Jazz Improv Magazine
Clarinetist and saxophonist Janelle Reichman has performed as a featured soloist all over the world with renowned ensembles such as Doc Severinsen and his Tonight Show Band, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, The DIVA Jazz Orchestra, and many more.
Originally from Ann Arbor, MI, Janelle attended the Manhattan School of Music on full scholarship, quickly after which she embarked upon an exciting and diverse musical career in New York City, where she remained for a decade. Her musical work in NYC ran the gamut from the New Orleans sounds of The Redhook Ramblers to the soulful grooves of the R&B band ON THE SUN to the Broadway jazz musical After Midnight - and everything in between. Janelle's debut solo album Middleground which features ten of her original jazz compositions as well as a stunning arrangement of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell has received rave reviews.
In 2016, Janelle was a featured clarinetist at Jazz at Lincoln Center for Moonglow: The Magic of Benny Goodman, and in early 2018 she was welcomed back to Lincoln Center to perform as a guest clarinet soloist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis for the show Benny Goodman: The King of Swing, alongside other world-class clarinetists Anat Cohen, Ken Peplowski, and Victor Goines.
Janelle first discovered her love of music when she picked up the clarinet in fifth grade. As a teenager, Janelle was a member of bands that opened for Nicholas Payton's ensemble and The Jazz at Lincoln Center Sextet, as well as attended numerous festivals around the country, including the Detroit International Jazz Festival, where Janelle was named Best High School Saxophonist.
Janelle's rich tone, inventive melodic ideas, and stellar musicality landed her a spot in the IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education) Sisters-in-Jazz Quintet, which opened for Nicholas Payton at the 2004 IAJE Conference in New York, and had performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. as part of the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival. Janelle was also accepted into the full-scholarship Henry Mancini Institute for two years running, where she performed with Maria Schneider, Christian McBride, Ray Buretto, Chris Potter, and Vince Mendoza.
Now happily back in her hometown in Michigan since 2016, Janelle can be heard around SE Michigan performing with groups such as the swingin' Phil Ogilvie Rhythm Kings, the high-energy klezmer band Klezmephonic, and her own jazz quintet Janelle Reichman +4 for which she has performed in the area to sold-out audiences.
When she’s not playing her clarinet or saxophone, you'll find Janelle most likely either singing folk songs at her guitar under the name Janelle Haskell or designing websites for other musicians, creatives, and entrepreneurs as part of her business Ellanyze.
Janelle plays a 1961 Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone (that was left in the trunk of an NYC taxi cab and recovered 3 months later) and a Buffet R13 clarinet.
