JOELLE LURIE "TAKE ME HERE"

Joelle Lurie’s bright voice and talented band has made her a first pick for high-profile events including the recent James Beard Awards at Lincoln Center. Originally from Boston, the New Yorker studied jazz and opera and brings that training to her distinctive “jazzed up pop/popped up jazz” modern style on Take Me There (September 30), her debut self-release of standards, originals and pop covers.Produced and arranged by longtime bassist and bandmate, Ben Gallina (Amy Lynn and the Gunshow, Anthony D’Amato, Honey Honey), Take Me There showcases Joelle’s tight band of five years, The Pinehurst Trio. The trio is named for the quaint street in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. All millennial kids, the trio is influenced by many musical styles including pop, Motown, folk and jazz and have performed around the world.Recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, the CD engages from the opening track, the jazz standard “All or Nothing At All” done with a hip hop feel. Joelle calls on her contemporary pop influences with the Tears for Fears song that follows, “Head Over Heels.” She welcomes special guest vocalist and pianist Matt Kanelos on the next two moving songs, “Should We” and the title track. Kanelos has been featured on the ABC TV show “Private Practice”, on Nickelodeon’s “Degrassi” and on NPR’s Song of the Day. Joelle returns on a sauntering version of Ric Ocasek’s “Just What I Needed.”  She, Gallina and Anna Marquardt wrote the next track, “What We Have Is Better,” featuring a funky throwback soul sound.  The haunting 17 century secular folk song “Hares On The Mountain” is given a jazz waltz treatment. Acknowledging her musical theater roots, Joelle includes the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim song, “Somewhere,” which is followed by the standard “Almost Like Being in Love,” which marries an uptempo swing with the groove from “Can’t Hurry Love.” Next is “Three States Away,” a Burt Bacharach inspired original with lyrics from a poem by Craig Crist-Evans entitled “What The Heart Thinks.” “The Man I Love” by the Gershwins is reimagined as an upbeat homage to Stevie Wonder. The closing song, the classic “Detour Ahead,” is approached with a lush, orchestral studio sound. JOELLE LURIE