artist info

Get ready to be captivated by the combined brilliance and vocal artistry of two vocal powerhouses, Janis Siegel and Cheryl Bentyne, in an unforgettable night of musical mastery – Broad Appeal.

Longtime partners from The Manhattan Transfer, Broad Appealhighlights the extraordinary talents of these 10x GRAMMY winning artists, each revered for their distinctive voices and groundbreaking contributions to jazz, pop, swing, vocalese, and harmony music.

Together, Siegel and Bentyne weave a mesmerizing tapestry of sound, seamlessly blending their voices in duets, solos, and improvisations. The show features a diverse repertoire, including jazz standards, pop classics, and original compositions. “Broad Appeal" is a celebration of the female voice and the magic that happens when two extraordinary women unite. You may even hear some of those ground-breaking songs and elements that became a hallmark of The Manhattan Transfer – vocalese, harmony, and more!

Over the past five decades, the voice of Janis Siegel, a ten-time Grammy winner and eighteen-time Grammy nominee, has been an undeniable force in The Manhattan Transfer’s diverse musical catalog. Alongside her career as a founding member of this musical institution, Siegel has also sustained a solo career that has spawned almost a dozen finely crafted solo albums and numerous collaborative projects, amassed a large international fan base and garnered consistently high critical praise.

Cheryl Bentyne is a jazz singer who spent much of her career with The Manhattan Transfer.

Bentyne started singing at age 13 with her father’s Dixieland and swing band. Following graduation from Mount Vernon High School, she enrolled at Skagit Valley College and studied music and theater. She moved to Seattle in the mid 1970s and sang with John Holte’s New Deal Rhythm Band. The NDRB trombonist Gary McKaig gave her an album by the Manhattan Transfer. After four years in Seattle, she moved to Los Angeles.

The Manhattan Transfer

In 1979, Bentyne stunned the group with her virtuosity and versatility and became the permanent replacement for singer Laurel Massé, who left the group after being injured in an automobile accident. Her first appearance was on the album Extensions (1979), which won the group its first Grammy Award, Best Jazz Fusion Performance for a vocalese version of the song “Birdland” by Weather Report, and catapulted the group to superstardom.

She won ten Grammy Awards with the Manhattan Transfer, including awards for her arrangement of "Another Night in Tunisia" with Bobby McFerrin and for writing the song "Sassy" for the album The Offbeat of Avenues.