The Justin watch
Inqlings
Michael Klein
Philadelphia Inquirer, December 25, 2005
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/13481045.htm

Back in town for the holidays is Doylestown's Justin Guarini, the runner-up from the first season of American Idol.

He's a jazzman now.

Guarini, 27, just released a CD of standards, Stranger Things Have Happened. He's been booked for WCAU's 10! show (Tuesday) and Fox's Good Day Philadelphia (Thursday). He'll also appear at the holiday party thrown by Cutting Edge Entertainment, for which he wowed wedding and bar mitzvah crowds before his Idol moments in 2002.

How Guarini came to jazz: "A friend of mine invited me to watch her jazz shows and she invited me to sit in. I just sang some songs I had learned in the University of the Arts' jazz class."

Guarini says he got the attention of Greg Gordon Smith, the friend's pianist. At first, "he didn't see Justin Guarini from American Idol singing jazz, but then he said, 'Have you ever thought of laying this down?'12" For the CD, the two picked 10 songs, including the chestnuts "Night and Day" and "My Funny Valentine" and a soulful version of "Sing," the Joe Raposo song from Sesame Street.

Among those credited in the liner are his girlfriend Nanci (he won't say more about her) and Brenda Richie, ex-wife of Lionel Richie and mother of reality-TV star Nicole Richie. Guarini says Brenda Richie reached out and sheltered him at her Bel Air mansion during the hectic post-Idol days. He now lives in L.A.

He's hopeful for a tour, now that's he picked up a new management company, Stiletto Entertainment, which also reps Barry Manilow, Diane Schuur and Idol alum Kimberley Locke.