Hanna Richardson was born in Alexandria, Virginia but spent the first eight years of her life abroad because her father was a foreign service officer. He retired in 1965 to Geneva, New York, unwittingly placing her in the town where she would befriend three future jazz musicians: Phil Flanigan, Michael Hashim, and Chris Flory.
Photo: John Herr
She studied classical piano for 10 years, but her earliest singing experiences consisted of improvising harmony parts with the rest of her family and the early influence of a close friend with whom she sang and whistled everything from Beatles songs to Bach two-part inventions. Hanna credits her mother, an ardent fan of ragtime music, with passing along a passion for syncopation and rhythm. Her earliest actual exposure to jazz was in high school in Geneva, when she would often join Flanigan & Hashim while they explored the depths of the extensive jazz record collection of Phil’s father.
In Germany with Wif, 1976
She first started singing professionally while in college, experimenting with rock (and finding it literally painful to sing), and with folk music. Like so many others, she found Ella Fitzgerald’s singing compelling, and after graduating from college Hanna decided to start singing jazz. She bought and studied recordings of all the female jazz singers she could find. The work of Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Helen Humes, Anita O’Day, Ella Fitzgerald, and others was influential and instructive, but Rosemary Clooney’s albums with Scott Hamilton and the work of Maxine Sullivan convinced her that she was most at home with a straight-ahead, melodic and swinging approach.
While working in academic administration, she has pursued her interest in both folk music and jazz. She taught herself to play the mandolin and performed in a duo with a ragtime-blues guitarist, and also sang frequently with many of the fine jazz musicians associated with the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Since moving to Syracuse in 1986, she has contributed back-up vocals to many recording projects, voice-overs for numerous videos, and has performed steadily in the Syracuse area. In 2000, she reunited and started collaborating with her old friend bassist Phil Flanigan, who has performed with three of Hanna’s main influences, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, and Maxine Sullivan. Hanna and Phil were married in November, 2001 and released their first CD together, Something to Remember You By in September 2001. Their second, Things Are Looking Up, was released in May 2004. They completed a third album together for the Arbors label, Simply…With Spirit! and a live CD recorded while on tour in England, Live at the Fleece.
She has appeared at many Central New York clubs and events and at the Swinging Jazz Party in Blackpool, England, the Wilmington, North Carolina Jazz Party, the Dixieland Monterey (California) Festival, the San Diego Jazz Party, the Jazz corner in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and the country’s largest jazz party, the Arbors Records March of Jazz in Clearwater, Florida. She and Phil Flanigan completed their third UK tour together in June 2006, along with guitarist Chris Flory.
Hanna Richardson Discography
Hanna Richardson with the Phil Flanigan Sextet/Something to Remember You By/LA-LA 5601/2001 (SAMMY winner, best jazz recording)
Allan Vache’s Big Four/Broadcasting/Altissimo/2003
Hanna Richardson & Phil Flanigan/Things Are Looking Up/LA-LA 5602/2004 (SAMMY winner, best jazz recording)
Hanna Richardson & Phil Flanigan/Simply…With Spirit!/Arbors/2004
More Jazz-Live/Under the Palms/Arizona Classic Jazz Society/2005
Hanna Richardson & Phil Flanigan/Live at the Fleece/LA-LA 5603/2006 (SAMMY winner, best jazz recording)
Various/In Your Own Backyard/JazzVox OA2 22077/2010
