Los Alamitos singer’s style is classic      Buy CD

The Orange County Register - September 29, 2002 By Steve Eddy

“Write this name down: Soraya Shaw.”

“It’s not in common household use, but that could well change, and fast.”

“Shaw, of Los Alamitos, just released her first jazz CD, “Daydreams,” on the Alpha Lyrae Records label.  But jazz is just one part of Shaw’s ouevre.

She began piano lessons at age 4 under the tutelage of her composer grandmother.  Classical voice studies ensued at around 11, as did an interest in jazz (brother Alex is a horn man).

A graduate of St. Louis University, Shaw has performed Schubert, Brahms, Mozart and Bach.

So how do you do jazz when your voice has the power to fill an opera house?

“I whisper,” said Shaw, cantor at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Cypress as well as for the St. Vincent de Paul Society.”  It’s my voice, but I m really singing very softly.  I don t want to classify myself.  I don t feel like either a jazz singer or a classical singer.”

Shaw, who herself teaches voice and piano, is an obvious admirer of Duke Ellington, with numerous cuts on the CD penned by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.  And her approach fits the music like a comfy, snug glove.

The opening cut, “Daydream,” immediately displays the singer’s range and chops, her pure, sweet, expressive voice soaring over a light Latin rhythm.  “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” is jaunty and jovial, while “Caravan” is more on the intense, soulful side.

Add some non-Ellington items, like Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and a most sensual “Body and Soul,” and you have a first- rate, quite refined effort.”

Jazz never forgets     Buy CD

Long Beach Press Telegram - September 19, 2002 By Paul Andersen

Los Angeles has a long, rich and oftentimes heartbreaking history as a magnet for those seeking employment in the field of entertainment.  Millions come from miles around, following their dreams of stardom.  The odds of making it can be daunting.  And the hard work usually outweighs the payoffs.

But don t tell that to vocalist Soraya Shaw.  When she moved to Los Alamitos five years ago from her native St. Louis, she did so with the goal of finding stability in her music career.  Having graduated from St. Louis University, Shaw began working with the Muny, America’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theater company, based in St. Louis and also operating touring productions.

However, as a single divorced mother with two children to care for, she craved a more stable life.

“Even though I was an equity actor, touring was not a good way to go about (raising my children),” she said.  “Everything I’ve ever done (with my career) has been based on them; it has always just been the three of us.  So I began thinking about what I could do to stay stable.

Shaw, who is appearing Saturday with pianist Mark Massey at Borders Books & Music in Long Beach, had been to the West Coast a few times before.  As a young child, she lived here for a short time, and then, as an adult, she traveled west to study classical voice with Elizabeth Mannion.

“She was (opera singer) Jessye Norman’s first teacher, and I had always wanted to study with her, so after doing some theater work after graduation, I had the opportunity to come out to Santa Barbara, where she was teaching at the University of California, she said.  “I was able to stay out there a year.”

She returned home to St. Louis, but it wasn t long before she began feeling restless.  “I felt stifled, like I was in this box, and I wanted to break out of it.

“I had always wanted to be an opera singer, but it just wasn’t gelling for me,” she said.  “My voice was to the point where, in legitimate theater, they considered me an opera singer, though it was just fine for lead roles, but in the opera world, it just wasn’t quite there.

She began looking at other avenues.  A natural soprano, Shaw grew up absorbed in a classical environment, having started piano lessons at the age of four with her grandmother, a composer, pianist and music teacher.  But there was another musician in the house, her older brother Alex, a jazz trumpet player.

“He would bring home these Miles Davis albums and play them over and over,” she said.  “And his best friends were a couple of sax players, and they were always getting together to play.  So though I was really into classical music, I also got interested in jazz.  When I took up flute, I even played in a big band for a while.

“I can remember when I first tried singing jazz.  I had met this engineer who also played jazz piano, and he was really good.  We got together and did Stella by Starlight,” and it clicked.”  Pretty soon, she was performing with Ptha Williams, a pianist who was a major player in the St. Louis jazz scene.

