(Vocal Jazz) Alison Ruble - This Is a Bird - 2008, APE (image+.cue) lossless

Alison Ruble is a dynamic performer. She has established a reputation in jazz circles as a versatile singer with a warm, engaging sound and a respected bandleader with acclaimed groups. Her style and repertoire give a generous nod to the classic jazz standards, but also incorporate more modern strains, producing a poignant blend of music that is at once familiar and surprising. Chicago is currently home base, where she headlines at top jazz clubs, such as The Green Mill, Pops For Champagne, Katerina's, Pete Miller's and Andy's Jazz Club.
Ruble's debut release, This Is A Bird (Origin Records), expands her work to a broader national and international audience. The project brings together some of the Chicago music scene's most forward thinking players for a set of re-envisioned jazz standards. Alison casts her rich alto in a variety of open ended settings that deftly reference classic jazz, even as she stretches the boundaries of "The Great American Songbook." She will begin touring with the project this year, making her first stop at the 30th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival in August 2008.
In the fall of 2006, she traveled to New York for her Jazz at Lincoln Center debut as a featured performer in the Mabel Mercer Foundation's 21st Anniversary Celebration, an acclaimed event highlighting the nation's top vocalists and jazz ensembles. She has performed for the NBC and ABC Morning News programs, WGN-TV Chicago network and starred with the world-renowned Jazz Ambassadors Big Band. She has held long-standing residencies at Chicago landmark rooms and five-star hotels: The Pump Room, The Coq D'or in the Drake Hotel, the Greenhouse in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the Peninsula Hotel. She has opened major league sporting events by singing the National Anthem at Soldier Field for the Chicago Bears and at US Cellular Field for the Chicago White Sox.
As a musical director, Alison has produced, directed and performed in a wide variety of shows and ensembles for numerous corporate and private clients. Her client roster represents a broad range of organizations and events. Recent highlights include honoring legendary director Robert Altman with music from his movies at the Chicago Film Critics Awards and providing musical direction for the USO of Illinois' Star-Spangled Salute Gala and the Pritzker Military Library Liberty Gala. Since 2003, Alison has been proud to serve as the Entertainment and Community Director for the USO of Illinois, a world-wide, non-profit organization dedicated to the support of men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families.

Alison Ruble is a sublime vocalist with an adventurous spirit on her debut CD. Gifted with a rich alto and precise articulation, she blends elements of pop and folk into her infectious arrangement of Cole Porter's "So in Love," while her sublime, deliberate, and funky setting of "If I Had You" casts another chestnut in a very new light. Guitarist John McLean and Jim Gailloreto's playful alto flute provide sublime accompaniment for her warm vocals in "Skylark." Ruble also takes the standard "Lazy Afternoon" into new territory, blending McLean's folky guitar with Gailloreto's spirited soprano sax as the group gradually builds the tension to a soft climax. Ruble especially excels in duo settings, including a hip "It's Magic" with bassist Larry Kohut and a superb "This Nearly Was Mine" with pianist Jo Ann Daugherty. Only Burt Bacharach's monotonous "Always Something There to Remind Me" is a disappointment, as it pales when compared to the rest of the material on Alison Ruble's exciting debut as a leader.