Jeanne Newhall
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Jeanne Newhall

Los Angeles, California, United States | INDIE

Los Angeles, California, United States | INDIE
Band Jazz Singer/Songwriter

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Music

Press


"Jeanne Newhall "Glide" Review"

” Jeanne Newhall is a poet who creates music that fits her stream of consciousness in a jazzy, lively-yet-mellow way. Her latest release “GLIDE Deluxe Edition” is filled with emotion that makes you feel empowered by her honesty. I’m at an age where the relationship games are done and listening to someone tell it like it is feels wonderful – vulnerability is not a fault, it’s real and can be powerful.”

- Blissfully Domestic Blog


"Jeanne Newhall "Glide" Review"

“Newhall delivers a selection of original tunes with sylph-like vocals on a par with Phoebe Snow and Joni Mitchell…. While the piano work is intricately performed, it's Newhall's voice which makes this work captivating… her vocals are an instrument unto themselves.”
R. J. Carter - The Trades


"Jeanne Newhall Music Connection "Wild Blue" Review"

“Newhall’s artistry is in full flower with her newest release, Wild Blue from Blix Street Records…The 14th album release from this prolific songwriter/pianist/vocalist follows projects across a vast catalog of styles…Although best known as an instrumentalist, her confiding and intimate vocals on Wild Blue are in well-balanced counterpoint to her accomplished playing and intuitive songwriting.”
Dan Kimpel - Music Connection


"Jeanne Newhall UK Maverick Magazine Review"

“Acclaimed pianist, singer and songwriter, Jeanne Newhall dances freely between folk, pop, r&b, country, and jazz with a classically-trained musician’s ear….and now turns up on Blix Street, the label that launched the late Eva Cassidy to international recognition. Jeanne shares many of Eva’s attributes: a distinctive, emotional voice that gets to the very heart and soul of a lyric...The album opens with a stunning rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s HUNGRY HEART and closes with a jazzy rendition of THESE FOOLISH THINGS, in between are a myriad of musical gems that defy glib classifications and just fall into the essential music category.”
Alan Cackett - Maverick Magazine


Discography

CD Albums: in order of release date-newest first (includes 2 compilations)

Blossom of Transformation, Jeanne Newhall
Spacious Peaceful and Quiet, Jeanne Newhall
Squashead Volume I-Jeanne Newhall
Glide Deluxe Edition, Jeanne Newhall
Wild Blue, Jeanne Newhall
Paris Nights, Jeanne Newhall
E'Sensual, Jeanne Newhall
Esther: a Classical Piano Tribute, Jeanne Newhall
Bedouin's Paradise, Jeanne Newhall
Soul of My Own, Jeanne Newhall
Fascination, Jeanne Newhall
Zebra, Jeanne Newhall
Meeting Places, Jeanne Newhall
Cakewalk, Jeanne Newhall
Beautiful for No One to See, Jeanne Newhall
French Cafe, Jeanne Newhall
Conscience, Jeanne Newhall
Novice - Pieces for Piano, Jeanne Newhall

Single:
Song For "HAPPY TOWN" ABC Drama

Photos

Bio

Jeanne Newhall is rooted in change. As a vocalist, a composer of words and music, and a classically trained pianist, Newhall has always had a passion for new experiences and the fresh directions they can bring. Her explorations have led her to the realms of jazz and R&B—and even hip hop—and rock and pop , expanding her musical universe and revealing themselves in her warm, rich vocals, lyrical vocabulary and the immaculately nuanced notes of her piano. Common through the warp and weft of all her changes and adventures and endeavors is an enduring sense of spirit and the spiritual. “I have often been told that music brings peace, happiness and goodness,” says Newhall, who has practiced Ashtanga Royal Yoga daily for more than 10 years. “My charge is to always keep that in mind; it is. I go to it when I go to the instrument. It is there, waiting. It did not come from practicing hard or being a child prodigy. It came later and it came with long struggle and slow surrender. The only way I can gracefully take a bow to this sublime influence in my life is to sing and play to it and for it.”

Jeanne Newhall’s life has always been filled with words and music. Raised on a farm in Arizona, she grew up in the starkly beautiful shadows of the Sierra Estrella Mountains west of Phoenix. When her music-loving parents bought the six-year old Jeanne a piano, she could barely reach the keys. She made her professional debut at 14, and before she was 16, had graduated high school, mastered six Mozart concertos and moved to New York City to study piano with Nadia Reisenberg. Subsequently, she turned down offers from the Juilliard, Eastman and Curtis Institutes, opting to study piano with the acclaimed Abbey Simon at Indiana University, ultimately earning a degree in performance from Arizona State University.

In college, friends introduced her to jazz and the connection was immediate. “A whole new world of possibilities not limited by the boundaries of classical music suddenly opened up for me—melodies, voicings, improvisation,” she recalls. “I almost left school then and there.” She didn’t leave school, but she did alter her course. She listened to all the jazz she could find and she listened to R&B, which she had loved since grade school. With college behind her and now living in Phoenix, the classically trained pianist was determined to make a career creating her own musical universe. The possibility of adding her own voice to her repertoire of instruments intrigued her, so she found a voice teacher. “It took me seven lessons before I could open my mouth in the company of friends,” she remembers. Today her voice and music have friends all over the world. And, by own her telling, Jeanne Newhall is still shy.

Blossom of Transformation, her new CD, is comprised of 11 original and traditional call-and-response Bhakti yoga chants. “Yoga,” says Newhall, “is a metaphor for living. It is transformative. I experienced that on the first day of my Ashtanga practice. This album is a gift of gratitude for the practice.” Spacious Peaceful Quiet, a compilation of eight tracks from seven previous albums, was released in CD format August 2, 2011.

Glide Deluxe Edition, released in April 2010, a collection of 12 original songs plus her version of The Wallflowers’ “6th Avenue Heartache” (featured on the ABC-TV series “Happy Town”), was album number 15 in a catalogue that reflects brilliantly the kaleidoscope of her life and music. The five CDs that comprise “The Piano Street Series” include discs celebrating the rich musical heritage of France (Paris Nights), American ragtime (Cakewalk) and the works of Dvorak, Saint-Saens and Chopin (Esther A Classical Piano Tribute). Bedouin’s Paradise featured “Race Thru The Clouds,” a collaboration with guitarist Peter White that received considerable airplay in England and led to Newhall appearing with the smooth-jazz legend at venues including the Pizza Express in London’s Soho.

Other standouts on the list include Beautiful, For No One to See (Christmas and Wintersongs) and E’Sensual. In 2006, the Seattle-based independent Blix Street Records released Wild Blue, a well-received album showcasing Newhall’s talents on original material as well as on songs ranging from Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” and Marcus Hummon’s “Wild Blue” to the Marvell & Strachey jazz standard “These Foolish Things.”

Newhall is now based in Los Angeles, and her club, concert and festival schedule ensure her standing as a frequent flyer. Her recordings have earned airplay on hundreds of radio stations throughout Europe, Canada and across the U.S. She’s been a Steinway & Sons Piano Artist since 1998. A few years ago, Hal Leonard published Jeanne Newhall Piano Folio Songbook, a 70-page book featuring her original songs, and she is currently working on Young Hands, Young Hearts, a book for early piano students. Another recent new direction was publication of Poemes Vol. I, a collaboration with friend and photographer