After two years back home in St. Louis, Shaw decided it was time to make a change.  She decided to head back west, and landed in Los Alamitos.

“Sure, I could have moved to Chicago or some other big city, but I knew L.A.  better, and besides, it was a way of exploring where I used to live.  It’s also where my parents first met.

It was tough the first couple of years for the vocalist and her family.

“I had worked in advertising before, so I figured I could find something along those lines, and save up money to record a CD,” she said.  “But I couldn’t find the right job, so I decided to go into teaching.  It was something I could do at home, so I would be there for my children.”

“Running your own business, which is basically what I began doing, can be really rough.  I can remember just feeling like, Please, God, don’t let me be a bag lady.  I did a lot of praying.”

She also did a lot of singing in church, becoming cantor at both Saint Irenaeus Catholic Church in Cypress, and Saint Philip Benizi Parish, home of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society.

Eventually, Shaw built up a steady group of students, many of whom have been studying voice and piano with her for years.  Numbering 30 or more, provide her the stable environment she needs.  Last year, Shaw went in a Glendale studio and recorded her first jazz CD.

“It took a little while to get the money together to actually manufacture it, but I finally was able to release it this year,” she said, laughing.  “Now I’m selling it at performances, and through my Web site.  I d like to get it in stores eventually.  And I ve already got about half the songs together for the next one.”

The CD, “Daydreams,” features Shaw’s gauzilly ethereal soprano voice backed by pianist Mark Massey, one of the first people she met when she moved here, and a small ensemble of musicians.  A sensuous program of jazz standards, the album is getting radio airplay on KKJZ-FM, the jazz station at Cal State Long Beach.

Between recording and teaching, Shaw, 40, has managed to find the stability she craves.

“Please say that I’m still available for lessons, she said with a laugh.  “But the kids are older now (21 and 17), and I’m OK with going out and performing again.  Luckily, jazz has a long shelf life.”

Singer’s Smooth Jazz Sounds
Just Part Of Soundtrack To Beach Life     Buy CD

Gazette Newspaper - October 2002 By Sandy Robins

SHORE SINGER.  Soraya Shaw has a smooth jazz style that is shown off on her new CD.

I am not sure what it is exactly that attracts people to live and work in a particular place.  But this area certainly has an interesting blend of creative people.

Taking center stage this week is singer Soraya Shaw, whose first CD, Daydreams, has just been released.

To mark the debut of this wonderful collection of smooth jazz music, she gave an informal recital at Borders on Bellflower last week.  Her voice, with its soft, velvety tones, is reminiscent of singer Astrid Gilberto who popularized the famous Brazil 66 sound.

Shaw’s musical resume is as comprehensive as her range of musical styles.  Like many of today’s musical greats, her roots are classical.

I started taking piano lessons at the age of 4, she recalls.  My grandmother was my first teacher.  She was also a composer and an accomplished pianist.

Around 11, she started playing the flute and studying classical voice.

As a child, it was my dream to be an opera singer.  But I married at 18 and had two children soon afterwards, she said.  It wasn’t a career that blended well with my life at the time.

So she focused on musical theater instead, ultimately finding a niche for herself teaching.

I had such a wonderful time as a child learning from my grandmother, I endeavor to pass this experience on to my pupils, Shaw said.  I think around 4 years (old) is a good time for a child to sit down at a piano for the first time.

She is quick to point at that for students of any age, it’s not only about grasping the techniques that will make them shine.

The total package includes the desire to learn and the dedication to practice, she adds.

While she enjoys singing jazz and listening to jazz fusion, classical music still is her first love.

I think I get the biggest thrill out of singing certain kinds of church music, she said.  It’s a combination of the beauty of the music and the text that I love.

Currently she is a church cantor at Saint Irenaeus Catholic Church, one of the largest and most active parishes in Southern California.  She also sings at Saint Philip Benizi Parish, the home of the Saint Vincent DePaul Society.

