New album from Beverley Church Hogan

Vocalist BEVERLEY CHURCH HOGAN's career was just on the verge of taking off when life decided it had different plans for her. But now, after a nearly 60-year detour, she's finally releasing her debut CD, CAN'T GET OUT OF THIS MOOD. Despite her age - she recorded the CD when she was 83 years old -- her smooth-as-silk vocals and ability to swing and render a lyric with great sensitivity remain undiminished.

 

Church Hogan grew up in Montreal, listening on the radio to all the wonderful tunes that have become part of the Great American Songbook. She was inspired to sing at a very young age by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Joe Williams. Even then, she knew she wanted to make those songs her own. She won an amateur show at the age of 12, which got her a weekly gig singing on the radio. By her late teens, she was doing club dates and singing in U.S.O type military shows. However, since she wasn't fond of the winters in Montreal, she relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 21 and started to kick her music career into high gear. Soon after she arrived, she was offered a recording contract with Capitol Records. The contract required her to tour for 58 weeks, but by that time, she was married and had a one-year-old baby. To the record company's great surprise, she turned down the contract, and for the next forty years, her focus was on being a mother, a wife, and a businesswoman. It was a decision she says she never regretted. Although she put performing aside, she remained an avid jazz fan and never mentioned to her many friends the road she did not take.

 

Then, in 2002, she found her way back to music, when she was invited to sing at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. The night was a huge success. She sang beautifully and packed the house. The club was impressed by her performance and the crowd she brought in, so they invited her back to headline her own show. Thereafter, Church Hogan's show became an annual event that has filled every seat in Los Angeles' premiere jazz venue.

 

A dozen years after returning to singing, Church Hogan decided it was finally time to make her debut CD, so she enlisted JOHN PROULX to play on, arrange, and produce the project. Proulx is a popular singer, pianist, recording artist, and Grammy-winning composer. He's been Church Hogan's accompanist for ten years, and the two have developed a synergy and friendship born of mutual respect. "John's dedication and support has

been very important to me," says Church Hogan. "He's so familiar with my sound and phrasing, that I just have to say three words, and he knows exactly what I want and what I need."

 

 Proulx, who has since moved to Michigan to pursue his educational goals, was a mainstay on the Los Angeles jazz scene and brought on board some of Southern California's first-call, A-list musicians, including trumpet and flugelhorn master RON STOUT, guitarist GRAHAM DECHTER, reedman DOUG WEBB, bass player LYMAN MEDEIROS, drummer CLAYTON CAMERON, and percussionist KEVIN WINARD. Church Hogan also asked producer BARBARA BRIGHTON, who has finessed a number of Los Angeles vocalists, to help produce her vocals.

 

Although she's not formally trained, through years of practice and close listening to her contemporaries and the great vocalists of the past, Church Hogan has developed deep musical instincts and has become a consummate storyteller. "I want to really connect to the listener, and I hope that the story I'm telling in song evokes memories and emotions that are meaningful to the audience."

 

Church Hogan chose a mix of songs for CAN'T GET OUT OF THIS MOOD that resonate with her because they relate to people and events in her own life. The Great American Songbook is well represented with tunes by Jimmy McHugh and Frank Loesser ("Can't Get Out of This Mood"), Rodgers and Hart ("Wait Till You See Him"), Matty Malneck and Gus Khan ("I'm Through with Love"),  Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash ("Speak Low"), Sammy Kahn and Julie Styne ("Time After Time"), and Bobby Troup ("You're Looking at Me"). But more contemporary composers are also represented, including Chris Caswell "((I Know You) By Heart)", Rene Marie ("Take My Breath Away"), Stephen Sondheim ("Losing My Mind"), and a song composed by Proulx with lyrics by his frequent writing partner K. Lawrence Dunham ("Stuck in a Dream").

 

Beverley Church Hogan isn't a flashy singer. Her focus is on presenting a profoundly personal interpretation of the lyrics. When she sings, you have the feeling she is singing directly to you. Church Hogan is now 84 years old, and her plans for the future are simple: to keep singing well into her nineties. She says, "All dreams and goals are possible at any age." Her voice is strong and resilient, and there's no detour ahead.

 

CAN'T GET OUT OF THIS MOOD is available in stores and online everywhere. 

 

WATCH THE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4x5p8z4Vnk.