Sally Terrell

Sally Terrell’s professional singing career may be a “second act” following thirty years as an English professor, but music has always been her first passion. A native of Youngstown, New York, she began playing piano and singing at age six, poking out melodies alongside her father, a classically trained pianist and jazz aficionado who passed along his love for music while discovering his youngest daughter could play and sing by ear. Terrell’s interest and skill flourished in her public school music program, but she would put her musical ambitions aside while building a successful college teaching career in Connecticut. Terrell began singing professionally when she and her husband formed the Green Jazz Band in 2010.

Her first solo album, Just in Time (2019), features fresh takes on jazz standards and an original song, Blue Piano, written in tribute to her father. In March of 2020, a week after the pandemic lockdown began, she started writing songs at the piano as a way to cope with the dizzying events of that tumultuous spring while thinking about their profound impact on the musicians she’s worked with. She contacted her musical director and arranger, John di Martino, that very same week and told him she wanted to record a new album, despite having only a few unfinished originals and jazz standards in mind. While she didn’t know how the recording would take shape, she knew she needed to make music to somehow speak into the void, to affirm life when death seemed to be all around, when asking what it meant to “feel alive” became a fresh, necessary question for all of us. Her second release, Feel Alive (2022), “artfully captures the zeitgeist of the pandemic era with a collection of emotional, socially conscious originals and fresh interpretations of standards that uniquely fit our cultural moment.” Both projects highlight a fruitful collaboration with producer and renowned jazz pianist John diMartino, who says of her work, “Sally brings a beautiful energy to these songs, breathing new life into them.” Terrell’s intuitive interpretations and razor-sharp ear showcase a velvety alto and a gift for sharing the timeless stories of jazz while boldly exploring her range across musical genres.