I feel I am being useful and also it makes me feel close to God, Shaw said.

Regarding jazz, she cites Ella Fitzgerald as being her all time favorite artist and lists the evergreen compositions In a Sentimental Mood and For Heaven’s Sake as her two best loved tracks on her debut CD.

Soraya gives regular jazz concerts in the Long Beach­Los Angeles area and is currently planning a concert in St Louis early next year.  She’ll appear this Saturday evening at the Borders store in the Block at Orange.  You also can buy her CD and play it during those endless freeway commutes.  It may just change the way you feel about the road ahead.

Daydreams is released on Alpha Lyrae Records and is available at Borders and Tower Records.

Jazz singer from Los Alamitos releases
CD of standards     Buy CD

Sun Newspaper April 17, 2003 By Brian Brannon

For Soraya Shaw, music is a family tradition.

The Los Alamitos resident recently released a CD of jazz standards called Daydreams on the Alpha Lyrae label.

I started piano lessons when I was 4, she said.  My grandmother taught all sorts of instruments.

Growing up on classical music, Shaw decided she wanted to learn opera in the fourth of fifth grade.

It made a really big impression on me, she said.

She began taking voice lessons as well as studying the flute.

Living in the country, outside of a small town in Missouri, Shaw and her older brother Alex didn’t have a lot of friends their own age to play with.

Our neighbors were cows across the road in a pasture, she said.

Her brother played trumpet, and soon, his love of jazz was passed to her and Shaw began listening to singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn.

Switching between classical and jazz singing took a little work, she said.

Jazz players would look at me and roll their eyes and say, ‘Come on, you’ve got to get that vibrato out of your voice, she said.

But Shaw soon learned to hold back just enough to make her voice soar with the jazz melodies.

On Daydreams, she sings four songs by Duke Ellington including Daydream, I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart, In a Sentimental Mood and Caravan.  She found herself drawn to Ellington because of the complexity of his compositions.

The intervals and different things that you’re doing with the music is a little more challenging, and because it’s more challenging, I’m more interested, she said.

She also covers, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” by Fats Waller, Night and Day by Cole Porter and I Got Rhythm by George and Irwin Gershwin.

When she went in the studio to record her CD, Shaw said the music was only partially planned and it evolved from there.

A lot of it was very impromptu, it was sort of an organic kind of thing, she said.  A lot of it was feeling-oriented and spontaneous.

The result is an alluring collection of jazz standards delivered by Shaw’s smooth and eloquent style.  Her classical training shows in the vocal range and expression she exhibits throughout the CD.

Besides singing jazz, Shaw also serves as cantor at St. Iraneus Catholic Church in Cypress and for the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

A musician through and through, she teaches piano, voice and flute out of her home in Los Alamitos.

I kind of do what my grandmother did, she said.

Entertainment Today     Buy CD

November 1, 2002 By Paul Andersen

Soraya Shaw
Borders Books, Glendale
Sunday, November 3, 2002

“Once in a while, you come across a singer whose voice manages to catch your ear and turn your head.  Such are the soprano tones that Soraya Shaw uses in her renditions of classic jazz songs.  Originally from St. Louis, Shaw grew up wanting to be an opera diva, studying under some of the best teachers around, and earning her degree in performance arts.  Then the musical theater began calling, and soon she was lighting up stages in regional theater throughout the Midwest, including the MUNY, the oldest municipal theater company in America, based in her hometown.  But she also had a brother who was a jazz trumpeter, and it rubbed off on her.  Now, having relocated to the South Bay area, she is pursuing a career as a jazz vocalist, and if her debut CD, Daydreams, is any indication, it was a good career move.

