Britta Wolfert Part 1 (Episode 28)

Born in harbour town Hamburg Germany,  raised in a small post
WW ll household surrounded by parents, uncle, aunt and grandmother, sharing a room with her sister. Singing blossoms sooner than talking. 

Nobody shares an irresistable passion for music. Times are subdued.. the dark Cold War cloud hangs above the country. Nobody talks about the war they suffered through, or the war potentially looming.
"Children are to be seen, not heard".
Secretly she listens to short wave radio late at night in bed.

Sundays mornings, listening to jazz and swing escaping from the small kitchen radio speaker. Ella, Peggy Lee, Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, Sergio Mendes, Stan Getz, Django Reinhardt, dreams and aspirations.

Independent self teaches guitar, age 16 plays and sings in clubs, coffee houses in and around Hamburg.  Hangs out in cellar clubs with friends, listens to Dixieland and Jazz varieties till the wee hours of morning.

Moves to Canada in 1983, performs for a living,  helps form all female band 'Champagne Breakfast' with Sue Roy, Mo Hall, Sue Martinelli,  Julie McCarthy.  Northern Lights Festival Boreal Sudbury show. Back again later with recording band 'Wailing Aztecs'.  

2010 collaboration performances. Britta met professional blues & jazz guitarist and producer Rusty McCarthy.  Over the next decades she performed as duo and in bands with many local musicians.  
2012  debut album recorded in collaboration with producer, guitarist Rusty McCarthy.

MOONSTONE release in 2013 .

2015 NOMFA Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards in Sudbury. 'Best Engineer Award' for MOONSTONE producer Rusty.

Touring Northern Ontario Festivals & Southern Ontario solo in 2014.

Jazz vocals workshop with Detroit / New York Jazz Master vocalist legend Sheila Jordan in Toronto 2014.

'Jazz In July' week long Jazz vocals workshop with Sheila Jordan and other mentors at the University Massachusetts in 2015. 

Performances of Jazz standards and own compositions, Jazz Matinees and other gigs with her band 'MoonDazz', featuring Jeff Holmes (k) Martin Virta (b) Marc Dubreuil (d).

Scholarship for 'Jazz In July'  with Sheila Jordan in 2018. 

Between 2015 and 2018 Britta spends 20 months in Germany, tending to family emergencies. That time frame deeply shaped work on her second album. The refugee crisis in Europe was at its peak and sparked an intimate first time ever interview with her father in regards to WW ll and his life.

In December 2018, Britta Wolfert's Jazz infused album SOLITüDE was finally completed and released. Britta's father was able to acknowledge the song she included on her album for him ~ 'War' in English and 'Krieg' in German just months before he passed away.

Since then, Britta has performed with 'MoonDazz'  at numerous Jazz Matinees, singing Jazz originals and standards.

In January 2020, Britta signed up for a Scat workshop with renowned British / Australian Jazz singer Anita Wardell in her hometown Hamburg. She returned to Canada mid-January, just as the Covid crisis reared.

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