Press Release

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Ginny Shea
Mixed Media Promo
ginny@mixedmediapromo.com
401-942-8025

Terry Blaine & Friends
Swing Into Town With
"Swingin' The Benny Goodman Songbook"

Jazz vocalist Terry Blaine and pianist Mark Shane will be swingin' into town this week with their new show, "Swingin' the Benny Goodman Songbook."

This performance will not only showcase the exuberant efforts of Blaine's richly-rendered jazz vocals, but also the elegant stride mastery of pianist Mark Shane, Blaine's longtime jazz compatriot. With acclaimed clarinetist Allan Vaché, they will be performing their toe-tapping renditions of hot swing standards from the Benny Goodman Songbook, leaving nothing more to be desired than perhaps access to the dance floor.

Blaine and Shane have worked together countless times over the years, most recently as a duo on Lonesome Swallow, a recording that makes a believer of any listener looking for purity in musical expression. Their repertoire includes music that harkens back to classic jazz history and the female vocalists who helped the Goodman band transform the Swing Era.

Here's what the critics are saying about the duo's latest release, Lonesome Swallow:

Blaine's latest collection, Lonesome Swallow (Jukebox Jazz), her first with only Shane's honky-tonk exuberance for accompaniment, is typically vivid. From a starchily prim "Memories of You," playfully handled with Sunday morning piety, to the slap-and-tickle purr of "My Handy Man," she remains a storyteller par excellence. The majesty of Blaine's voice is, however, most evident when she forgoes playacting for straightahead romanticism on tender, reflective readings of "I'm Glad There Is You," and "100 Years From Today."

Christopher Louden, JazzTimes

One of the problems in reviewing an album as thoroughly and unexpectedly mind-blowing as Lonesome Swallow is that one hardly knows where to begin when parceling out praise and approval. Terry Blaine's vocals? Irresistible. Pianist Mark Shane's accompaniment? Brilliant. Tom Desisto /Julie Last's recording, editing and mixing? Superlative. Blaine's choice of material? Impeccable. And that's just for starters. Blaine is a revelation, a smoky-voiced blues singer in the tradition of Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter and other standard-bearers who enriches every lyric by apprehending, appreciating and amplifying its underlying purpose. Every song has a story to impart, and we've heard few more credible and persuasive story-tellers than Blaine. She's simply a joy to hear.

Jack Bower, All About Jazz