You can spend years in Las Vegas and never meet anyone who was born here.

In the 12 years I’ve been here I’ve met a handful, few enough that it’s still a surprise when someone declares they are a native.

Windy Karigianes was born and raised in Las Vegas.

She’s a jazz vocalist with a silken voice, smooth, sensual and emotional.

Her songs come from her heart.

Windy is best-known for combining vintage sounds with new and contemporary rhythms, creating her own interpretation of well-known standards.

I met her for the first time recently at Brendan’s Irish Pub inside The Orleans, where it was opening night for the venue’s Jazz Tuesdays.

Just before she made her debut she was told it would also be her finale. The club was ending its jazz experiment. Something about not enough jazz fans.

She found out a couple of days later that Jazz Tuesdays was re-instated.

Windy was excited.

Anytime a jazz singer or musician lands a gig in this town it’s cause for excitement.

“It’s a struggle getting entertainment directors to call you back,” she says. “It took me three months to get into Brendan’s .”

She’ll be back at Brendan’s at 8 p.m. this Tuesday (Feb. 9) and on Feb. 23.

Windy began singing in Vegas at the age of 16.

She says her influences have been Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Brazillian Jazz, hip-hop, trip hop, scat, Djs’s, alt. rock, classic rock, drum and bass, down tempo, house, euro, Indian, ambient/neo-soul – and a little country (old school),

After she was already making money singing she began studying under Norris Davis, a vocal instructor in San Francisco.

She bounced around the country for a few years, looking for a jazz home. New York for awhile. Los Angeles for 10 years.

“It was hard to make living in Los Angeles,” she says. “While I was there I was pursuing a recording career and writing – I also write and co-produce music.”

She was doing more writing and producing than singing, when singing was where her heart is.

“I decided I needed to come home and get into some venues in Vegas where I can get out and sing every night, get some exposure.”

She came home 7 years ago and began making the rounds.

She’s worked at a lot of different venues – Casa di Amore on Tropicana, Ruth’s Christ Steakhouse on Flamingo (now closed).

One of the most natural places in town for jazz is the Stratosphere at the Top of the World Lounge – now the Level 107 Lounge .

For the past year or so she was at the Top of the World, but they changed philosophies and she came back to earth.

She stays busy now finding local gigs (she’ll be at Frediani’s at 2895 Green Valley Parkway on Feb. 20). She occasionally works in Las Angeles. And she’s working on a CD.

“It’s kind of my first CD,” she says. “I did one years ago, but I’m not real proud of it.”

She hasn’t been more productive with her recordings, perhaps because she’s a perfectionist.

“I want to do a really great CD,” she says. “I feel like the timing and the universe, everything has come together now. It’s time. I’m surrounded by the right people. Wonderful musicians surround me.”

by Jerry Fink