Unlike most classically trained singers, she doesn’t overpower you with the trills that she can do; rather, she has come up with an ethereal style that bristles with sensuality.  Ultimately candlelit and romantic, it is definitely music to put you in the mood for more amorous pursuits.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.- Paul Andersen"

Rock Steady     Buy CD

Pasadena Weekly Oct. 31, 2002 By Paul Andersen

Steady as a rock
Jazz vocalist Soraya Shaw sings a song of stability
 

“With its plethora of record labels, recording studios and interfacings with ancillary media, Southern California can be a Mecca to those wishing to pursue a career in popular music.  The odds can be daunting, but with a bit of perseverance and luck to go along with talent, it can be done.  Just don’t expect stability to be one of the side benefits.

But please, don’t tell that to vocalist Soraya Shaw.  When she moved to Los Alamitos five years ago from her native St. Louis, Missouri, she did so with the goal of finding stability.  Having graduated magna cum laude with a B.A.  in Fine and Performing Arts from St. Louis University, she had begun etching out steady work in her hometown with the Muny, America’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre company.  In addition, she was often on the road with various touring stage productions.

However, as a single divorced mother with two children to raise, she craved a steadier life.  Even though I was an Equity actor, touring was not a good way to go about that, she said recently by phone from her home studio, her voice still betraying her Midwestern roots.  Everything I’ve ever done (with my career) has been based on how it effects my kids – after all, it has always just been the three of us.  So I began thinking about what I could do to find stability.

Shaw, who is appearing Sunday evening (beginning at 6 p.m.) with pianist Mark Massey at Borders Books and Music in Glendale, had been to the West Coast before.  As a young child, she had lived out here for a short time, and later, as an adult, she traveled west to study classical voice with Elizabeth Mannion.

She was (opera singer) Jessye Norman’s first teacher, and I had always wanted to study with her, so after doing some theater work after graduation, I had the opportunity to come out to Santa Barbara, where she was teaching at the University of California, she said.  I was able to stay out here a year.

Afterwards, she returned home to St. Louis, but it wasn’t long before she began feeling restless.  I felt stifled, like I was in this box, and I wanted to break out of it.

A natural soprano, Shaw had grown up absorbed in a classical environment, having started piano lessons at the age of four with her grandmother, a composer, pianist and music teacher.  But there had been another musician in the house: her older brother Alex, a jazz trumpet  player.

He would bring home these Miles Davis albums and play them over and over, she said.  And his best friends were a couple of sax players, and they were always getting together to play.  So though I was really into classical music, I also got interested in jazz, too.  When I took up flute, I even played in a big band for a while.

I can remember when I first tried singing jazz.  I had met this engineer who also played jazz piano, and he was really good.  We got together and did ‘Stella by Starlight,’ and it clicked.  Pretty soon, she was performing with pianist Ptha Williams, a major player in the St. Louis jazz scene.

After two years back home in St. Louis, Shaw decided it was time to make a change.  She decided to head back west, and landed in Los Alamitos.

Sure, I could have moved to Chicago or some other big city, but I knew L.A.  better, and besides, it was a way of exploring some of my roots; after all, it’s where my parents first met.

It was tough the first couple of years for the vocalist and her family.  I had worked in advertising before, so I figured I could find something along those lines while I saved up money to record a CD, she said.  But I couldn’t find the right job, so I decided to go into teaching.  It was something I could do at home, so I would be there for my children.

Running your own business, which is basically what I began doing, can be really rough.  I can remember just feeling like, ‘Please, God, don’t let me be a bag lady.’ I did a lot of praying.  She also did a lot of singing in church, becoming cantor at both Saint Irenaeus Catholic Church in Cypress, and Saint Philip Benizi Parish, home of the Saint Vincent dePaul Society.

Eventually, Shaw built up a steady group of students, many of whom have been studying voice and piano with her for years.  Numbering 30 or more, they have provided her the stable environment she had been seeking.  Finally, last year, she went in a Glendale studio and recorded her first jazz CD.

It took a little while to get the money together to actually manufacture it, but I finally was able to release it this year, she said, laughing.  Now I’m selling it at performances, and through my website.  I’d like to get it in stores eventually.  I’ve already got about half the songs together for the next one.

