An intangible sphere where jazz, pop, soul, and French Impressionism intersect.

4 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Traditional Jazz Combo, POP: Piano



Details:
At the age of thirteen, after listening to Todd Rundgren, Ari Lauren knew that she had to become a musician. She was already musically inclined; a self-taught keyboard player from the age of six on up, Ari also took voice lessons, and, for a brief stint, tried her hand at blues slide guitar.

Although she holds both an undergraduate and a graduate degree in music, Ari maintains that she learned more from listening to the radio than from her studies. A steady routine of listening to classic jazz, classic rock, and soul stations resulted in a style that melded the influences of Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Donald Fagen, Joe Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Curtis Mayfield, in addition to the aforementioned Rundgren.

Today, Ari Lauren, 25, lives in Chicago, where she attempts to connect the city's rich history of blues and jazz with a contemporary rock/pop sensibility, with a bit of French Impressionism thrown in for good measure. In a sea of predictable genres, Ari's is a sound that stands out . . . even more than her slight east coast accent.