Rita di Ghent was born in Hamilton, Ontario. When she was a baby, her family moved to Chicago where some of her Mother's siblings had emigrated to. Rita's father drove for a living, becoming Louis Amstrong's chauffeur. He also chauffeured luminaries such as The Beatles, Bill Cosby, and Robert Culp.

Rita's training began at age three with ballet and tap dancing. Her first big stage show was at 8 years, tap dancing to the music of Ramsay Lewis. Her musical parents got her  a clarinet and private teacher around the same time. After years playing clarinet, Rita began playing violin. Through her father's musical influence, Rita  fell in love with and began singing  jazz in high school, drawing on childhood memories of  her Mother's ever-constant singing voice.

Rita has become a world-wide artist of note and the inventor of an original jazz genre that she calls Sprawl -- a combination of traditional jazz, contemporary urban music, and painterly stories. Her many accolades include a nomination for the Montreal Jazz Festival's Prix de Jazz for her acclaimed "The Birth of Sprawl". 

For booking information, please contact:

groovecanada@gmail.com

"di Ghent is a true original... absolutely captivating.  This vocalist is a coveted Canadian treasure.” (The Jazz Review)

…”Rita di Ghent est une chanteuse hot dans la tradition, avec une belle voix mezzo qui colle a merveille (“What a Little Moonlight Can Do”)… Rita di Ghent est une chanteuse dont on se souvient et qui ne laisse pas indifferent.  (Michel Bedin, Jazz Hot Magazine, Paris, France)

“…di Ghent is in the mold-breaking business, and has come up with a style all of her own called “sprawl”….sharp, sassy, funky and even fashionable, di Ghent’s performance demonstrated that she can sing jazz in the traditional sense while also bringing her own more modern lyrical and vocal skills to the party.  Several of her own song, which focus on North American street life, are excellent, particularly 20 Dollar Ring, a tale of a poverty-stricken girl murdered for a worthless piece of jewelry, and the witty Signs of Spring in My Neighbourhood.  Perhaps the high point of the show, however, was a radical re-invention of Bob Dylan’s Just Like a Woman…extraordinarily compelling.”  (The South China Morning Post)

Translation: “Rita di Ghent is a hot vocalist in the grand tradition with a beautiful mezzo voice that really swings…there are so few singers capable of doing what she can accomplish.”  

 “The coolest jazz diva on the scene.”  (Ottawa X-press)

"The girl is BRILLIANT!!! She's got a million dollars down her throat!  (Harold Ellison ("The Jazz Cafe" TripleU-FM Nowra, New South Wales, Australia)

“…to find an artist who can write and perform out of a traditional jazz setting, and yet do it in a way that appeals to a wide cross-section of musical tastes in no easy feat.  To find this quality in an artist who also maintains the highest standards of musical integrity is even more rare.  Rita is such an artist.”  (The Medicine Hat News)

"Rita paints lyrical pictures with colour and detachment, pulling you in and leaving you wondering… Who knows?Maybe one day they’ll make one of those Canadian Heritage commercials about the invention of Sprawl…” (Eye Magazine, Toronto)

“[keynote presenter] di Ghent uses her soulful voice and spoken-word infused original jazz tunes to inspire audiences to consider how others live their lives – the struggles they go through, the prejudices they face, and the challenges they strive to overcome. It is impossible to hear her perform and not come away inspired to listen better to people’s stories, their pain, and their joys.” (Joan Harrison, U of Ottawa Symposium Democratic Dialogue Via the Arts)

“Intertwining original material with standard tunes is one of my favourite aspects of di Ghent’s work…di Ghent has a definitely refreshing sound.  If the future of Jazz is Rita di Ghent, then the future sounds bright.” (The Vancouver Discorder)

"The Standards Sessions 1 and 2": 

"In putting together this second instalment of “The Standards Sessions”, jazz vocalist and band leader Rita di Ghent has chosen to explore this classic ["Torch Album"] genre and, as a result, the songs she has selected here hit a more reflective note than on any of her previous efforts. Just listen to the palpable tension in evidence on the opening selection, “Good Morning Heartache”, and the abject despair voiced in the dramatic “Ne Me Quitte Pas”. I’m sure you’ll agree that although this clearly is the darker side of love, Rita willingly goes there time and time again, and brings her amazing group of Toronto players along for the ride. 

While the program boldly visits some unexpectedly bright places along the way, as on “Nowhere” and Rita’s self-composed novelty “Nicely Situated”, the Torch theme remains constant. It becomes even clearer as the program unfolds that in the eyes and ears of our heroine, love is one hell of a roller coaster ride. And yet, to our great relief (and hers as well, I imagine) she seems ready to take it on again by the program’s end, no matter the cost. But enough analysis, let the music speak for itself on this Torch Classic from a totally modern perspective, by one of our great Canadian vocal-adventurers, performed with passion, honesty, and depth." George Evans, Jazz Vocalist and Journalist, December 2003

"The best new singers I’ve heard have depended not so much on pure sonic pleasure or vocal emotion, but on ideas. One of them is Rita di Ghent…one of the most interesting singers of the contemporary era…The three albums I’ve heard by her (on Groove Productions), all have new ideas on them. Her latest album is Standard Sessions II, in which she does Jacques Brel’s "Ne Me Quitte Pas" as a jazz ballad with string section and solo bass – a sound reminiscent of Charlie Haden’s recent albums.  Di Ghent’s most engaging idea is the sound she calls ‘Sprawl,’ in which she starts with a standard, like ‘He’s Funny That Way,’ and departs from it in an original passage that’s somewhere between rap and poetry recitation...These variations make vintage songs seem contemporary without sounding like she’s stooping to conquer. Now that’s a new idea."  

 Jazz Columnist/Author Will Friedwald in The New York Sun