Jill Tracy

Jill Tracy is a singer, pianist, composer, and performance artist based in San Francisco. She has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a femme fatale for the thinking man.” NPR "All Things Considered" has called her “utterly intriguing, transporting you into a magical world solely of her creation.” "My goal is to open the trapdoors, transport the listener into that magical place inside my head," Tracy said in an NPR interview with Susan Stamberg. "I call it the Kingdom of the Mind's Eye." Jill Tracy states that some of her biggest childhood influences were film score composers such as Bernard Herrmann, and classic suspense tales, including Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang films, Ray Bradbury stories, and Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. She is listed in San Francisco Magazine’s Top 100 Creative Forces in the Bay Area. 1999's Diabolical Streak is the first studio album featuring her back up ensemble The Malcontent Orchestra. “Evil Night Together” from Diabolical Streak was awarded the SIBL international Grand Prize for songwriting. The album was listed among the "Top 10 Neo-Cabaret albums of all time" in Shift magazine. “The Fine Art of Poisoning,” from Diabolical Streak became an animated short film in 2003, a collaboration with Bay Area animator Bill Domonkos. The film has won over 30 film festival awards and continues to screen internationally. Jill Tracy and The Malcontent Orchestra’s original score to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent vampire classic Nosferatu debuted live at San Francisco’s Foreign Cinema in 1999 and toured Northern California theatres during Halloween season for five consecutive years. This led to the 2002 CD release Into the Land of Phantoms. Her latest (and fourth) album, The Bittersweet Constrain (2008), explores a heavier, cinematic sonic edge with the addition of instruments such as the sarod, harmonium, and seldom-seen Chapman Stick. The recording also features percussionist Randy Odell, horn player Ralph Carney (Tom Waits/B52's), cellist Erica Mulkey (Rasputina/Unwoman), and violinist Tony Cross (Tarentel). Produced by Alex Nahas (John Vanderslice/Zoe Keating/LaughingStock), The Bittersweet Constrain has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "devastatingly beautiful." Domonkos served as art director/graphic designer for The Bittersweet Constrain. The CD packaging features Jill Tracy portraiture by Bay Area surrealist photographer Michael Garlington, known for his dreamy macabre imagery shot on vintage film stock. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.