News and Updates

Valerie Joyce performing at the New York Audio Show in April

New York Audio Show 2012
An International High End Audio & Entertainment Event
April 13-15, 2012

With pianist Andy Ezrin
Sunday, April 15th
11:00am and 1:00pm

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
301 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022-6897

Valerie was recently reviewed in The Jordan Times:

Cool, tranquil and easy, that's the kind of jazz Valerie Joyce sings. "New York Blue" is an album by the young lady with American and Japanese blood in her veins. It features 13 tracks of soothing material that is guaranteed to lower your pulse rate and make you forget your troubles, if only for the duration of the playback.

If Joyce's voice is the main ingredient of the recipe to sonic heaven, the entire album, including the pristine performance of the instrumentalists and the high-tech recording by Chesky as well, they all contribute to make a quality of production that is hard to surpass. We are at the opposite of loud and show off here. It's all done with finesse, with subtlety and good taste.

Click here to read the full review.

Vocalist/pianist Valerie Joyce and guitarist Marco de Carvalho perform "If You Never Come To Me."

Valerie Joyce performing her original composition, "Christmas Eve."

Valerie will be performing at the 2012 New York Japanese Jazz Festival with pianist Michael Wolff.

The festival runs May 25 - June 2, 2012.

More details to follow.

To visit the festival website, click here.

Thursday May 5th
Bell Harbor International Conference Center
Elliott Hall
2203 Alaskan Way Seattle, WA 98121

Valerie Joyce will perform with brazilian guitarist Marco de Carvalho at 7:00 PM

Tickets can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com

All proceeds will go to Peace Winds America.

For more information, visit:
http://www.sushichefdreamteam.com

Valerie Joyce has once again been nominated for NW Jazz Vocalist of the Year by Earshot Jazz Magazine.

The awards take place on Sunday, March 20 at Tula's Jazz Club.

You can vote on the Earshot Jazz website until March 15, so click over and cast your vote for Valerie.

A collection of videos featuring Valerie Joyce performing at the "Channeling Chet" concert at The Triple Door in Seattle during the Earshot Jazz Festival is now available on the Videos page.

Vocalist Valerie Joyce talks about her new CD on Chesky Records and performs "The Lamp Is Low"

December 1st, Wednesday, 7-8 PM
Palio Bar
151 West 51st Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 399-9400
(between 6th and 7th avenue Arcade of Equitable building)

"...the most elegant bar in midtown"
- Zagat

Valerie Joyce - vocals
Andy Ezrin - piano
Tim Lefebvre - bass

Ben Black, Lincoln Briney, Valerie Joyce: "Channeling Chet"

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27
THE TRIPLE DOOR
216 Union Street, Seattle
9:30PM , 21+
$15 general, $13 members/seniors, $7 students
(Tickets available online or by calling: 206-838-4333)

Bill Anschell - Piano
Evan Flory-Barnes - Bass
Jose Martinez - Drums
Thomas Marriott - Trumpet
and a special guest

Inspired by a tribute to Baker that Lincoln Briney and others presented in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities, vocalists Briney, Ben Black, and Valerie Joyce evoke the memory and spirit of the Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker (1929-1988). They celebrate Baker, one of the finest trumpeter's and vocalists in jazz history, with songs and anecdotes from his short, scintillating life.

Baker lived hard, to say the least, and he sang the whole range of his experience. Black, Briney, and Joyce have chosen a handful of songs each to cover the range of his expression. So, we can expect some somber songs, some haunting song, some sentimental songs, some Latin numbers, some crooners.

Some of the selections are the obvious ones - numbers he performed often, such as "The Touch of Your Lips," "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," "Almost Blue," and "The Thrill is Gone?" (although here it'll be rendered as an upbeat bossa). We'll hear a distinctive take on "I Should Care," too - as a somber, piano-voice duet.

Many of the renditions, in fact, will be fresh interpretations by the three vocalists. This performance is an homage to Baker, and is far from a slavish repetition of his own performances. It's hard to imagine that, were he still alive, he'd want any kind of tribute but once with a hearty dose of musical and emotional adventure.

Artt Frank, bop drummer/composer/lyrcist, best known for his long term association with trumpeter immortal Chet Baker, invited Valerie Joyce to become honorary board member of the Chet Baker Foundation in 2009.

Tracks from Valerie Joyce's two CDs on Chesky Records are available for download in multiple high resolution formats on hdtracks.com.

Tracks are available in AIFF, MP3 and FLAC format. In addition, Audiophile 96/24 FLAC versions are available too. Click here for more information.

Valerie Joyce is among the nominees for the 2009 Earshot Golden Ear Award category for Northwest Vocalist of the Year along with Cocoa Martini (Karen Shivers, Kimberly Reason, Kay Bailey), Rochelle House, Bernie Jacobs and Greta Matassa.

"Joyce's angelic voice holds a tranquil, ethereal quality that wafts upward with a lighter-than-air mystique..."

- Audio Producer David Chesky says, "Valerie has a great feel for the music and has one of the most unique singing voices I have ever heard."

Valerie Joyce has been performing as a musician on the Seattle music scene since 1994. Born in Japan to an American father and Japanese mother, she was exposed to classical music through her mother's piano playing and extensive record collection. After college, she moved to Seattle where she regularly appears with a variety of jazz ensembles.

"The Look of Love" is Valerie Joyce's much anticipated follow-up to her Chesky debut, featuring elegantly chic original arrangements of the classic pieces in Burt Bacharach & Hal David's catalogue.

Valerie Joyce is featured on the cover of the September issue of Seattle's Earshot Jazz Magazine.

Valerie Joyce possesses so wonderfully idiosyncratic a voice that one cannot help but stop and marvel. What is impressiveis not just the striking acoustic quality of it, but the character she builds into it, to create expression that can be both disarmingly vulnerable and arrestingly deeply hued ...

Joyce delivers all the numbers with emotional nuance ?Äì with maturity... She manages to convey both a sense of discovering lyrics and the resonance of songs, as if for the first time, and a knowing,
deeply felt and considered expression of word and music.

Click here to read the full article.