Halie Loren is a singer/songwriter who is carving out a unique musical niche within the Northwest jazz and alternative music scenes with her jazz-infused, multi-genre style. Her richly textured and emotive voice, compelling song interpretations, and evocative songwriting have garnered critical praise and multiple awards (Billboard Int'l, John Lennon, etc.) over her decade-long career, including her most recent win for Best Vocal Jazz Album at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards 2009. Originally from Alaska, Loren now resides in Oregon and performs around the Northwest. Loren is currently working on her 4th CD, a live album, to be released in early 2010. Visit www.halieloren.com for more info!
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Halie Loren's 2008 CD release, "They Oughta Write a Song," won Best Vocal Jazz Album at the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards in Nashville on Aug. 29. Loren flew to Nashville to receive the award in person. JPF received 42,000 albums and 700,000+ songs from 163 countries. Entries were filtered down to the top song and best album nominees in 95 genres of music. Loren's was received nominations in the New Folk category in the Adult Contemporary category.
HALIE LOREN - www.halieloren.com
The first thing you notice is that voice: gorgeous, graceful, and somehow earthy and ethereal at once. It is an instrument perfectly matched to the songwriting talents of the artist who channels it -- Halie Loren. Her music conveys the wonders of the invisible world: wounded defiance, stubborn love, hard-earned hopefulness.
Fed by the hyperborean beauty of her childhood Alaska home, Loren's gift for discovering the playfulness, pizazz, and sensuality inherent in a lyric appeared early on. But it was her talent for turning those feelings into genre-defying original compositions -- songs at once universal and deeply personal -- that captured wider attention.
With purity of tone and rare interpretive prowess, she brings a fresh and original perspective to time-honored musical paths, channeling her innate understanding of connectedness across musical boundaries to forge bonds with diverse audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe.
After her debut jazz CD, 2008's They Oughta Write a Song, won a national independent music award for best vocal jazz album, it received distribution in Asia by JVC/Victor Entertainment and in North America by Justin Time Records. She followed with the live album Stages, an Editor's Pick at CD Baby and "best live album of the year" at Wildy's World. After Dark followed in 2010, with the Loren original Thirsty winning the Independent Music Awards' Vox Pop poll for best jazz song of the year.
In its savvy concoction of jazz standards, re-imagined pop classics, and shimmering new originals, 2012's Heart First revealed a confidently maturing artist on her own heartfelt journey. Japan's Jazz Critique magazine honored it as the best vocal jazz album of 2011. Fly Me to the Moon, a bonus track, spent three weeks at No. 1 on the iTunes Japan jazz chart. It was among the top 10 jazz CDs in Hot New Releases at Amazon in the U.S. and Canada, and reached No. 1 on the iTunes Canada jazz albums chart.
Loren's music has proven irresistible to concert halls, whose numbers now include performances with the Jazz Orchestra of Sicily, the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra in Oregon, and the Monroe Symphony in Louisiana. For the past three years she has traveled the world with the members of her original band, including Canada, Japan, Italy, China, Hong Kong, and South Korea.
The year 2013 brought Halie Loren's most varied and polished collection to date, Simply Love, with three sparkling new originals and ten radiantly re-imagined classics from contrasting eras of the American songbook. It rose to the top of the Japan charts in pop and jazz even before its June release date, and claimed No. 1 in its first week and by its third week, climbed to No. 1 spot on Billboard Jazz / Japan. Singles included the string-infused original Cuando Bailamos, Carole King's 1974 B-side hit I Feel the Earth Move, and the sweetly honest title track, which Loren co-wrote with Benita Hill.
Simply Love was released in the U.S. and Canada by Justin Time Records on Sept. 10, 2013, entering iTunes Canada as #1 jazz album. The album is currently in 2013 Grammy balloting phase for Vocal Jazz Album of the year. Loren and her band are touring the US and other parts of the world in support of the album.
Listen to Halie Loren's artistry flowering in the months and years to come, and you will hear the sound of timeworn, time-tested music opening to new possibilities.
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For Additional Information:
Jim West, Wild West Artist Management, Inc.
Phone: 514-738-9533 / Email: info@wildwestartistmanagement.com / Website: www.wildwestartist.com
Keith Altomare, Music Marketing Management
Phone: 541-992-5399 / Email: kaltomare@gmail.com
Greg Kastelman, Booking Coordinator. Cadenza Artists LLC
Phone: (310) 909-7963 / Email: greg@cadenzaartists.com / Website: www.cadenzaartists.com