Cynthia Nan Sayer is a jazz banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

ist and vocalist.

Sayer was born in Waltham

Waltham, Massachusetts

Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, but grew up in Scotch Plains

Scotch Plains, New Jersey

Scotch Plains is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the township population increased to a record high of 23,510.-History:...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. She took up the banjo when she was thirteen years old. She attended Ithaca College

Ithaca College

Ithaca College is a private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York. The school was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music. The college has a strong liberal arts core, but also offers several pre-professional programs and some graduate programs. The college is...

 in New York and was graduated magna cum laude with a bachelors degree in English.

In 1982, she recorded with Marvin Hamlisch

Marvin Hamlisch

Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...

 for the soundtrack for Sophie's Choice

Sophie's Choice (film)

Sophie's Choice is a 1982 American romantic drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn. The film stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J...

. In 1985 she worked as a musical consultant on Woody Allen's

Woody Allen

Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...

 The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin, and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real...

and later on his films "Bullets Over Broadway" and "Anything Else." She has also played on a number of other feature film & TV show soundtracks, as well as TV commercials.

Cynthia Sayer is a regular member of Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band which plays every Monday evening at Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel

Carlyle Hotel

The Carlyle Hotel, known formally as The Carlyle, is a combination luxury and residential hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue, in the Upper East Side area of New York City...

. She appears in documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 Wild Man Blues

Wild Man Blues

Wild Man Blues is a 1998 documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple, about the musical avocation of actor/director/comic Woody Allen. The film takes its name from a jazz composition sometimes attributed to Jelly Roll Morton and sometimes to Louis Armstrong and recorded by both...

(directed by Barbara Kopple

Barbara Kopple

Barbara Kopple is an American film director, primarily known for her work in documentary film.-Biography:She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.Kopple has won two...

) and documents a 1996 European tour by Allen and his band. Sayer appears on two released recordings of the group, CDs: The Bunk Project (1993) and the soundtrack of Wild Man Blues (1997).

Cynthia Sayer also has an extensive career as a bandleader and featured guest artist. She tours internationally on a regular basis, performing concerts and festivals. She has released eight feature CDs so far on various labels. Her most recent is "Attractions" with Bucky Pizzarelli

Bucky Pizzarelli

John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in...

 (2007). www.cynthiasayer.com

Sources

• The Mississippi Rag
  The Mississippi Rag
  The Mississippi Rag was an internationally influential monthly newspaper about traditional jazz and ragtime music published by Leslie Johnson since 1973....
  
  , Cynthia Sayer, Banjoist from the Big Apple, by George A. Borgman, June 1994.

External links

• Official Site
• Woody Allen & His New Orleans Jazz Band: http://www.woodyallenband.com