"Black Lace Blue Tears,"
Debut CD for Seattle-Area Jazz Vocalist
Eugenie Jones,
Due for Release May 28
Debut CD for Seattle-Area Jazz Vocalist
Eugenie Jones,
Due for Release May 28
CD Features Original Material by Jones
& Instrumental Support from Top Seattle Players
Bill Anschell, Clipper Anderson,
Mark Ivester, & Michael Powers
& Instrumental Support from Top Seattle Players
Bill Anschell, Clipper Anderson,
Mark Ivester, & Michael Powers
May 7, 2013
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Media Contact:Terri Hinte
510-234-8781
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With the release of her debut album Black Lace Blue Tears, Seattle-based Eugenie Jones
emerges as a rising jazz vocal star with a deep-rooted sense of where
she's headed as an artist. Jones's repertoire is based primarily on her
own striking originals, and she also had a hand in all of the
arrangements. The disc is due from Jones's Open Mic Records on May 28.
Throughout Black Lace Blue Tears Jones receives first-rate support from three of Seattle's most gifted and sought-after jazz instrumentalists: pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Clipper Anderson, and drummer Mark Ivester. Guitarist Michael Powers joins them on three numbers.
Jones reveals herself
to be a remarkably mature, refreshingly different artist, both as a song
stylist and as a songwriter. Nine of the album's 11 selections are
original compositions that offer new insights into a variety of emotions
and situations, from the joyous opener "A Good Day" to the heartbreaking ballad "All the King's Men," the gently swinging "Perfect," and "I Want One," a song about looking for Mister Right that has been a favorite of women in her audiences. Jones also puts her stamp on "My Funny Valentine" and the Paul Desmond classic "Take Five" (with lyrics by Dave and Iola Brubeck).
Surprisingly, Jones
never planned for a career in singing. Growing up in Morgantown, West
Virginia, Eugenie (pronounced "u-gee-nee") had sung with the Baptist
church choir directed by her father, but at home she left the singing to
her mother, the late Tommie Parker. "She had an incredibly beautiful
voice," Jones says. "Even when she wasn't in church and she was cooking
and doing things around the house, she was always singing."
Eugenie went on to
earn degrees in business and marketing, working as a business owner,
consultant, and marketing specialist. When her mother took ill, she
invited her to move west to spend her final years living with Jones and
her two sons in Bremerton, Washington. It wasn't until her mother's
death five years ago that Eugenie decided to take up singing herself. "I
missed hearing her voice around the house," says Jones. "I think that
was what drove me to pursue it."
Jones made her professional debut as a jazz singer only two years ago
and has since drawn a devoted following to her unique musical artistry
at venues throughout the Seattle area and as far south as Portland. One
critic has likened her to Nina Simone, as has Greta Matassa, the noted
Seattle jazz vocalist with whom Jones studied.
Although Jones has
been writing poetry since she was in high school, and for 19 years wrote
a weekly wellness column for a Washington paper that was often picked
up by the national Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, she didn't try her
hand at writing songs until just a year before Black Lace Blue Tears was recorded.
"I kind of felt my way
through a paradigm that seemed to work for me," she says of her
songwriting process. "I'm really just trying to capture an emotion when
I'm writing."