The CD, ‘Daydreams,’ features Shaw’s gauzilly ethereal soprano voice backed by pianist Massey, one of the first people she met when she moved here, and a small ensemble of stellar musicians running through a sensuous program of jazz standards.  It is already getting radio airplay, including KKJZ-FM, the local NPR station emanating from the campus of CSULB.

Between recording and teaching, Shaw has managed to find the stability she had been craving.  Please say that I’m still available for lessons, she laughed.  But the kids are older now, and I’m okay with going out and performing again.  Luckily, jazz has a long shelf life.

Steady and stable, just the way she likes it.”

Singer Soraya Shaw performing jazz at
Florence Italian Cuisine     Buy CD

Irvine World News July 17, 2003  By Peggy Blizzard

“Soraya Shaw grew up in a musical family in her native St. Louis.

Piano lessons began at the age of 4 under the guidance of her grandmother, Hester French, who also was a composer.

“She was a very strong influence on my family,” said Shaw.  “She lived with us.  She had eight children of her own.  Every one played a musical instrument.  She taught them all.  She ended up doing the same thing with my siblings and me.”

At the age of 11, Shaw started playing flute and studying classical voice.  She went on to study at Saint Louis University, graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in fine and performing arts.

Although she has a classical background, Shaw said, “I was always around jazz growing up.”  She noted her older brother Alex is a jazz trumpet player.  “But I was not interested in singing jazz until I was an adult.”

For the past year Shaw has been performing jazz at a variety of venues in Orange County, including Steamers in Fullerton as well as appearances at Borders stores at The Block in Orange, Long Beach and Glendale and Martini Blues in Huntington Beach, among others.  She will be singing at Florence Italian Cuisine in Heritage Plaza on Thursday, July 24, from 7 to 10 p.m.

Joining her will be Mark Massey on piano, Chris Conner on bass and Chris Wabich on drums.  Massey and Wabich accompanied her on her debut album, “Daydreams,” which she produced and released last year under the Alpha Lyrae Record label.  The engagement will include cuts from the 10-number CD as well as other songs by Duke Ellington who is heavily represented on “Daydreams.”

Ellington songs on the CD include “Daydream” composed with Billy Strayhorn, “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart,” “In a Sentimental Mood” and “Caravan.”

In his jazz column for the Orange County Register, Steve Eddy said of Shaw’s debut album, “The opening cut, Daydream, immediately displays the singer’s range and chops, her pure, sweet, expressive voice soaring over a light Latin rhythm.  I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart is jaunty and jovial, while Caravan is more on the intense, soulful side.  Add some non-Ellington items, like Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and a most sensual Body and Soul and you have a first rate, quite refined effort.”

“Daydreams” will be available for purchase at her Florence Italian Cuisine engagement and is also available through Shaw’s Web sites, alphalyraerecords.com or sorayashaw.com..

Shaw said she was particularly attracted to Ellington because of the complexity of chord structure in his work as compared to other jazz composers.

Her love of jazz gelled through a friend, Brian Ramey, while she was studying classical music at Saint Louis University, a very intense time.

“He wasn t a professional musician, but he really loved jazz and studied it.  We would get together every Thursday to go over different tunes.  It was a very enjoyable time.  We did some performances together.  I really like the way he played.  He was the person who introduced me to Ellington tunes.  A lot of it had to do with just getting together for the enjoyment of the music.”

A divorced mother of two, Shaw moved to Los Alamitos with her children in 1997.  She felt it was time to make a change and chose California because she had once studied classical voice with Elizabeth Mannion, opera singer Jessye Norman’s first teacher, who was teaching at UC Santa Barbara at the time.

Shaw came to Orange County with no prospects lined up.

“It was pretty gutsy at the time.  I had money in savings.  Since I had worked in advertising before, I was expecting I would land something in advertising as an independent contractor, then branch out into performance.  It just didn t work out.  I had been teaching in St. Louis, privately.  I m now doing the same thing and I m happy doing it.”

