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Deeply valued as a musician's singer throughout her career, Laurie Antonioli is sure to come into wider awareness and appreciation with the release on June 22 of her fourth album, American Dreams. The stunning new disc, on her Intrinsic Music label, is her first U.S. release since 1985's Soul Eyes (a duo album with George Cables) and amounts to a belated and much-welcome American debut.
 
Years in the making, and in the dreaming, American Dreams is an eclectic project held together by Laurie's supple voice and expansive vision, and by her world-class band -- pianist Matt Clark, saxophonist Sheldon Brown, guitarist Dave MacNab, bassist John Shifflett, and drummer Jason Lewis.

"Calling American Dreams a jazz album is too narrowing a description. This record is actually an odyssey through the American musical landscape."- All About Jazz

Whether interpreting American Songbook standards, reinventing traditional American songs, or introducing contemporary melodies made vivid with her original lyrics, Antonioli brings her incisive musical intelligence to bear on every tune. The result is a gorgeous tapestry woven from the raw materials of jazz, folk, and country music, a thematically unified program largely created during her years teaching vocal jazz in Austria.

Laurie's second album, 2004's Foreign Affair, is a bracing blend of post-bop jazz and Balkan music created with players from Serbia, Albania, Germany, and the U.S. In 2005, her long-running partnership with Richie Beirach culminated in the release of The Duo Session on Nabel Records, a critically acclaimed album featuring Miles Davis jazz standards and Antonioli's lyrics set to the pianist's compositions. A second duo album with Beirach, featuring his originals with lyrics by Antonioli, as well as spontaneous duets, is scheduled for release in 2011.

For more information, visit www.laurieantonioli.com

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