(Female Vocal Jazz) Halie Loren - After Dark - 2010, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The first thing you notice is that voice: deep and rich and warm, gorgeous, graceful, and somehow earthy and ethereal at once. It is an instrument perfectly pitched and primed to each line, with each audible breath. Just as warm and familiar and frankly right as the needle hitting the groove on vinyl.
And so it goes. In describing the vocal talents of Eugene-based singer/songwriter Halie Loren, the adjectives just start piling up. Heartfelt is one. Confident yet vulnerable, strong but inviting. Authentic is another adjective that rushes to mind—emotionally authentic, which, really, is the key to great jazz and great art in general. Not the play-it-safe jazz of mall-bound Musak, but the real deal. Think Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday and Joni Mitchell, or, more recently, Diana Krall, Norah Jones. But such comparisons are only historic reference points, a means of entry. What’s important to understand is that when Halie Loren sings, you not only hear the music. You feel it. She’s right there, in the room with you, filling the space with intimate stories of love and heartbreak, memory and hope, experience and passion—in a word, life.

Were Loren’s resume to end here, with her vocal talents, it would be more than enough. Singing of that quality is rare, a gift. But Loren is no mere interpreter of standards (though she does that with refreshing facility). Having cut her songwriting teeth when, as a teenager, she spent an educational year rubbing elbows with some of Nashville’s top composers, this young artist—she is but 27—has penned original numbers that are stunning for the depth and maturity they show. Take, for instance, the title song from her 2008 release, They Oughta Write a Song: in a bittersweet croon that is equal parts hurt and healing, Loren delivers lines like, “If there were prizes for those sighs of regret/you’d be the envy of the oh-woe-is-me set/romance is through/it’s just the piper and you…”
Yeah, that’s the stuff—the blues, clever with pain, a sentimental journey hardened into sad-happy wisdom. Loren, as the saying goes, knows her way around a song, whether it be a composition of her own or one of her surprising and always dead-on covers. Witness the way her ingenious arrangement (composed with frequent collaborator, pianist Matt Treder) turns a radio-overplayed ballad like Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” into something utterly new and unexpectedly affecting, or check out the swinging upbeats and jaunty phrasing that gets the foot tapping to “Dock on the Bay,” without once betraying the spirit of Otis Redding’s masterpiece. Loren’s choice and performance of standards—from “Summertime” and “God Bless the Child” to “Blue Skies” and “La Vie en Rose”—is exquisite and respectful and inventive, another sign of her artistic intelligence.
In a relatively brief span of time, Loren appears to have achieved enough success and received enough kudos to define an entire career. Since her stage debut at the age of ten at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Alaska, Loren has continued to wow and woo audiences with her warm, intimate live performances; she is an elegant, electrifying performer, full of charisma and cool. And she has garnered more than her share of in-the-know acknowledgment, both critical and professional: from the Female Rising Star and Alternative Entertainer awards she won before she was 16, to later awards from such worthies as Billboard International and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, up to her most recent award for "Best Vocal Jazz Album" at the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards.
Loren’s debut release, Full Circle (2006), was hailed for exhibiting “a power and grace that are nearly unheard of in popular music.” And along with last year’s acclaimed They Oughta Write a Song, Loren (accompanied by Treder) also released" Many Times, Many Ways: a Holiday Collection", a delightful array of holiday songs that would melt the heart of the most tone-deaf Scrooge.
Still, for all she has already accomplished, it is what lies ahead that should truly thrill any fan of Loren’s music. The past two years have found her characteristically elevating her craft, getting better with each live performance, each newly written song or recorded work. She has gained much popularity in Japan and Asia, and was signed by JVC/Victor Entertainment (Japan) in 2010. She released a live album "Stages" internationally on 3/16/10, and on 5/19/10 re-released a deluxe version of "They Oughta Write Song" in Japan through JVC/Victor, which has consistently graced the top 10 Amazon Japan and HMV, and was deemed the #4 jazz CD for the entire year of 2010 on the Amazon Japan jazz charts.

Halie's fifth album, "After Dark", debuted in Japan on October 22, 2010, coinciding with the 6th annual Ginza Jazz Festival, at which she was a featured performer. The multi-lingual album rich with latin beats and featuring an array of diverse solo instruments launched Loren's music into exciting new territory, and earned her an Independent Music Award in the fan-voted "VoxPop" Jazz Song category for her original song "Thirsty", featured on "After Dark".
Loren’s tour expanded beyond the continental US in 2011 and 2012, she embarked on numerous international and national tours, including sold out shows at the Blue Note and Cotton Clubs in Japan, performances in New York City, LA, Seattle, Canada, Hawaii, Korea, Hong Kong and more. In July, Loren traveled to Palermo, Italy, where she was the featured vocalist with Orchestra Jazz Siciliana.
Loren’s newest release, ‘Heart First’ was released in Japan (JVC/Victor) in December 2011, garnering Jazz Critique Magazine’s 2011 coveted "Golden (top) prize" in the Vocal Jazz Album category. Playing to sell-out audiences both abroad and in the US, Loren continues touring in support of ‘Heart First’, which was released by Justin Time Records worldwide in March 2012.

Halie Loren conceives a new style of jazz singer on her fourth album, After Dark. While the lively alto is not averse to putting her own stamp on evergreens like "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "In a Sentimental Mood," her conception also extends to songs borrowed from various branches of the pop/rock era including folk-rock singer/songwriters (Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason" and Joni Mitchell's "Carey"), pop/R&B (Stevie Wonder's "Happier Than the Morning Sun"), and country-pop (Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe"). She is also willing to take on material closely associated with notable interpreters (Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Waters of March," Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose"), and to mix in the occasional composition of her own. The package is not as eclectic as all that might make it seem, since Loren sticks to one of two sets of backup musicians, either cutting in her own studio in Eugene, Oregon, with her stage trio (pianist Matt Treder, bassist Mark Schneider, and percussionist Brian West) or outside Nashville with such noted local jazzers as guitarist Jack Jezzro and bassist Jim Ferguson. They find the jazz feel in such seemingly unlikely material as "Ode to Billie Joe," given a bass/drums accompaniment with some sax work by Bryan Cumming, and "Give Me One Reason," which actually is simple enough to provide a platform for improvisation. Throughout, Loren sings with a light touch, even when she's dipping into Portuguese, French, or Italian. When she takes on the classical crossover standard "Time to Say Goodbye," the nominal closing song ("Carey" is billed as a "bonus track"), it has none of the histrionics applied by the likes of Andrea Bocelli. Loren and her musicians never lose sight of their duty to entertain, and that keeps this lengthy, varied set floating along to its conclusion.

Dale Bradley Cello
Bryan Cumming Flute, Sax (Baritone), Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
Jim Ferguson Bass, Percussion
Halie Loren Vocal
Jack Jezzro Bass, Guitar
Mark Schneider Bass
Denis Solee Clarinet, Whistle