LISTEN HERE
 
WATCH VISUALIZER FOR ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
BYE BYE BLACKBIRD
 
ON TOUR THROUGH SPRING AND SUMMER
INCLUDING CANADIAN DATES WITH THE OSTARA PROJECT

TORONTO, ON – May 26, 2023 – Today, critically-acclaimed, award-winning vocalist/pianist, Laila Biali, unveils her gorgeous new collection of Great American Songbook interpolations – Your Requests. A love letter to her listeners, the album sees Biali shift back to the classic jazz repertoire for the first time in more than 10 years, crafting dynamic and personal arrangements in response to song requests submitted by her fans. Listen to Your Requests here, including album highlight, Bye Bye Blackbird, out now!
 
Widely recognized for her original material, this return to classic jazz standards was prompted by Biali’s delight in fulfilling the song requests of her fans, and marks her first album release that exclusively features covers. When she put out the call on social media asking her followers what tunes they'd like to hear her perform and record, more than 150 songs were submitted.
 
“When the song requests came in for this album, there were a few tunes I had actually arranged decades earlier,” reflects Biali. “I created the arrangement for Bye Bye Blackbird almost 20 years ago, when I was fresh out of jazz school. It was tucked away in a binder until a follower online requested it for this project. So, we dusted it off, polished it up and decided to make it the lead track for Your Requests. It's a fantastic feature for the great drummer, Larnell Lewis, and saxophonist, Kelly Jefferson. 
 
This album was an opportunity to revisit past arrangements like that, bring them into the present, and capture them on recording. I found it quite rewarding to revisit those versions and to be reminded of the excitement I felt when taking on familiar repertoire. These are well-known songs to most jazz fans, and my goal was to honour the original versions while offering a fresh and fun perspective on the old classics. I hope folks enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed re-imagining them!”
 
Your Requests also marks Biali’s first time recording duets for a full-length album, and  features a number of world-class guest vocalists, including Kurt Elling (2x GRAMMY winner), Emilie-Claire Barlow (2x JUNO winner), and Caity Gyorgy (JUNO winner). The record is rounded out musically by clarinet virtuoso, Anat Cohen (GRAMMY winner); GRAMMY nominees, Grégoire Maret and Sam Yahel; plus tenor saxophonist, Kelly Jefferson; bassist, George Koller; drummers, Larnell Lewis and Ben Wittman; and more. 
 
Dive in to Your Requests, and find your new old favourite with Laila Biali!
 
YOUR REQUESTS TRACKLIST:
1. Bye Bye Blackbird
2. Blame It On My Youth
3. But Not For Me
4. My Funny Valentine
5. My Favorite Things
6. Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)
7. Pennies from Heaven
8. Autumn Leaves
9. The Nearness of You
10. All the Things You Are

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:
May 26 – Cologne, DE – Salon de Jazz
May 27 – Stuttgart, DE – BIX Jazzclub
May 28 – Berlin, DE – Jazz Club A-Trane
May 29 – Bad Meinberg, DE – Red Horn District
May 31 – Paris, FR – Sunset Sunside
June 1 – London, UK – Ronnie Scott’s
June 17 – Woodstock, GA – Elm Street Arts Village
June 22 – Winnipeg, MB – Winnipeg Jazz Festival *
June 23 – Medicine Hat, AB – Medicine Hat Jazz Festival *
June 24 – Victoria, BC – Victoria Jazz Festival *
June 25 – Vancouver, BC – Vancouver Jazz Festival *
June 27 – Ottawa, ON – Ottawa Jazz Festival *
June 28 – Toronto, ON – Toronto Jazz Festival *
June 30 – Saskatoon, SK – Saskatoon Jazz Festival *
July 1 – Edmonton, AB – Edmonton Jazz Festival *
July 7 – Montreal, QC – Montreal Jazz Festival *
July 15 – Niagara, ON - Niagara Jazz Festival *
July 22 – Minneapolis, MN - Crooners Supper Club
August 6 – Campbellford, ON – Westben w/Brian Barlow Big Band
August 11 – Stratford, ON – Revival House
September 2 – Toronto, ON - TU Jazz Fest
September 16 – Fredericton, NB – The Playhouse, Harvest Music Festival
October 13 – Banff, AB – Maclab, The Banff Centre
October 20 – Quebec City, QC - Palais Montcalm
*with The Ostara Project

DOWNLOAD – album cover art | DOWNLOAD – hi-res photo

ABOUT LAILA BIALI
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 Award 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.