I am currently playing alot with this wonderful gypsy jazz group called Sidewalk Cafe.
For videos with Sidewalk Cafe please visit:
http://www.babybluearts.com/RhondaLaurieSidewalkCafe.htm
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The band includes Reynold Philipsek on guitar, Gary Schulte on violin and Jeff Brueske on bass. I posted a few of our demo tunes so please have a listen. Enjoy!
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I am currently in the studio finishing my debut jazz CD. There are truly great musicians joining me: Peter Schimke is accompanist/producer/arranger, Chris Bates is on bass and Jay Epstein on drums & percussion. There are also guest musicians!
I am very excited about this CD as it is truly a heartfelt expression. It is an unusual selection of songs including standards and reinterpretations. But all of the songs have a nugget of truth and beauty to be shared. I will keep you posted on how it is going and when it will be released.
YALE CABARET CONFERENCE was great.I met so many wonderful artists. Check out the website: www.thecabaretconferenceatyale.com/
I was at Cave Vin for seven months 2008-2009. Jeremy Iggers reviewed it in The Rake blog: http://www.rakemag.com/blogs/breaking-bread/2007/12/cave-vin-moules-frites-and-mellow-jazz
Jazz Vocalists: Irene Kral. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday,
Carmen Macrae. Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton, Shirley Horn...
Jazz Pianinsts: Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Fred Hersch...
Jazz Guitar: Joe Pass, Django Reinhart
Jazz Horns: Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Illionois Jacquet, Louis Armstrong
Jazz Bass: Ron Carter, Stanley Clarke, Ray Brown
Jazz Drums: Buddy Rich
otherwise: Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Flora Purim, The Who, Joan Armatrading, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Chick Corea, Boz Scaggs, Beatles...
Sounds Like
ME!!!! Authentically smooth and smoky vocals.
Sheila Jordon described Rhonda's vocals as " ...so smooth..."
JazzInk Blog by Andrea Canter says:
"... of sublime and swinging music from vocalist Rhonda Laurie, guitarist Reynold Philipsek, and usually Jeff Brueske or Matt Senjem on bass. .. One of the most sophisticated among local vocalists in her selection of tunes and interpretation, putting a hot club swinging spin on her repertoire has been both challenging and rewarding for Rhonda, and with Twin Cities Hot Club anchor Philipsek, the music goes well beyond the popular “gypsy jazz”, taking Django ahead a few decades, and delightfully so."
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Rhonda Laurie hails from New York City, where she grew up in a family of professional musicians and performers. Rhonda began her career as a cabaret singer in Manhattan nightclubs. She has studied vocal jazz with the renowned Janet Lawson, Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton and Judy Niemack. Locally she has performed at the Dakota, Rossi's Blue Star Jazz Room, The Times Bar and Cafe, Sophia's, Artists Quarter, Bar Lurcat, Cafe Luxx, Patricks Cabaret,Spasso, The 318 Cafe, as well as Intermedia Arts, Minnesota Fringe Festival, The Red Eye Theater,Lake Harriet Bandshell and the 2008 Grand Marais Jazz Festival. From 2007-2008 she enjoyed a wonderful weekly run at Cave Vin in Minneapolis.
Rhonda Laurie performed at the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 & 2009 Hot Summer Jazz Festival in Minneapolis. She is a fellow of the Cabaret Conference at Yale. From 2004-2008, she was President of the MN Chapter of the Jazz Vocal Coalition (JZVOC). She is currently VP of the Twin Cities Cabaret Artists's Network ("TCCAN").
Nick was on his personal Myspace page and could not find the "add friends" button. Dont know if you knew it was accessable or not. Anyways AWESOME JOB!!!! CRR gives you high fives and mucho props on your tunes!!! Check out Don Vidal on Sax in his KAXE radio xmas jazz session!!! Rememeber Crimson Red supports and loves your music!!! Happy Holidays!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSCsKR0G3tw
Hi Rhonda! You're sounding so good on your site! I will try to get to your city next September...let me know if you'd like to set up a workshop. All the best, Judy
Hi Rhonda Laurie, we hope you can make it over to the AQ this weekend:
Impulso! Dean Magraw: guitar Brandon Wozniak: saxophones Jay Epstein: drums Originals & interpretive reflections of other oblique material at the The Artists' Quarter, 7th Place & St. Peter, St. Paul, MN 55102, 651-292-1359. This Friday, Saturday, March 13,-14 @ 9PM
Hey Rhonda, Just listened to your 3 "sidewalk cafe" tracks here (why does it say "4" tracks, you fibber?) - Just wanted to tell you that you are really finding your jazziest chops here - Nice, easy sound, really attractive and a pleasure to listen to. Great job! Arne
I just wanted to say thank you for nominating me to speak at graduation. I took up the offer! Will you be attending? I hope. I would love to catch up. Hope to see you soon
Just want to let you know that it was a pleasure sharing the workshop "experience" with you last week, and for all the time in preparation. I enjoyed it. And great fun to chat with you this past week as well. Much appreciated!
Rhonda, I was only able to listen to part of one of your songs here, because I was on the run.....for days and days. I came back knowing I would know the voice...and I was right. Thanks for the add of a friend. I would like to hear more of your music and talk about when you may be in the Minneapolis area. Please make sure to let me know when your new CD is out......
Thanks,
JazzyJ Owner Twin Cities Radio on the Net www.twincitiesradio.net jazzyj@twincitiesradio.net
I stood on stage in the background absorbing the instrumental music for a moment or two until I felt the microphone beckon to me. I was feeling the music as it filled my body and wrapped me inside its force. Without looking at anything I had written I was drawn to the microphone to surrender to what had built up inside the music and me, I walked up to within three feet of my microphone opened my mouth and pointed to the sky.
The audience, in the distance and in the dim light of the smoky bar, responded as if they knew, as if they felt what we felt, as if the power that pushed its way through us was their calling as well. They were lost in the orgasm of the music that occupied the space around them. Spirits flew like cartoon ghosts just beneath the ceiling, laughing, singing and bellowing names of forgotten souls released from bondage, recalling anonymous legends who only played free jazz and who only let loose when they genuinely had something provocative to say.
The first phrase out of my mouth was Spirits in the house! And then again, Spirits in the house! The music swirled around me like water in a vortex: piano, drums, bass, flutes and saxophone made space for me and I walked on top of it like a Jesus lizard walks on water. We made meaning by filling the space with our sincerity. I stood there in the middle of the vortex pushing poetry into a microphone, unconscious, but present, lost inside the music but finding myself. I wasn't a singer but music formed my words and the sounds I’d rehearsed alone found their way into the air. I wasn't a singer but I held voices of singers in my heart; artists like Gloria Bleakly who was on stage next to me, Ijeoma Thomas, Abbey Lincoln, Billie Holiday, June Tyson and Leena Conquest. I was letting loose whatever ghosts flooded that moment. from Bottomless Sky by J. Otis Powell!
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