Still singing and swinging at CiaoCristina

Wow....I've already been singing at CiaoCristina in Burbank for 4 months! People are coming in for the great food and live jazz, and every night has been a success. We've had some amazing musicians sit it and/or sub, we're talking Barry Zweig... Dori Amarilio...Julie Kelly..and more. Along the way, I keep adding to my arsenal of tunes, and my next goal is to talk Ron into doing some my originals from "Somewhere in this Room". Here are some images from the past few weeks...

Judy Garland singing "Too Late Now"

On Saturday night at CiaoCristina, a friend requested this song. I didn't know it, so Ron did a beautiful instrumental. I promised my friend I'd learn it, and in doing a litte research on the tune, look what I found. I think this is just gorgeous and thought I should share it. Here's Judy Garland singing "Too Late Now", by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner.

Photos from Valentine's weekend at CiaoCristina

Ron Anthony and I had a wonderful evening on Saturday, playing with Scottish monster of the sax, Duncan LaMont. How lucky was I to play with Duncan 3 TIMES while he was in the U.S?? I hope I get the chance to play with him again. It was a great night.

Photos taken by Chuck Novak

Images from Valentine's Night at The Oyster House

I sang 4 times last week, so I was a little worried about getting people to come out on Sunday night (my 4th gig)...but I needn't have worried. Dori and Tony and I had a great time playing together, and it only got better when Dave Welch showed up with flugelhorn in hand. These photos are from his camera, and my husband David took most of them. 
One interesting moment happened when the bar keg emptied, and the most annoying, loud clacking-wacking sound started to happen. We didn't have a drummer, so this was very distracting. To solve the dilemma, we launched into a version of  "Pennies from Heaven" - to the beat of the clacking and wacking.  It actually worked...!

Wednesday night at CiaoCristina

Wednesday night, we had a special treat. Legendary songwriter and saxophonist Duncan LaMonte happened to be in town from England, and he sat in and played with us all night. (He also played with us last Saturday, hours after his plane landed.) Both nights were truly wonderful.  In addition to being an all-around wonderful musician, he is the funniest man and we shared some really great laughs...!  He will be joining us again on Saturday night. After that, he will return to England, and I will be so sad to see him go.

LIVE JAZZ ON VALENTINE'S NIGHT

LAURA PURSELL WITH DORI AMARILIO

and bassist Tony Dumas

Sunday, Feb. 14

10 pm

THE OYSTER HOUSE

12446 Moorpark St (corner of Moorpark and Whitsett)

Studio City, CA 91604

818-761-8686

Every week at Ciao Cristina

I'm currently performing three times a week at Ciao Cristina, a great little Italian spot in Toluca Lake/Burbank with guitarist Ron Anthony. Ron played with George Shearing and Frank Sinatra, just to name a few, so every night is an education. The food is great, very reasonably-priced, there's free parking...and great music to boot! What a great way to spend Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays!