Gifted, beloved Minnesota singer Yolande Bruce won fans all over the globe March 9, 2021 5:06am Text size Copy shortlink:
After a performance at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, Yolande Bruce was sitting in on an after-show jam session when Roy Hargrove, the American trumpet virtuoso who then was still on the rise, came up to her. You sing like an instrument, he told her. And that s right, because Yolande delivered with accuracy and agility especially when she was scatting and she had great relative pitch, said bandleader Sanford Moore, who witnessed the exchange. As an artist, she was a musician s singer with improvisation that was spot-on. And as a friend, she had a heart of gold.