BRIA SKONBERG
RELEASES WITH
A TWIST … IN EVERY SENSE
VOCALIST AND TRUMPETER MIXES IT UP
ON HER NEW OKEH
RECORDS ALBUM
Skonberg Shakes and Stirs A Fresh
Batch of Golden Standards, Surprises and Originals
Available May 19
The euphoric buzz of
New York, over cocktails on the edge of evening, alive with
possibilities…anything goes.
Vocalist, trumpeter and songwriter Bria Skonberg
re-imagines it all on her new OKeh/Masterworks album, With
a Twist. Coming off a recent Juno Award (Canada’s version of The Grammys)
for her first OKeh collection, Bria, Skonberg spins her cool and
confident vocal style---and her sleek and timeless jazz chops---into a program
that playfully nods to tradition while always looking ahead. With a Twist
is available May 19th, 2017.
Of
the mood she was going after on With a Twist, Skonberg says: “The
inspiration was love and adventure, and the many twists and turns and tunnels
you can get into. It’s a little about my time in New York, a little bit of
cocktail culture. The musical inspiration was a modern-day Esquivel, Perez
Prado, maybe some Spike Jones. It’s just important to me to put some love and
positivity out into the world right now.”
With
a Twist reunites
Skonberg with producer Matt Pierson, whom she credits with helping her
realize the album’s concept. The album features 5-time Grammy winner Gil
Goldstein (who arranged six of the tracks and plays keyboards and
accordion), Sullivan Fortner (piano), Scott Colley (bass), Matt
Wilson (drums).
More
than romantic fantasy is casting the spell on With a Twist. Skonberg
deftly pays tribute throughout the album to some great singers who influenced
her. The opening track, “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” offers a deep bow to Nina
Simone. “Alright, Okay, You Win” (arranged here with “Soul Bossa Nova” – a Quincy
Jones tune) summons the cool of Peggy Lee. “It’s Oh So Quiet”
is Björk’s memorable twist of a song Betty Hutton first sang in
the early 1950s; Skonberg says she has loved it since hearing the Björk
recording in her car as a high school student in Chilliwack, British Columbia.
Also
included is “High Hat, Trumpet, and Rhythm,” a hot tune by Valaida Snow,
the American jazz singer and trumpeter who became a worldwide sensation in the
1920s and 1930s. Fresh takes on “Cocktails for Two” (with a hint of Spike
Jones’s antic style); “Whatever Lola Wants” from Damn Yankees;
and “Back in Your Own Back Yard” (a 1920s-vintage favorite of singers as
diverse as Al Jolson and Billie Holiday) round out the golden-age
standards.
Two
more recent songs – Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” and an
instrumental version of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” – show that
Skonberg, for a seasoned jazz baby, has a way with the music of her time. The
wistful reflection and melancholy of “Dance Me to the End of Love” offers her a
chance to remember the late Cohen, a fellow Canadian.
Skonberg’s
three originals on With a Twist represent a little odyssey of
songwriting – “Same Kind of Crazy,” written in Nashville with Jeff Cohen,
and “How I Know,” written in Los Angeles with Sam Hollander. Of
the album’s final track, “Time to Go,” she says simply, “I made that one up, and
I wanted it on the album.” Fun fact about “Time to Go”: “The little lick in the intro and outro belong to a
song by Dizzy Gillespie called ‘Dizzy Atmosphere,’” Skonberg
notes. “The sentiment of that song lines up with the theme of this album –
and Dizzy would've been 100 this year!”
Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as one of the
“most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation,” Bria Skonberg was
recognized last summer as one of “25 for the Future” by DownBeat
magazine and Vanity Fair cited her as a Millennial
“Shaking Up the Jazz World.” Skonberg is a self-described “small town girl”
from Chilliwack, British Columbia, who hightailed it to Vancouver straight out
of high school and earned a degree in Jazz Trumpet Performance. To date,
she has performed at some 100 festivals worldwide. She is the co-founder of the
New York Hot Jazz Camp and New York Hot Jazz Festival. Further accolades
include her recent 2017 Juno win for Vocal
Jazz Album of The Year for Bria, Best Vocal and Best Trumpet awards from Hot House
Jazz Magazine (2014-15), Outstanding Jazz Artist at the New York Bistro
Awards (2014), DownBeat Rising Star (2013-15), and a nominee for Jazz
Journalists' Association Up and Coming Artist (2013).
Sony
Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, OKeh, Portrait and
Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit https://okeh-records.com/.
Bria
Skonberg: With a Twist Tracklisting
1
My Baby Just Cares for Me
2
Sway
3
Alright, Okay, You
Win
4
Cocktails for
Two
5
Whatever Lola
Wants
6
Dance Me to the End of
Love
7
It’s Oh So Quiet
8
How I Know *
9
High Hat, Trumpet, and
Rhythm
10
Back in Your Own Back
Yard
11
Same Kind of Crazy *
12
Thinking Out Loud
13
Time to Go *
*
Original Song
TOUR DATES:
Listen /
Download Bria’s “With A Twist” album here:
Amazon CD:
http://amzn.to/2qcSaIh
Amazon
Digital:
http://amzn.to/2r3AUGg
Apple Music:
http://smarturl.it/BriaTwist-am
iTunes:
http://smarturl.it/BriaTwist
Spotify:
http://smarturl.it/BriaTwist-str
Google
Play:
http://smarturl.it/BriaTwist-gp
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