Jazz Vocalist Arianna Neikrug to Release New Album “Changes”

SINGER ARIANNA NEIKRUG,
WINNER OF THE 2015 SARAH VAUGHAN INTERNATIONAL VOCAL COMPETITION,MAKES HER CONCORD JAZZ DEBUT

Changes, set for release on August 24, 2018, produced by
Grammy-winning pianist/arranger Laurence Hobgood

June 21, 2018 – After winning the 2015 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition then performing at the Montreal International Jazz Festival the following year, 25-year-old singer and songwriter Arianna Neikrug makes her grander introduction to the music world with the August 24, 2018 release of Changes on Concord Jazz.

Neikrug says the first release off Changes, “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most,“ “is one of my favorite arrangements on this album particularly because the (new) harmonic nature is so encapsulating and reflects the lyric so accurately and so deeply, thus making the track that much more powerful, intriguing, and emotionally striking.”

Produced by the Grammy-winning pianist and arranger Laurence Hobgood, Changes displays Neikrug’s gift for interpreting tunes from the Great American Songbook and more recent pop and R&B classics from the ’70s. The disc also contains two originals that reveal some of Neikrug’s journey from her hometown of Los Angeles to New York City, where she argues she truly belongs.

Hobgood, who recruited his regular trio mates – drummer Jared Schonig and bassist Matt Clohesy – for Changes, describes Neikrug as “an intellectual and complex person.” “I can honestly say that she’s the most theoretically informed singer that I’ve ever worked with – in terms of just knowing music,” Hobgood says. “She understands the basic structures of music and how to talk about it. She has a healthy combination of being strong-willed with being totally open-minded to suggestions. Those are attributes of a singer with a long career.”

Blending the right amount of reverence for the jazz tradition with a knowing glance to modern pop and R&B classics, sprinkled with two inviting originals, Changes will delight both jazz purists and novices without making any unwise artistic compromises as she superbly negotiates the glories of jazz’s past with a wide-eyed optimism that betrays her tender age. “When you’re recording your debut album, fresh out of college, you’re not exactly sure how you want to present yourself,” Neikrug explains. “It was easier figuring that out by discovering who I didn’t want to be. I’m just trying to take the jazz tradition and move it in my direction.”

Track listing:

1. No Moon At All (4:48)

(Redd Evans-Dave Mann)

2. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most (6:09)

(Fran Landesman-Tommy Wolf)

3. Let’s Stay Together (5:15)

(Al Green-Al Jackson Jr.-Willie Mitchell)

4. Changes (4:35)

(Arianna Neikrug-Laurence Hobgood)

5. Medley: Never Let Me Go / I’ll Be There (5:59)

“Never Let Me Go” (Ray Evans-Jay Livingston)/“I’ll Be There” (Bob West-Hal Davis-Berry Gordy Jr.-Willie Hutch)

6. The Song Is You (2:00)

(Oscar Hammerstein II-Jerome Kern)

7. New York Song (4:14)

(Arianna Neikrug)

8. After You’ve Gone (4:29)

(Henry Creamer-Turner Layton)

9. Devil May Care (4:48)

(Bob Dorough-Terrell Kirk)

10. Medley: Help Me / Be Cool (5:55)

(Joni Mitchell)

Arianna Neikrug on the web:

Website: http://www.ariannaneikrug.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ariannaneikrugmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ariannaneikrug
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ariannaneikrug

Concord Music Group