Valerie Joyce - New York Blue

Titels

1. It Never Entered My Mind
2. Blue In Green
3. Baby Can I Hold You
4. Fever
5. Oasis
6. Every Time We Say Goodbye
7. Moon And Sand
8. Little Wing
9. Weaver Of Dreams
10. It’s Easy To Remember
11. Darn That Dream
12. I Fall In Love Too Easily
13. Golden Slumbers

Valerie Joyce, born in Japan and now living in Seattle, recorded two albums for Chesky Records in the 2000s. The first was the critically acclaimed "New York Blue," released in 2005. The recording took place at St. Peter's Church in Chelsea under the direction of sound engineer Nicholas Prout and featured the young singer accompanied by a top-notch New York jazz ensemble: pianist Andy Ezrin, bassists John Hebert and Tim Lefebvre, and drummer Gene Jackson. On several tracks, the ensemble is complemented by the warm, smoky saxophone sound of veteran session musician Lawrence Feldman. Joyce's captivating repertoire combines refined interpretations of familiar evergreens from the Great American Songbook ("Darn That Dream") with jazz standards (Miles Davis's "Blue In Green"), jazzy R&B ("Fever"), rock (Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing"), and pop ("Golden Slumbers" by The Beatles).

The daughter of a Japanese mother and an American father, Valerie Joyce spent her childhood in Japan, where she began her musical education at the age of six. In 1991, she moved to Tacoma, Washington, where she studied piano. During this time, she discovered her love for jazz and began singing in the university choir. During an audition at Berklee College of Music in Boston, she was offered a vocal jazz scholarship, which she declined. Back in Washington, she focused more intensively on her vocal training and took lessons with Michael Brockman, Jay Clayton, and Jerome Gray. In 2002, Valerie Joyce recorded her debut album, "Reverie," in Seattle with regional musicians, which brought her into contact with David and Norman Chesky, for whose label, Chesky Records, she subsequently recorded "New York Blue."

The recording at St. Peter's Church in Chelsea under Nicholas Prout is considered a special gem in the Chesky Records catalog. As part of the "Chesky Original Masters" series, Evosound now presents a collectible reissue of this magnificent album. The Hybrid SACD impressively showcases Chesky's signature production and recording techniques and comes with a booklet including new liner notes and a recent interview with Valerie Joyce.