Everything Is Rosie tells the story of Rosemary Clooney’s rise to the top of the Billboard charts in the 1950s, her success in Hollywood in films like White Christmas, followed by her mental breakdown, and finally her triumphant return to the top of the jazz charts in the 1980s and 1990s. It is a compelling story of heartbreak, tragedy, perseverance and triumph. As Wendy Jones takes the audience on a riveting trip through Rosemary’s life, she interweaves some of Rosemary’s most beloved hits such as “Come On-A My House”, “Half as Much,” “Hey There” and “Tenderly,” as well as songs from her movie musicals and jazz standards by composers such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Harold Arlen.
Jones is renowned as a featured singer of the Asheville Jazz Orchestra and an audience favorite. She is a professional vocalist, arranger, songwriter, producer and commercial voice specialist. She has appeared on stages from New York to Tokyo and has performed with artists such as NEA Jazz Master Jamey Aebersold, The New York Voices, legendary jazz guitarist Howard Alden, jazz violinist Christian Howes, the Page Brothers and Crystal Gale, and she has sung backup for the alternative hip hop group Deltron 3030 and for Las Vegas Elvis Impersonator, Donnie Edwards. She has appeared at Club Bonafide in NYC, the Jazz Arts Initiative, the Mountain Oasis Music Festival, the Spartanburg Jazz Festival, Our World Festival and the Django Reinhardt Festival in Asheville.
In addition to singing with her own jazz quartet, she is the featured vocalist with the Asheville Jazz Orchestra, the Ole ’74 big Band, the Russ Wilson Orchestra, the Michael Jefry Stevens Trio, the Richard Shulman Group and is often a guest vocalist with the Greenville Jazz Collective big band.
She has recorded her own projects as well as with Darmon Meader of the New York Voices, the Richard Shulman Group, Michael Jefry Stevens and Steve Watson.
Jones has served on the executive boards for the North Carolina Chapter and the Mid-Atlantic Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and as a mentor teacher as part of the NATS Mentored Teaching program. She is a member of ASCAP, a voting member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMY’S), Actors’ Equity Association and the Jazz Education Network.
Jones received a B.M. and an M.M. in vocal performance from Appalachian State University and then joined the voice faculty there where she taught for 8 years before embarking on a full-time, professional singing/acting career. Having sung with Opera Carolina, Appalachian Opera Theatre and the Brevard Music Center Opera, her favorite roles include Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. An accomplished Equity actor as well as singer, Jones has appeared in leading roles on stage at many professional theatres throughout the U.S. including Florida Repertory Theatre, Flat Rock Playhouse, Little Theatre on the Square, Temple Theatre and Blowing Rock Stage Company in roles such as Miss Sandra in All Shook Up, Brenda in Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Luisa in The Fantasticks, Fiona in Brigadoon and Eliza in My Fair Lady.
Jones has also appeared as a soloist with the The Symphony of the Mountains, the Western Piedmont Symphony, the Asheville Choral Society and the Carolina Concert Choir in works such as Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, John Corgliano’s Fern Hill, Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor.
