Restless Press Release
Sylvia Brooks Explores the Noir Side of Jazz in 2nd CD Release Restless
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Acclaimed jazz singer Sylvia Brooks returns with her second genre-busting release Restless, exploring the hungers that haunt us, the passions that drive us and the compulsions that send us careening deliciously close to the edge of the abyss.
Initial discussions with arranger and producer Kim Richmond brought forth several ideas. “I wanted to take a set of songs—this set of songs—and give them more of an urban, street-like feel.” Recalling an incident several years ago that saw her confined to a hospital in New York City, she speaks of the totality of the experience in musical terms. Of the jangly, dissonant pulse of the city, the ambulances whizzing by at 3:00am, the clickity-clack of stilettos on the sidewalks below, the heaving sighs of the concrete canyons as they purge and are purged of their human contents…
From the stirrings of “’Round Midnight,” the album’s concept began to come together. “I wanted people to feel the complete surrender to that kind of barren loneliness, to use instrumentation to bring around that feel of the streets of the City, and bring out the steel of pain and emptiness built into these songs.” And in exploring the ambiguities and contrasts, the staggering highs and desolate lows, the fragilities and desperate yearnings, inherent in such songs as “Last Tango,” “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams,” and “You’re My Thrill,” she seeks to impart that tactility to her listeners.
Utiliing a wide range of instruments—violins, harmonica, accordion, french horns, percussion, guitars and more—and Sylvia’s fascination with the secrets that lie beneath, the collection began to coalesce into a new and unique mash-up blending art, film and pure musicianship she calls “Jazz Noir.”
As Richmond began to write, and the two began putting together the instrumentation, one by one, each of the 11 tracks on Restless came to represent a complete experience, a self-contained vignette with a
richly satisfying emotional core, tales of decadence and decay, seduction and manipulation, release and ruin and the beautiful victims such devastation leaves in its wake.
The album’s release will coincide with a complete redesign and relaunch of Sylvia’s website, www.SylviaBrooks.net, with greatly expanded content, both audio and video.
So pour yourself into a gimlet state-of-mind, where the brighter the sunshine, the darker the night, and a raven-haired seductress sinks her hooks in you and the pain is so exquisite, you dare not tear yourself away. Then see just how far a song can take you…
A complete track listing is as follows:
1. ‘Round Midnight
2. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
3. You Go To My Head
4. Trouble
5. Last Tango
6. Be Cool
7. Blue Alert
8. Blues In The Night
9. You’re My Thrill
10. Stormy Weather
11. I’m A Fool To Want You
For additional information and all media/interview requests, please contact Jerry Bergh at Max Net Entertainment Group, 310-230-2310 ext.1;
email: jedward2000@aol.com
Chart Bound in Jazz Week
We are chartbound in Jazz Week for the week of August 16th.
Sylvia Brooks in Sensational CD Debut
For Immediate Release
Summer 2010
Sylvia Brooks in Sensational CD Debut
Dangerous Liaisons
Singer Sylvia Brooks lights up early summer with her CD debut, Dangerous Liaisons – a collection of carefully chosen gems from the Great American Songbook – accompanied by a stellar 8-piece band. The album has been rolled out to general release after garnering enthusiastic response to a limited private issue earlier in the year. With masterful charts by Tom Garvin, Jeff Colella and Kim Richmond, Ms.Brooks cooks up sizzling performances of ten timeless standards familiar to the capacity crowds she draws to such L.A. area venues as Catalina’s, Vitello’s Jazz & Supper Club, and the Jazz Bakery. Dangerous Liaisons is available through amazon.com, CD Baby, iTunes, and Napster. Initial tracks chosen for airplay by her promotion team, noted jazz specialists Dick LaPalm and Fred Mancuso, are “Come Rain or Come Shine”, “ The Man That Got Away”, and her rare vocal rendition of the classic “Harlem Nocturne”. Sylvia Brooks may be a fresh new face to the worlds of jazz and cabaret, but she is actually a seasoned professional in the art of telling a story, having spent the earlier years of her career as an actor in both straight drama and musical theater – first at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and then in numerous companies across the country. She is a native of Miami and was first introduced to the standards repertoire by her father, a jazz arranger/composer, and her mother, who combined nightclub singing and opera production in her own multi-faceted career. Ms.Brooks has a devoted following in Los Angeles, where she now resides. About the enormous treasure trove of American standard tunes, Ms.Brooks says “This music speaks to me! Like all great art, it is timeless and evokes the struggles and pleasures we live every day. The best singers of the past didn’t just sing – they infused each song with passion and brought their lives to the music. I feel that I’m a part of this continuum each time I sing one of these incredible songs.”
Performance Reviews: Six Time Best Bet Critics Pick – L.A. Times
“…grace and confidence…commanding charisma…dynamic performance.” -L.A. Jazz Scene
For more information about Sylvia Brooks, call 831-620-1332 and visit
www.kathrynkingmedia.com
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LA Jazz Scene Reviews Sylvia Brooks
Sylvia Brooks
is certainly no stranger to Jazz, a fact extraordinary evident throughout the duration of her encore performance at Catalina Bar and Grill. Brooks returned to Catalina stage on July 16, 2008, where she performed songs from The Great American Songbook masterfully arranged by Tom Garvin.
Sylvia Brooks comes from a solid musical background, growing up with her father a popular jazz pianist and her mother a nightclub performer. “Sitting in the crib and hearing that music, it has to do something to you”, says Brooks. It was inevitable that melodies and harmonies would course rapidly through her veins from a very young age. Through Garvin’s innovative arrangements, this music possesses the ability to convey complex emotions while telling a unique and vivid story through the utilization of refreshing and diverse sounds performed by Brooks and her dynamic sextet. (more…)