Shaw said her student load varies from 25 to 40, depending on the time of the year.  She is also church cantor at Saint Irenaeus Catholic Church and at Saint Philip Benizi Parish.

She waited until last year to branch out into performance because of her children who are now out of high school.

“I didn t feel it would be a very stable environment for me or my children if I jumped into it.  I wanted to have a really good foundation.  I wanted to make sure everything was together.”

She feels she has set the foundation with her debut CD, and bookings.

As to the future, Shaw, who noted she doesn t like to classify herself as one type of singer over another, said, “I would like to continue teaching and recording and I would like to do concerts.”  She said she would not like to go on long concert tours, adding, “If I could do (concerts) every now and then, it would be really enjoyable.”

An independent voice on the jazz scene     Buy CD

Long Beach Press Telegram - September 13, 2003 By Luanne J. Hunt

THE PROSPECT OF signing a major recording contract is of no interest to jazz vocalist Soraya Shaw.  Although Shaw hopes for commercial success, the Los Alamitos resident is unwilling to turn the management of her career over to music industry executives.

She relishes her independence and believes that the freedom to create her own kind of music far outweighs the perks of fame and fortune.

“I’m actually too independent to sign with a major label, said Shaw, who performs Wednesday at Kikuya in Huntington Beach.  “It would sort of be like being in a corporation and I really need to be my own boss.”

Shaw began taking charge of her future in show business at the age of 4 when she took piano lessons from her grandmother.  At age 11, she began studying the flute and classical voice.

After graduating from Saint Louis University, Shaw performed and toured with the Muny, a musical theater group based in St. Louis.  She also has sung in numerous classical recitals and performed in the play, “What is Truth?”  under renowned opera director Colin Graham.

In the early 1990s, Shaw performed for two years with the St. Louis choir American Kantorei, under the direction of Johann Sebastian Bach specialist Robert Bergt.

To be closer to her father, who lived in Southern California, Shaw relocated to Los Alamitos in 1997.  She earns her living by teaching piano and voice and sees 30 students a month.

Early in her teaching, Shaw set aside her goal of becoming an opera singer.  She says the practice and study regimen of opera training took away too much of her family time.  She was raising two children as a single mom.

“I wanted to do classical music, but needed to keep on studying to get to the level I needed to be,” said Shaw, who holds a bachelor’s in fine arts and performing arts.  “I just couldn’t do it.  I was much more focused on my family and realized I was going to have to find a different avenue to do my music.

Shaw was always a fan of jazz and decided to get together with a jazz pianist she knew to experiment with some songs.  In those sessions, she became inspired to put a musical repertoire together.  Once her music was in order, she began working on her recently released CD, “Daydreams.”  The 13-song collection features jazz standards such as “Ain’t Misbehavin’” Sentimental Mood,” “For Heaven’s Sake,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Body and Soul,” and “Night and Day.”  Several of Shaw’s tunes can be heard on KKJZ 88.1 FM in Long Beach.

“Even before I moved out here, it was a goal of mine to do a recording,” said Shaw, whose influences include Kathleen Battle, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis.  “I ended up tapping back into my creative side in the studio, which was very rewarding.  I wasn’t just singing the straight melody, but was creating my own way of singing it.”

Now that Shaw’s CD is completed, she is lining up performances and hopes to build a solid, local fan base.  She admits there have been challenges in handling her own career in the way of finding places to play and outlets for CD sales.

But in spite of the overwhelming task of independent promotion, Shaw says she has everything under control.

“I originally had a plan of just being a homebody and selling my CDs over the Internet,” said Shaw.  “But I’ve learned the best way of selling my music is to go out and perform.  I’ve recently started doing performances and it’s been a very positive experience.  I m having a blast! ”

Email: sorayashaw@msn.com

Copyright 2002-2006 Alpha Lyrae Records
Last updated: 3 / 5 / 2006.