Jen Cintron is a vocalist, song-writer, guitar and ukulele-player, and tarot reader. A born torch singer, her style has been influenced by the crooners and chanteuses of decades past such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Edith Piaf; but she is versatile and not limited in the range and genre of her influences and repertoire, spanning from traditional Boleros and Mexican rancheras, through folk icons like Joni Mitchell and Silvio Rodriguez, all the way up to Imogen Heap and Fiona Apple, as well as her own heartfelt original songs. Her repertoire includes songs in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Ranging from low and gravely smoke to pure and airy high tones, an exuberant (and maybe tipsy) bandmate once described her voice as “the magnificent voice of the birds and the trees”.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she lived in Milwaukee between 2003-2021, where she was the lead vocalist for hot-club jazz band 4th Street Elevator, acoustic Caribbean ensemble 4-Quinto, and salsa band American Latin Soul, as well as performing solo accompanied by her own guitar and ukulele, or backing tracks. She was featured as a guest vocalist with: The Milwaukee Hot Club, Swing Chevron, The Neil Davis & Steve Peplin Duo, Hot Head Caravan, the Mark Thierfelder Trio, the Anthony Deutsch trio, The Squeezettes, Sazerac 5, and the Extra Crispy Brass Band at various clubs and restaurants throughout the Milwaukee Area, as well as being the resident “songstress” for a few Cabaret MKE productions, where she performed as “Sadie Starlight”.
In 2020, her ability to perform was drastically affected, not only because the world at large was locked down, but because she herself caught COVID early on and it hit her pretty hard… and then she started experiencing symptoms of what turned out to be a cardiac myxoma inside the right ventricle of her heart.
When there’s something wrong withn the physical heart, one of the symptoms is an unshakable sense of impending doom, and so, feeling like the world was ending, she returned to her family home in Puerto Rico in the summer of 2021.
Jen underwent life-saving Open Heart Surgery in March 2024, and her recovery has been slow, but steady. Her singing voice is stronger than ever, as she recently brushed up on her classical technique with formal instruction. Now based between Aibonito and Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, she’s once again available for musical engagements.
