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Laura Hull

With influences ranging from Rosemary Clooney and Carmen McRae to Patsy Cline and k.d. Lang, Laura Hull delivers an extraordinary combination of rich, sultry, and expressive vocals with music drawn from an extensive repertoire of American popular songs, jazz standards, and her original songs.

A native of New York City, it all began for Laura at the age of seven when she took the first steps of her musical journey in an all-girls summer camp production of The King and I. Through her formative years, the road led her to the resorts of upstate New York's fabled Catskill Mountains, where she learned to sing in a variety of genres and styles. She spent time as a versatile session and jingle singer and show-cased her singing at clubs in and around New York City. After a 24-year hiatus from music to pursue a business career, and returned to live performance in 2004. In her many performances since, she has emerged as a melodic jazz singer who has a real feel for the Great American Songbook.

In 2006, she recorded and executive produced “Hullabaloo,” her debut CD of original music, which garnered several songwriting awards and received major radio play around the U.S. Her original tunes reflect her diverse musical interests and run the gamut from swing to well-crafted ballads and Bossa nova rhythms. Her music has been licensed and played in both domestic and international markets.

Joined by an all-star band of top-rated New York musicians including Hullabaloo co-producer, arranger and pianist Pat Firth, bassist Jon Burr and drummer Tony Jefferson, the strong success of Hullabaloo continues on the same high level with her new release, “Take Me Home.” Noted jazz critic and author Scott Yanow writes: “Laura Hull pays tribute to ten standards by adding subtle creativity, a real feel for the lyrics, and swing. Throughout this very pleasing set, she inhabits the songs and serves them well. All of the individual composers would be pleased with her tasteful treatments, as will listeners who enjoy superior material and classy singing.”

Laura performs with her jazz ensemble and has appeared at a variety of venues including Trumpets Jazz, Metropolitan Room, Gettysburg Festival. She is a member of Manhattan Artists and Cabarets and its 2009 Best Jazz Vocalist nominee, the Recording Academy, and New Jersey Jazz Society, where she serves as a director. In addition to performing and composing, Laura produces, coaches, speaks and writes on the topic of vocal jazz.

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Album Review

Laura Hull: Hullabaloo

Read "Hullabaloo" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


How does one measure the value of a newly-minted pop or jazz tune? Singer/songwriter Laura Hull offers eleven examples on Hullabaloo. Two of these originals ("Spell Remains," “Spin I'm In") won an honorable mention in the 13th Annual Billboard World Songwriting Contest, and another one ("Vacancy In My Heart") was recognized with an Honor Award from the 7th Annual Great American Song Contest.

A native New Yorker, Laura Hull, despite spending her pre-teen and teenage years pursuing musical ...

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“Laura Hull is a melodic singer who puts her heart in this album [Take Me Home] and it shows when you hear her sing. Trust me, take this one home with you and let Laura Hull's elegant style mesmerize you as she did me.” -- Edward Blanco, eJazzNews.com

“Laura Hull has chosen to name her new CD after a song from the unique Mr. Tom Waits, Take Me Home, and once you have heard it, take it home is exactly what you will want to do. Laura has an immediately engaging voice, and a nice jazz feeling, with a steady sense of swing always present. This is Laura Hull’s first full album of standards, and it should be the first of many.” -- Joe Lang, NJ Jazz Society

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Take Me Home

Hullarious Records
2008

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Hullabaloo

Self Produced
2006

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