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Laura Welland

Not many women are mechanical engineers. Fewer still hold several patents.

Few women play jazz trumpet; even fewer the double bass. Hardly anybody plays both.

Not many women sell their own company to play jazz full time.

Only one woman in fifty is a redhead.

There's surely only one red-headed, patent-holding, engineer-pianist-trumpeter-bassist woman in town.

And, she sings.

Her name is Laura Welland, and if you've listened to jazz in Seattle in the last decade, you may have heard her playing bass-at Tula's, the Seattle Art Museum, or Benaroya Hall. She's played with Jay Thomas, Hadley Caliman, Julian Priester, Dawn Clement and other Seattle jazz greats; she's studied under Chuck Deardorf, John Clayton and the late Ray Brown; on the side, received her music degree from Cornish College of the Arts. Her musical pals have praised her swinging time, facile sight-reading, and simpatico stage presence. She's achieved the requisite honors, too, such as runner-up bass at the international "Sisters in Jazz" competition. Laura Welland and John Clayton

But something else needed to be said, or rather, sung. At an instrumental recording session, she sang a tune. Fast forward: Laura has a new vocal CD coming out in late 2003, produced by mentor John Clayton (also on bass), along with Joe LaBarbera (drums), Bill Mays and Larry Fuller (both on piano).

Laura absorbed the proper reverence for music as a three-year-old, as she watched her father tenderly bathing-yes, bathing-his hundreds of big-band LPs, lest a fleck of dust mar their sound. In the Welland household, reversing stereotype, the kids had to beg their parents, "Please- turn that music down!" Laura was marinated in the music of Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and Ella Fitzgerald from morning til night. At her senior recital at Cornish, Laura paid homage to her father by arranging the 70's rock and roll classic "Smoke on the Water" big band style, with full horns blazing. (Portions of her recital were later played on Jim Wilke's Jazz Northwest program on public radio.) She and her siblings studied classical piano and played much for pleasure; Broadway musicals were absorbed while doing housework and homework. But the music in the house ended abruptly, and on her own at a young age, Laura chose the stability of an engineering career. It served its purpose for a while, but the music inside her still needed to get out. She sold her own successful company and went full time with jazz in 1997.

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155
Album Review

Laura Welland: Love is Never Out of Season

Read "Love is Never Out of Season" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


In lot of years of listening I've come across a couple of five star takes on Fats Waller's classic song “Honeysuckle Rose": Benny's Goodman's extended, loose-limbed, rollicking live version on Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert ; and Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton's good time rendition—featuring a characteristic pinpoint precision trumpet solo by Pops—on Satch Plays Fats. Now I've found a third.Vocalist Laura Welland chose the classic to open her debut CD, Love is Never Out of Season, allowing the ...

142
Album Review

Laura Welland: Love is Never Out of Season

Read "Love is Never Out of Season" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Every once in a while a vocal jazz offering comes along that makes the standard repertoire make more sense. Most recently, Love is Never Out of Season presents itself as one of these revelatory recordings. The multi-talented Laura Welland takes Thomas Waller's time-worn standard “Honeysuckle Rose," seasons it to the taste of swinging mainstream, and updates the classic perfectly into the 21st Century. Her performance makes Waller's gleeful lyrics a sensual muse for love. Speaking of love...

That ...

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218

Performance / Tour

Seattle bassist Laura Welland w/ Rob Scheps & Salon des Refuses in Portland

Seattle bassist Laura Welland w/ Rob Scheps & Salon des Refuses in Portland

Source: All About Jazz

Excellent Seattle bassist Laura Welland will guest star with Rob Scheps & Salon des Refuses at Alberta Arts Pavilion in Portland Oregon Thursday October 9th from 9:30 pm - 1 am. Welland is a Cornish graduate; her credits include Seattle Rep. Jazz Orch.; Bill Mays; Dawn Clement;and Joe LaBarbera.

Salon is Scheps' multi-kulti jazz/ funk/rock/mixed media group. Personnel includes Wes Wahrmund & John JB Butler- guitars; Ward Griffiths & Jimmy Bennington- drums; Dan Gaynor -Rhodes; Gage Mace- painter ;Dan Raphael ...

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