Rose Kingsley, Jim Di Julio, Jim Di Julio Jr., Steve Alaniz
Rose Kingsley
Steve Alaniz
Jim Di Julio Jr.
Bob Corwin
Jim Di Julio
Opera great, Rose Kingsley made her debut at the historic Catalina Jazz Club in LA. Welcomed by a large and supportive audience, Rose responded with a wonderful Jazz vocal performance of some of the best songs out of the "Great American Songbook". Rose is relatively new singing Jazz vocals but she has her own unique style that is unlike most of the Jazz singers on the scene today. As a result of her Opera training, Rose approaches each song and each lyric with great understanding and emotion. She never just sings words, she tells wonderful stories with every ounce of emotion in her body. Rose also never holds anything back, she sings perfectly with reckless abandonment that is seldom seen with other singers. Even though Rose has years of singing experience, she has thrown herself into perfecting her Jazz vocal chops in the belief that she add something new to the great songs of the past for her audiences.
Rose is not the kind of singer that you can hear sing one song and fall in love with. Her style takes some getting use to but I can assure that after you listen to her sing her first handful of songs, you will fall in love with her. She is a wonderful performer in addition to being a wonderful singer!
Rose also is savvy enough to make sure she has only the very best musicians supporting her performances. Tonight, she brought in the great pianist, Bob Corwin. along with Jim Di Julio on Bass playing his newly acquired 18th century Bass, Sax great, Steve Alaniz played Tenor and Soprano Sax and Jim Di Julio Jr. was on Drums. These talented musicians were sensation tonight playing a supporting role for Rose and providing excellent solos when called.
I have attached an iPhone video of Rose performing "Come Rain or Come Shine" that I published on my "YouTube" page.
Pianist/Composer Janice Friedman has recently released her first live CD, "Janice Friedman Trio: Live At Kitano". I first met Janice when I was doing a review of "Diva" Rose Kingsley's Cabaret debut at Cafe Noctambulo at Pangea in New York City a few months ago. I was impressed by the way Janice played Piano in support of Rose's unique vocal approach to standards. In talking with Janice after the show, she mentioned that she had just cut a CD, and I knew it would be something I would like.
I certainly was correct. In fact, there was a bonus for me on her CD. Janice does Vocals, Arranging and Composed four wonderful songs. What I like the most about Janice is her unique approach to music. When she plays you can hear little parts of the best Jazz Pianists in history, and yet she has the ability to create music that is totally her own. Her touch on the Plano is soft and thoughtful as are her vocals. Her arranging skills are also remarkable. The first cut on the CD is an original composition, "Get Set", and Janice constructed an Oscar Peterson-inspired arrangement that is terrific. Janice also brilliantly co-wrote a Chopin Nocturne in a beautiful Jass style. According to Janice "I took Chopin's beautiful nocturne, changed it into a Jazz waltz, straightened up the form to make it comfortable to improvise on, adjusted the rhythms and phrases to have them swing, used my own chords, put in an improvised recitative spot where Chopin had one written and voila!"
Supporting Janice on her live CD are: Victor Lewis on Drums and Ed Howard on Bass. Both of these musicians are highly talented and clearly fit together with Janice's style perfectly.
I have attached a "YouTube" of Janice Friedman's sensitive and beautiful rendition of Bill Evan's"Turn Out The Stars" live at Kitano in NYC on March 18, 2015. And after you listen to this performance, just think, she also does Vocals, Arranging and Composing! Janice Friedman is a super-star musical talent!
I am sure many of you know Rose Kingsley A/K/A "Simply Rose" as one of the world's most celebrated opera singers. Rose, a soprano, performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera for 15 years. Rose has been singing Opera throughout Europe to rave reviews for many years. She has appeared in concert with Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. After years of exploring her four octave range, Rose decided it was long overdue for her to explore her more intimate side and decided to record some of her all-time favorite standards in Jazz form. According to Rose, "My goal was to find songs that really come from my soul and that affected me emotionally. Some I had sung before, and had not. They're tunes that touched me that I felt could have the same impact on an audience. How right she was! Rose sings the 12 classic standards on this CD with intimacy and emotional understanding of the lyrics. Her phrasing is perfect and all hers. Don't expect to hear what we normally hear from female Jazz vocalists, Rose goes her own way with her unique singing style. The songs she selected for this CD generate great intimate emotion and as I was listening I became more and more under her spell. The lyrics will move you greatly as they did me. Who knew an Opera singer could also reach this level excellent of Jazz vocals. Well, Rose Kingsley knew and she is sharing her inner-self with everyone on her first Jazz vocal CD.
Rose has put together the perfect trio of accomplished musicians to back her on her debut CD. The trio is led by musical director and superb piano player, Bob Corwin. Bob is sought out by the best singers in the business and he served as Johnny Mercer's longtime accompanist for years. In addition, he has been a Musical Director for Jazz legends Carmen McRae, Anita O'Day and Peggy Lee. Desert favorite Danny Flahive is on upright Bass and Doug Dean is on Drums and Percussion.
"This is My Life" from "Simply Rose" is an excellent CD that any lover of intimate ballads from the "Great American Songbook" will love.
Playlist 1. "Here's To Life" 2. "Over The Rainbow" 3. "Come In From The Rain" 4. "Don't Cry Out Loud" 5. "Send In The Clowns" 6. "Can't Help Loving That Man Of Mine" 7. "Cry Me A River" 8. "The Man That Got Away" 9. "One For My Baby" 10. "In The Wee Small Hours" 11. "Where Do You Start" 12. "This Is My Life" You can listen to Rose signing songs from her CD on her website: http://www.simplyrose.info/
