Alejo Road.