Club44 Records Releases New Album from Carol Sloane, Live at BIRDLAND

CLUB44 RECORDS has announced the new album Carol Sloane, Live at Birdland, which is available on streaming platforms and on CD in stores and online today, Friday, April 8. This release marks the veteran vocalist's 60th anniversary as a recording artist, and her first album in over a decade. Recorded at the legendary New York jazz boite in September 2019, she was joined by an all-star trio, including the late Mike Renzi on piano, Jay Leonhart on bass, and Scott Hamilton on saxophone. The album features liner notes by award-winning writer James Gavin and is produced by Joel Moss and Mark D. Sendroff. Stream, download or order the album at club44.lnk.to/LiveAtBirdland.

Sloane: A Jazz Singer, the documentary feature film profiling her remarkable career and the creation of this album, is currently in production.

For Live at Birdland, Sloane expertly interprets this collection's 13 songs with her trademark refined taste and elegant, understated delivery. The track list includes several time-honored, household name standards, "The Very Thought of You" and "Two for the Road," in addition to lesser-heard but sophisticated selections such as Andy Razaf and Fats Waller's "Blue Turning Grey Over You." Other highlights include a pair of unheralded gems by the Oscar-winning songwriting team of Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin: the gently swinging opener "Havin' Myself a Time" and the delicately poignant "If I Should Lose You." The album concludes with a ruminative take on a more recent composition: "I'll Always Leave the Door a Little Open" by Richard Rodney Bennett, Franklin R. Underwood, and Johnny Mandel, the master Oscar and Grammy-winning composer who died in 2020.

"It's been a while since Carol has had the opportunity to make a live recording," says Mark D. Sendroff, the album producer who stewarded the project to fruition. "She is indeed 'having herself a time' singing at the venue revered most by jazz musicians, New York City's Birdland. Performing with the late great Mike Renzi on piano, every vocalist's favorite bassist Jay Leonhart and the somewhat reclusive but highly-revered Scott Hamilton on sax, this is Carol's dream scenario. She embraces it with a collection of songs that somehow eluded her as she selected her repertoire for her many recordings over the past decades. Hearing her perform such singers' favorites as 'The Very Thought of You' and 'Two for the Road,' one can appreciate what Carol has been offering her listeners for more than a half century: passion, awareness, musicianship, surprise, irony, humor - the whole package. Most impressive is her closing number, a song she takes great pride in recording as it reflects how she feels at this time of her life: 'I'll Always Leave The Door a Little Open.' And that she does, to this very day. How lucky we are to be in the room with her for this set!"

After a lifetime of critical plaudits, Stephen Holden of The New York Times perfectly sums up Carol's special gifts: "Instead of pyrotechnics, she achieves an ideal mixture of clarity, emotional balance and buoyancy. As much as any singer of her generation, Ms. Sloane understands the value of restraint. Her ballads convey with a quiet authority the assimilated wisdom of a woman who has been there, done that and moved on. She luxuriates in her introspective material, savoring the lyrics and lingering over the ends of phrases in a sweet humming vibrato."

Wayne Haun, co-founder of Club44 Records, adds "I'm one of the millions who grew up listening to Carol. I saw her on TV and heard her on the radio. I even bought one of her CDs in college instead of beer. Now that's a fan! To have even a small part in presenting this singular recording humbles me to the core. As a label, we are truly standing on the shoulders of a giant."

Carol Sloane, a native New Englander, was born into a family of music lovers. Although Carol never had formal music training, she was blessed with the ability to "hear" and quickly memorized hundreds of popular songs she heard on the radio in the 1940s and '50s. In 1958, after performing with local groups during her teens, Carol was offered a job singing with the famous Larry Elgart Orchestra. She toured with the band until 1961, when she was given the opportunity to sing at the Newport Jazz Festival through the lobbying efforts of her friend, renowned jazz vocalist and composer Jon Hendricks.

Carol released her first album for Columbia Records in 1962, and began a successful career appearing in the top jazz clubs in America. She made her New York debut opening for Oscar Peterson at the famed Village Vanguard. She was the opening act for Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Jackie Mason, and Phyllis Diller in such places as Mr. Kelly's in Chicago and the hungry i in San Francisco. She was a regular on "The Tonight Show" with Jack Paar, and later appeared on the program with Johnny Carson, once sharing a broadcast with Barbra Streisand.

Her extensive discography attests to her long association with major recording labels in the U.S. Among the great musicians with whom she has recorded are Art Farmer, Kenny Barron, Phil Woods, Bill Charlap, Frank Wess, Kenny Burrell, Clark Terry, Bill Mays, Houston Person, and Tommy Flanagan.

She has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, and Town Hall. She has toured Japan extensively as part of The Concord Jazz Festival and has appeared in Canada, the UK, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, and The North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. Her New York jazz club engagements include The Village Vanguard, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, The Jazz Standard and Birdland. Carol Sloane currently resides near Boston. CarolSloane.com.

CLUB44 RECORDS - based in the Music City of Nashville, Tennessee - is a new independent label which aims to highlight the Broadway, cabaret and jazz genres, preserve the American Songbook, and provide a home for artists who represent this timeless music. Following their premiere studio release, Christmas at Birdland, the label has presented Les Misérables Symphonic Highlights, arranged, orchestrated and conducted by David T. Clydesdale and Brian Eads; Love Notes, the latest album from Tony Award and Golden Globe winner Linda Lavin; Billy's Place from Grammy Award winner Billy Stritch; Act One from rising vocal star Nicolas King; and Jane Monheit's Come What May, which celebrates the international Billboard #1 pop/jazz vocalist's 20th anniversary as a recording artist. Club44 Records also serves as the creative home of many other singers, instrumentalists and writers. All releases are distributed digitally through Green Hill Productions/ Universal Music Group and to retail outlets by Provident/Sony. Club44Records.com

"Carol Sloane - LIVE AT BIRDLAND" TRACK LIST

1) Havin' Myself a Time (Ralph Rainger - Leo Robin)

2) Blue Turning Grey Over You (Andy Razaf - Fats Waller)

3) I Don't Want to Walk Without You (Jule Styne - Frank Loesser)

4) As Long As I Live (Harold Arlen - Ted Koehler)

5) Glad to Be Unhappy (Richard Rodgers - Lorenz Hart) / I Got a Right to Sing the Blues (Harold Arlen - Ted Koehler)

6) If I Should Lose You (Ralph Rainger - Leo Robin)

7) You Were Meant for Me (Nacio Herb Brown - Arthur Freed)

8) The Very Thought of You (Ray Noble)

9) You're Driving Me Crazy (Walter Donaldson)

10) Two for the Road (Henry Mancini - Leslie Bricusse)

11) Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (Harry Barris - Billy Moll - Ted Koehler)

12) I'll Always Leave the Door a Little Open (Richard Rodney Bennett - Franklin R. Underwood - Johnny Mandel)