..............Wednesday, November 18th is the date for your diarys.
Purcell Room in South Bank, London is the address!
http://www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/2009-11-18/clara-sanabras-real-lowdown-alexia-gardner
is one of the websites with info.......
Alex Webb www.myspace.com/alexwebbproject has invited me to join him at the London Jazz Festival this year. He wrote the tune Forbidden Fruit which is the first track on my latest cd Chasing Hope. I am so thrilled. To be away for so long and now to have the chance to come home to the UK to perform along side some of the top names in the Jazz world is AMAZING!
Here is the extended version of the promption text that went out! Please read on! in the meantime, do yourself a favour, buy a ticket and come out and listen to Piano, Bass and Voice!
It's gonna be SLAMMING.......
A beautifully crafted album is Chasing Hope. Alexia’s new album scheduled for November release is Chasing Hope, recorded over two, warm sunny days in the Offbeat Studios of Switzerland’s St Gallen region. This is a gentle departure from Alexia’s first two albums. These were recorded in front of a live audience whilst touring Asia . With the new album Alexia has had the luxury of selecting her musicians and musical standards – old and new – and presenting them in a studio setting.
Chasing Hope moves from straight ahead Jazz to smooth pop ballads; from Cole Porter’s Love For Sale to Seal’s Love Divine, from Rodgers and Hart’s timeless Blue Moon performed in a Latin style to the smooth rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s The Nearness Of You. There is also a touch of Gospel and a sprinkling of the Blues in Chasing Hope too. Chasing Hope is the title track and one of the four original tunes featured on the recording. Alexia wrote this tune, all about a spunky 8-year old girl called Hope, with gifted New York pianist Oliver Von Essen whilst living in Shanghai She sat down at the piano with Oliver Von Essen. He had performed with Alexia in Hongkong a few years earlier. She sang him the song and he brought it to life.
At the London Jazz Festival on November 18, Alexia will be accompanied by London based Alex Webb, songwriter and pianist. He wrote Forbidden Fruit, the swinging, funky opening track of the album, and has been writing fabulous tunes for Alexia ever since they met on Myspace a couple of years ago! Chasing Hope the album will be featured at this years London Jazz Festival. A real honour for Alexia who has been away from her home country for over 10 years.