Masterfully mixes jazz and pop, bringing virtuosity and unpredictability to songs that are concise and catchy

 

– The Washington Post

For the first time in more than 10 years, multi award winner Laila Biali returns to the Great American Songbook to launch her latest release: Your Requests, Volume 1.

Line-up: LAILA BIALI piano, vocals; GEORGE KOLLER bass; BEN WITTMAN drums tbc; + guest come and hear them at Ronnie Scott’s! 

For the first time in more than 10 years, multi award winner Laila Biali returns to the Great American Songbook to launch her latest release: Your Requests, Volume 1. Widely recognized for her original material including the SOCAN Hagood Hardy Songwriting Award in 2020, this shift back to classic jazz repertoire was prompted by Laila’s delight in fulfilling the song requests of her fans. When Laila asked her social media followers what tunes they’d like to hear her cover, more than 150 songs were submitted.

Your Requests, Volume 1 debuts the first collection of Laila’s dynamic and personal arrangements in response to her listeners, which she describes as a musical love letter to them. It features guest vocalist Kurt Elling, clarinetist Anat Cohen, harmonica star Grégoire Maret, plus tenor saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, bassist George Koller, drummers Larnell Lewis and Ben Wittman, and others.

Check out Laila Biali’s website for more information: https://lailabiali.com/

Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist and CBC Music national radio host Laila Biali has headlined festivals and venues spanning five continents from New York City’s Carnegie Hall to Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and supported international icon Sting. Her latest full album release, Out of Dust, received rave reviews and was nominated for a 2021 JUNO Award. In 2020, Laila was honoured by SOCAN Music with the Hagood Hardy Award for Excellence in Songwriting. In 2019, Laila’s eponymous release won her a JUNO (Canada’s GRAMMY) for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.”

The year prior, she was awarded top prize at the Canadian Songwriting Competition in the Jazz category. Laila was also the youngest-ever double winner at Canada’s National Jazz Awards when she was named “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year.” She received her first JUNO nomination for Tracing Light (2011), and a spot on DownBeat Magazine’s “Best Albums of the Year” for both Live in Concert (2013) and Out of Dust (2020). In September of 2017, Laila was brought on as the host for CBC Music’s national radio show, Saturday Night Jazz, a weekly show broadcast to millions of listeners across Canada.

While Laila continues to earn high honours in the jazz world, her signature sound transcends genre as she “masterfully mixes jazz and pop, bringing virtuosity and unpredictability to songs that are concise and catchy” (Washington Post). Her forthcoming 2023 release – Your Requests, Vol. 1 – showcases personal arrangements of jazz classics requested by her followers and features guest vocalists Kurt Elling, Emilie-Claire Barlow, and Caity Gyorgy plus instrumentalists Anat Cohen, Grégoire Maret, tenor saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, bassist George Koller, and drummers Larnell Lewis and Ben Wittman.