ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
While some jazz singers make claims by including evergreens from the Great American Songbook in their repertoire, Jane Irving’s “...Lavish talent and striking originality” make her a natural storyteller in the jazz genre.
FULL BIO
Jazz vocalist and pianist Jane Irving is a native of Sydney, Australia and a New Yorker since 2011. A valued presence on the New York jazz scene — guitar great Russell Malone has called her “the personification of taste” — she has worked with Ron Affif, Tadataka Unno, Mark Ferber, Josh Richman, Ed Cherry, Sullivan Fortner, Bruce Barth, Paul Bollenback, Saul Rubin, John di Martino and more. She’s performed at top NYC venues including Birdland, Mezzrow, Zinc Bar, 55 Bar, Maureen’s Jazz Cellar (Nyack) and many other spots.
Irving’s “lavish talent and striking originality” (The Weekend Australian) make her a natural storyteller in the genre. A classical piano student from age six (placing third in her state’s final high school performance exam), she regularly incorporates the instrument into her live gigs — she began, in fact, as a working pianist/singer and had an epiphany after her first experience as a solo vocalist. Singing has been her primary means of expression ever since.
Eluding easy classification, Irving is not a bebop singer, not an old-fashioned crooner, but an artist with a clear jazz sensibility and an individual sound, studied and seasoned. She can swing hard but also deliver a lingering ballad in the mold of Shirley Horn or Blossom Dearie. According to writer John Clare, she has “plenty of personality, expressed as genuine wit. And pure musical enthusiasm … a highly musical combination of relaxed energy and thrilling release. Music comes out her ears. She is full of rhythm.”
Irving is a former student of Australia’s leading jazz vocalist, Kerrie Biddell, and a teacher herself, formerly in Sydney’s Young Women in Jazz program, currently at the Church Street School for Music and Art in Tribeca. She spent 20 years singing with her own groups at venues and festivals throughout Australia and in 2007 released her debut album, Beams. Coproduced by Biddell, the album featured trumpeter Don Rader (Woody Herman/Count Basie/Maynard Ferguson), pianist Michael Bartolomei and other top players.
Irving’s 2023 release, Don’t Quit Now, features pianist Josh Richman, bassist Kevin Hailey (her husband) and drummer Kayvon Gordon on a collection of songs reflecting what she calls “a process of elimination” in her repertoire. Enduring loss of work through the pandemic and going through seismic shifts of her own, Irving “sought creative nourishment in space and vulnerability,” she says. “I am now in a deeper, more discerning place.” Rendering songs by the likes of Ivan Lins, Al Cohn/Dave Frishberg, Dizzy Gillespie and Jay Leonhart, Irving invites listeners to step with her into that place, fulfilling the next step in her creative journey.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EPK
PRESS
“Ms. Irving is one badass jazz stylist, the kind that makes audiences say WOW!”
“There are very few anywhere who can make it work today. Jane Irving is one of the few.”
“I have been listening to Jane for quite some time and she is the personification of taste.”
“Lavish talent and striking originality”
“Jane Irving’s emphasis on originality strikes an eclectic fresh note within a jazz setting”
“Beautifully understated and powerful for being so.”
“Beams is one indispensable jazz album. Jane is that rare combination of artist, deeply immersed in jazz yet with a sound all of her own. Stellar support from some of Australia’s finest musicians too.”
“Having seen through the pandemic years in the Big Apple, Jane responds to those trying times with a record that’s both reflective and uplifting, and as always, she swings like crazy.”
“Irving’s whiplash scat command is thrilling.”
“Intimate, highly personal singing and storytelling. A moving statement that first-class music, like love itself, is never predictable”
“A dazzling, beautiful voice. This album is filled with sincerity and flawless interpretation. An exceptional artist.”
PRESS PHOTOS
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EPK