For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
TELLING STORIES
Stephanie Austin Letson
For Best Jazz Vocal Album
“Telling Stories is an essential, thoughtful and magnificently arranged and produced project that introduces the full-throttle artistry of a grand singer who’s waited far too long to regale us with a solo album.”
THE JW VIBE Music That Sticks To My Soul
"Telling Stories" features Stephanie Austin Letson and Fred Randolph, Mason Razavi, Dave MacNab, John O’Reilly, Jr., Christian Roy, Manu Domergue, and Roger Letson.
The album was arranged by Stephanie Austin Letson and Mason Razavi.
“Telling Stories” was produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by MULTI- GRAMMY® winning Bill Hare at Bill Hare Productions in Milpitas, CA.
“Stephanie Austin Letson, who recently released her long overdue first album Telling Stories, has a beautiful voice and a versatile style. She digs deep into the lyrics that she interprets, gives all of her performances the feeling of jazz (no matter the origin of the song), and has a tone that is particularly haunting when she sings wordlessly.”
Scott Yanow, jazz journalist/historian and author of 12 books including The Jazz Singers
A song cycle story about love in all of it’s complexities…
the love wished for, how love feels, what people do for love, what love does to each individual, and what everyone gains from love.
“I looked to reflect my eclectic listening, but even more, for songs that told stories about love in all of its complexity with feelings of hope, dreams, longing, hurt, disillusionment, euphoria, detachment, fulfillment, and transcendence.”
Recording the album grew out of an experimental recording session. Austin Letson, originally a concert pianist from New Orleans, gave up her performing career to focus on teaching music. Twenty-five years later, after building a national, award-winning and international touring jazz vocal program, she decided to record sound files for a new project. When listening to the mp3’s, her husband noted that two of the songs had a different vibe, and that they would be a great nucleus for an album.
The album’s vision and feel grew from Austin Letson’s diverse experience sitting-in in Manhattan, touring France and Spain as a soloist and jazz vocal director, and producing seven professional, jazz vocal student albums with MULTI- GRAMMY® winning producer, and friend, Bill Hare.
“Bill has produced so many rich and exciting recording projects for musicians around the world, including NBC’s The Sing Off, the Swingle Singers, the Pentatonix, and Calling All Dawns with Christopher Tin. His exceptional ear could immediately determine what was missing on each track. Using his vast experience, Hare was able to craft and hone each song into a gem.”
Drawing from Austin Letson’s influences, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Carmen McRae and Sting, her collaboration with Hare has yielded a powerful yet intimate musical palette full of color and nuance.