Jan Shapiro releases new CD, will perform in St. Louis on April 5

Jazz singer Jan Shapiro, a St. Louis native who heads the vocal jazz program at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, has released a new CD titled Back to Basics, and will return to her old hometown on Thursday, April 5 for a free performance as part of Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series.

Before moving East, Shapiro studied at St. Louis Institute of Music, gigged all around the country using the Gateway City as a base and taught at Fontbonne and SIU-E. She's been at Berklee for more than 20 years, overseeing a dramatic expansion in vocal studies since becoming department chair in 1997.

Back to Basics features Shapiro's interpretations of works by classic songwriters such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Irving Berlin. It was recorded in Boston last year with an ensemble including her Berklee colleagues Tim Ray on piano, guitarist John Baboian, bassist John Repucci, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. It's available for purchase through CDBaby.

UPDATE - 8:15 a.m., 3/15/07: After receiving an email from a reader saying that Shapiro's CD had actually been out for several months, I asked her publicist Terri Hinke about it. Here's what happened: Back to Basics was recorded in May 2006, pressed in October and received what might be termed a "soft" release before the end of the year, without wide distribution but with some local St. Louis airplay on WSIE and on Don Wolff's jazz show on KMOX.

So, if you listen to jazz radio in St. Louis and think you may have heard something from the CD already, you may be right. What's going on now is that Back to Basics is being promoted actively to radio and the press, and Shapiro's schedule now permits some gigs to support the release. The use of word "new" thus may be a slight exaggeration, but it should also be noted that this isn't that unusual, either, especially with self-released works from artists who may have limited time and money for promotion. Thanks to Ms. Hinke for a prompt response, and now (as radio's Paul Harvey might say) you know the rest of the story.