Easy listening jazz standards,some infused with a french flavor.

14 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals, EASY LISTENING: Mood Music



Details:
ALBUM DESCRIPTION:
In her album Solitude, Luce Black brings a fresh approach to jazz standards. Her unique style brings a twist of exotic Latin and French influences to some of her swing tunes and ballads. Luceâs renditions are infused with personality through an intriguing blend of tenderness and edginess in her sound, strongly supported by an all professional rhythm section. The arrangements are brilliantly orchestrated and sure to please listeners.

ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY:
Luce Forté Black was born in Montréal to a French Canadian family. Her mother and sister were both musicians and classical vocalists, and Luce started classical piano lessons at the age of four. Through the years, she participated in festivals and music contests and won prizes. At 16, she won a scholarship to the Conservatory of Music in Montréal where she studied for two years before pursuing a business degree in college.
She set music aside for the next few years while she completed her degree and starting working. In 1989, she met her husband Tom Black from Salt Lake City, Utah. They were married in 1991 and took residence in Salt Lake City.
Luce built a successful marketing consulting business which included French voiceovers on and off camera, but she missed her musical activities. In 1998, she bought a grand piano and started building a new repertoire. She took engagements at various receptions and played as a guest artist at the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City.
However, Luceâs ultimate musical ambition was to sing. She started classical voice lessons but her progress was slow and tortuous. She tried six different voice teachers over a number of years and all were unsuccessful in bringing Luceâs voice to life. One teacher even told her that she was wasting her time trying to sing, but Luce knew she had it in her and was determined to find the teacher that would help her make it happen. She felt that although she loved playing classical piano, classical voice was not a good fit for her bubbly personality; jazz was much more exciting. This was a daring transition for her; both her parents were faithful classical music enthusiasts and somewhat unsupportive of many other music and vocal styles.
In the fall of 2004, she found the teacher sheâd been looking for and started jazz vocal lessons with Kelly Eisenhour. It was a perfect match. Luce knew little about jazz other than the fact that she loved it, but she was a fast learner and hard worker.
Meanwhile, Luce was preparing to make a piano recording that would become her first music album. Now that she had found a good voice teacher, she challenged herself to learn lyrics to four new songs (every song was a new song to her at that point) and add them to her piano album. She recorded her vocals in February 2005 and was scheduled to record her piano a week later, but a few days before the scheduled piano recording, she fell ill with severe bronchitis and recorded with a fever. âI had to record that evening and I felt so weak that I spent most of the day in bed to save my energyâ¦the show must go on, you know. I was just grateful that I had recorded my vocals before getting sick. Little did I know then how long it would take before I could sing again.â
Luceâs illness got worse and caused a violent chronic cough that lasted for weeks and injured her vocal cords. She could hardly talk anymore. She went to the University of Utahâs Laryngology/Voice University Medical Center and consulted with a physician and a speech language pathologist. She needed complete vocal rest and stopped talking for 3 weeks (not even a whisper! Not a small feat if you know Luce) during which time she carried a pad of paper at all times and used her dogâs squeaker toy to talk on the phone (one squeak for yes, two for no). Luce recalls: âIt was a pretty strange experience. I would write down what I wanted to say on my pad of paper so that I could still communicate, but people reacted in all sorts of ways. Some ignored me or were flat out rude; others were kind, caring and patient. I finally figured out that if I put a name to my condition, people were more comfortable. I made a tag that I wore around my neck at all times that said âlaryngitisâ. It wasnât completely true, but people understood that better than if Iâd written âvocal cord injuryâ. I never felt as isolated as during those three weeks. Needless to say it was a very frustrating time.â
Six months went by before Luce was able to start singing again in September 2005. This was devastating news because she had planned on spending spring and summer preparing Solitude, a jazz vocals recording as her second album. The illness had taken away precious preparation time and she was on a schedule.
Indeed, Luce had decided a while back on a change of career that would help her make a more personal impact on peopleâs lives and decided to embrace the profession of medicine. She was accepted at the University of Utah School of Medicine in the Physician Assistant Program. The program was starting in May 2006. Once in school, her time would be limited: her recording had to be completed before. She worked several hours most days to prepare. She listened to dozens of songs before carefully selecting fourteen, none of which she had sung before, putting thought and work into the vocal arrangements. âWhen I first decided on this project, I didnât realize the magnitude of the task ahead. I spent time thinking about the vocal arrangements and the general feel I wanted to create with the band arrangements. Many times Iâd go to my lesson and tell Kelly about a new idea I had about how to sing a certain song or passage, or licks I had in mind, many of them quite ambitious for my level. I had all these ideas, but vocally, I wasnât technically ready, so I had to work really hard to get there. Kelly must have been a bit skeptical at times but she never kept me from daring to try. Always, she encouraged me and gave me the tools to make ideas come to life, and with her skillful direction and my hard work, I progressed really fast.â
Luce hired Steve Keen, a professional pianist, accordionist and arranger, to develop the band arrangements, many of which she arranged with him. âSteve was awesome to work with. Iâd go to his studio and tell him my vision, the feel I had in mind, and some ideas for the band arrangements. I described to him images I had in my mind of scenes that the songs elicited. Steve was the beset person to help me make those images come to life in music. No matter how clear or unclear, Steve always captured my vision and enhanced it with his amazing chord progressions. Steve and I had a lot of fun sharing ideas and coming up with great stuff. To top it off, he loves the accordion and so do I⦠the accordion is so French that it feels like home to me. It was great to incorporate a French flavor to some of my songs.â
Luce is continuing her vocal endeavours--although at a much slower pace-- and claims that along with swimming, itâs the thing that keeps her sane while studying medicine. She continues to work with Kelly on her voice, and she works with Steve on new songs and arrangements (she wants to do La Vie En Rose as a stand alone song), and she also performs at gigs whenever time and opportunity allows. She is looking forward to taking on new musical challenges both with vocals and piano once she graduates as a Physician Assistant in August 2008.

To e-mail Luce: luceislight@yahoo.com