Sydney Ellis biography

Sydney Ellis was Born in Red Jacket, West Virginia in 1947. Ellis grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where she married and had five children. She is now married for the second time (20 years and counting) and has four granddaughters and two grandsons.  Ellis currently lives in a very small village in central Germany where she maintains an office and enjoys the quietness and privacy between road trips and tours. Sydney Ellis began her singing career in the Los Angeles area when, on the day after her 44th birthday, in 1991, she got her nerve up and climbed up onto a session stage. The dream comes true. Since then, her singing has blossomed into an obsession for what Sydney Ellis calls, her “Cultural Heritage”, or “African-American Folk Music”. The rest of the world calls it “Blues, Classic Jazz, Gospel, Spirituals, New Orleans Jazz & Blues, R & B, Chicago Blues, & Kansas City Blues”. This obsession has taken her in 3 short years from the Los Angeles area to Europe. Since 1995,  Ellis has performed over 1,000 concerts in 23 countries. Scheduled venues for 2006 include: Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and for the first time Sydney is scheduled to go to the African continent at the Jazz In Carthage, Jazz festival in Tunisia. Past years have also given Sydney Ellis the opportunity to perform in Finland, Croatia, Slovakia, The Ukraine, Norway, Lithuania, Poland, The Czech Republic, Sweden, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Ireland. The other exciting news: In 2005 Sydney formed two new all African-American bands. The first is called Sydney Ellis and her Midnight Preachers, the second is called The Sydney Ellis Gospel Quartet. Lastly, a new CD is in the works and is planned for release in January 2007.