Spencertown, N.Y. — Jazz singer Laura Anglade will appear with her quartet on Saturday, December 7, at Spencertown Academy’s Blanche Grubin Auditorium in the Academy’s Roots & Shoots Concerts Series. The event is billed as a “vintage” jazz concert, because Laura will perform music from Broadway, the Great American Songbook, and Tin Pan Alley, along with classic French Chanson performed so exquisitely that you could easily find yourself drooling on your shoes.
This will come as good news to folks who missed Laura’s sold-out show at the Academy a little over a year ago. It is also good news that she will appear with the same musicians as last time: Ben Rosenblum on piano and accordion, Marty Jaffe on bass, and drummer Ben Zweig. These players accompany Laura with the utmost in sensitivity and taste.
Ben Rosenblum’s résumé as a jazz and pop pianist—leader and sideman—includes stints with such GRAMMY- and Juno-recognized artists as Rickie Lee Jones, Kiran Ahluwalia, Curtis Lundy, and Nêgah Santos. His own music draws from diverse sources: Brazilian forró, Irish reels and jigs, Bulgarian folkloric songs, Dominican merengue, and Middle Eastern traditional rhythms. But it is all rooted in American jazz and traditional music. Ben has received awards for his compositions from ASCAP and Downbeat, and, most notably, his Nebula Project was voted runner-up for Best New Artist in JazzTimes’ 2020 Readers’ Poll, having been well reviewed by over 20 publications, including All About Jazz, NYC Jazz Record, JazzTimes, and JazzLife. A graduate of the Columbia University-Juilliard joint program, Rosenblum is active as an educator, having led workshops at such universities as Columbia, Tampa, Mount St. Joseph, Minnesota, South Carolina, Central Florida, and at many colleges and high schools.
Bassist Marty Jaffe’s musical background encompasses not only jazz music but also classical and Brazilian. Having shared stages with such iconic musicians as Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Ingrid Jensen, Karrin Allyson, Harold Mabern, Sullivan Fortner, Sergio Mendes, and Steve Wilson, Marty has performed in interdisciplinary productions directed by choreographers Bill T. Jones and Debbie Allen.
Based in New York City, drummer Ben Zweig has played in countries around the world, including Japan, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Chile, Cameroon, North America, and at many New York City venues. Ben is rooted in the music of West and Central Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean, as well as in European classical music. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music.
Laura Anglade’s singing is probably the closest thing to effortless you are likely to hear from any jazz vocalist. The last time she appeared at Spencertown Academy, I was obliged to write the following:
There is no shortage of female jazz singers in the world. But there most certainly is a shortage of women who sing jazz as naturally and as comfortably as Laura Anglade does. Her pure tone, sparing use of vibrato, and total lack of affectation are almost startling when you first hear her, because you feel convinced that no singer has ever been so completely honest with you.
Hear the Laura Anglade quartet play vintage jazz at Spencertown Academy’s Blanche Grubin Auditorium on Friday, December 7, at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets ($25 public, $20 Academy members) are available here.
