Press Release Summary = Singer LaVon Hardison announces the release of her debut solo album, Choices, which features covers of Stevie Wonder and Cole Porter songs along with originals and some quirky surprises. A must for lovers of great female vocals and jazz/blues fans.
Press Release Body = 21 November 2006--OLYMPIA, WA--On her debut release, jazz-blues chanteuse LaVon Hardison shows why audiences rave about her performances. Each song oozes with personality and character, from the dark disfunction of "Perhaps" -- enhanced by the eerie musical saw of Russell Gores -- to the glass-half-full optimism of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love."
Choices is remarkably cohesive, given the breadth of LaVon's song selections. With two exceptions, the songs are well-known jazz standards and pop covers. In LaVon's highly creative arrangements, these become tools for exploring the characters in the stories, and even familiar tunes take on new meaning and depth. Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," for example, gets the swamp blues treatment, complete with Scuff Acuff's fingers scurrying across his washboard like cockroaches fleeing the light.
Veteran pianist Joe Baque co-wrote the title song "Choices" decades ago, though LaVon's is the first recording of this poignant jazz mediation on the confusion of maturity. And LaVon's original re-imagining of Lear's poem "The Owl and the Pussycat" finds the two in a sometimes-awkward dating situation, wrapped in an arrangement that sounds like a just-hatched jazz standard.
Hardison--who has a background in opera and musical theater as well as blues and jazz--is also currently performing in the holiday musical The Twelfth Night of Stardust at the State Theater in Olympia, Washington.
While Choices will delight jazz fans, its forays into blues and pop give it an even broader appeal. Just call it great vocal music.
Choices track listing: Ain't Misbehavin' Perhaps Choices Don't Fence Me In Superstition The Owl & the Pussycat It's Alright With Me Shop Around I Can't Give You Anything But Love Somewhere Over the Rainbow Coffee Song
CD and song samples available at: www.lavonhardison.com and cdbaby.com/lavonhardison
For more information or high-resolution photos for publication, contact Scott Stevens earball media phone: 360-259-1682 email: scott (at) earball.net mail: 2103 Harrison Ave. NW #2604 Olympia, WA 908502 USA
Web Site = http://lavonhardison.com
Contact Details = For more information or high-resolution photos for publication, contact Scott Stevens earball media phone: 360-259-1682 email: scott (at) earball.net mail: 2103 Harrison Ave. NW #2604 Olympia, WA 908502 USA
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