Stevie Holland

http://www.stevieholland.com/
Stevie Holland continues to chart her own path as a completely original artist and unique song stylist. A dynamic performer, gifted storyteller, and intelligent lyricist with a natural voice that transcends categorization, she’s traversed many musical worlds, developing an unusually eclectic fan base. In the last few years, her repertoire, phrasing and innate sense of swing have been turning the critics’ heads and earning her even greater respect as a rising star in jazz.
Her new CD Before Love Has Gone is a collection of rarely recorded classics, standards and original songs, including the title track penned by Stevie and Gary William Friedman, the award winning composer who also did the arrangements, and whose jazz roots run deep to the free form experiments of the 60’s. Grammy award winner Todd Barkan has joined forces as co-producer with Tim Peierls and Friedman on Before Love Has Gone, helping to shape what promises to be Stevie’s most important release yet. Barkan, who has recorded upward of 1,000 albums, describes Stevie’s performance of “Lazy Afternoon” as “One of the finest vocals I have ever recorded”.
The material on Before Love Has Gone is unblushingly romantic. The ten-track set begins with a playful, Latin-flavored invitation to dance via Vincent Youman’s “Carioca” and continues with “Before Love Has Gone”(Holland-Friedman), “Where Or When” (Rodgers/Hart), “Lazy Afternoon” (Jerome Moross/John Latouche), “The Music In Me That Plays” (Holland/Friedman), “Make Our Garden Grow” (Richard Wilbur/Leonard Bernstein), “Daybreak” (Harold Adamson/ Ferde Grofe), “How Deep Is The Ocean” (Irving Berlin), “Riverboat Gambler” (Carly Simon/Jacob Brackman) and “Here’s To Your Illusions” (Sammy Fain/Yip Harburg).
Noted author and journalist Gary Giddins has contributed liner notes for the album.
Backing Stevie is Martin Bejerano on piano, Edward Perez on bass and Willie Jones III on drums, with guest appearances by Ole Mathisen on sax and Paul Bollenback on guitar.
Stevie’s last two releases More Than Words Can Say and Restless Willow charted at radio stations across the country, ending up on a variety of top ten lists including KSDS FM, San Diego, CA’s Top Ten CDs of the Year and the Cape Fear Jazz Appreciation Society in NC’s Top Ten CDs of the Year. The track “This Is It” on More Than Words Can Say crossed over to the smooth jazz world and remained in the top 25 on the RadioWave Jazz/Fusion chart for 2 months. On Restless Willow, Stevie recorded “Jeg Elsker Dig”, a haunting Norwegian love ballad (co-written with Friedman, based on an Edvard Grieg classic), which made such an impact on the Norwegian community, that Stevie was invited to sing it for the King and Queen of Norway.
The youngest of seven children, Stevie grew up in a music-filled, Norwegian-Italian household in Westchester County, New York. Her father was a tenor sax-playing commercial artist and avid jazz record collector, and her mother was a church soloist who also performed in recitals and operas.
Stevie received a scholarship to study music and theater at New York University. She went on to develop a solo career in NYC’s cabaret circuit. Her appearances in concert halls and venues around the country have won her consistent critical acclaim. Her commitment to jazz was a purely natural transition, and one that has decidedly informed her last few recordings.
Stevie's first CD release as a singer/lyricist was Do You Ever Dream, a collection of spiritual songs, This Is America followed, an anthem released as a CD single fundraiser in response to the tragedy of September 11th.
Stevie then turned to the American standard songbook, performing a one-woman show entitled “Almost Like Being In Love”, which set the material for a CD of the same name and earned Stevie the BACK STAGE MAGAZINE Bistro Award for Outstanding Vocalist of the Year.
Among other Holland-Friedman songwriting projects, Stevie can be heard singing a theme song for Joey Reynolds, the popular Rock n' Roll Hall-of-Famer/ Radio talk show host, which is played nightly on his national program.
Stevie continues to grow as an all-encompassing artist, and her sense of humor, vulnerability, swinging jazz phrasing and sheer vocal beauty shine through better than ever with Before Love Has Gone.

http://www.stevieholland.com/