No Easy Way:
Jean Laughlin:(Vocals)
Frank Caruso:(Piano)
Stewart Miller:(Bass)
Bob Rummage:(Drums)
Frank Portolese:(Guitar)
Mark Colby:(Tenor Sax)
Bob Frankich:(Alto Sax & Flute)
Ted Hogarth:(Baritone Sax)
Kirk Garrison & Art Davis:(Trumpets)
Tim Coffman & Tom Garling:(Trombones)
Kirk Garrison & Art Davis:(Flugelhorns)
Strings:
Thomas Yang, Kahterine Hughes, Theresa Fream: (Violin 1)
Karl Davies, Rika Seko, Andrea Tolzman: (Violin 2)
Patrick Brennan, Ben Wedge: (Viola)
Steven Houser, Richard Yeo:(Cello)
I've been singing for as long as I can remember. I came from a very musical family – mother, father, aunts, uncles, the lot of them. We had to learn to harmonize as small children, just to fit in! Though I studied piano from a very early age, my voice has always been my instrument. I started performing when I was quite young – on national television at the age of eleven – then throughout my high school years and college. After college, where I majored in Speech and Drama, I settled in Chicago where I worked in recording studios doing work in television commercials, voice-overs, radio spots, and performing in live musical industrials, and the occasional cabaret. It is after I took a very long break from work, to raise my children, that I started writing songs.
I had returned to singing, was recording an album and found that, though I loved the standards that I had been exposed to all of my life, I wasn't able to fully express myself singing them.
I started out slowly, including only one of my own songs on that first CD. I've tried to learn as much as I can, and have recorded exclusively my own songs since. It's been very cathartic for me, as well as a little frightening in that I'm exposing my personal feelings for all to hear.
Jean released her first album – I'm Glad There Is You – in 1992. She wrote and produced Confessions of a Woman, released in 1996, Who Am I? in 1998, and What Am I Looking For? in 2001, while No Easy Way is her latest work in 2007. Many of Jean's songs are receiving international radio airplay.
Dear Jean, thank you for ADD. Yours songs that I bought are beautiful. We'll play on 12 novembre at Filodrammatici Theatre with the voice Of Vanessa. We are waiting for another beautiful songs of You. Kisses from Gabriel by The Swingers big band of Cremona( The town of violins ) Italy. www.csmjazz.it
thank You Dear Jean!! it is a pleasure and an honour to get your lovely words. I won't miss to send you an mp3 of the songs recorded, by mail. Thank you again! keep in touch
