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Jacqui Naylor to Perform at the Intercontinental Toronto Centre on Jan. 11

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FREE SHOW features vocalist/songwriter and her trademark “acoustic smashing" technique

Vocalist and songwriter JACQUI NAYLOR will perform at The InterContinental Toronto Centre, 225 Front Street West, on Friday, January 11, 2008 at 11am. This FREE performance is open to the public and is part of the 35th Annual IAJE Conference.

At this performance, Naylor will sing music from her six acclaimed CDs, including her most recent, Smashed for the Holidays. For her long-awaited holiday CD, Naylor has melded a seamless combination of classic rock and holiday classics. Tying everything together is the artist's trademark “acoustic smashing," where here she sings a holiday standard while the band plays a well-known rock tune. Picture “Santa Claus is Coming to Town" over Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Sweet Home Alabama," “Santa Baby" sung to the groove of Led Zeppelin's “D'yer Mak'er," and “We Three Kings" smashed with their classic “When the Levee Breaks." Add to the “smashes" Naylor's sensitive treatment of ballads and lyrically-inspired originals and it becomes clear why JazzTimes calls this artist a “triple threat." Check out her relaxed versions of The Kinks' “Father Christmas" and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in 5/4 time. Naylor brings this recording home for the holidays with the originals “Winter," sung lovingly as a bossa nova, “Christmas Ain't What It Used to Be," with its hard driving funk groove, and the light-hearted “Celebrate Early and Often."

The record was called “the most adventurous Christmas album of 2007..." by All Music Guide, and Jonathan Takiff of the Philadelphia Daily News marveled that “Jacqui Naylor found a way to make even the most familiar Christmas standard sound fresh on Smashed for the Holidays."

On her previous release, The Color Five, Naylor incorporated many different calculations of the number “5." There are five musicians on the record; the song selection is also broken down into groups of five; there are five originals (all co-written by Naylor and pianist/guitarist Art Khu), five impeccably-chosen covers, and five of Naylor's trademark “acoustic smashe.". For example, Naylor sings the U2 favorite “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" over the music of Miles Davis' “All Blues" - which they've done here in 5/4 time. Appropriately, the CD clocks in at 55 minutes and 55 seconds.

The record's first “acoustic smash," is Naylor singing Rod Stewart's “Hot Legs" over fellow Buddhist Herbie Hancock's “Cantaloupe Island." The other “acoustic smashes" on The Color Five are just as fun and surprising. The Gershwins' “Summertime" is served up over The Allman Brothers' “Whipping Post" in a blend that must be heard to be believed. Likewise, Naylor takes the upbeat vibe of Lee Morgan's “Sidewinder" and gives us an even more gender-bending version of The Kinks' “Lola."

Naylor and her band are currently on tour in the US and around the world. For updates, visit her website.



WHO: JACQUI NAYLOR AND HER TRIO, FEATURING ART KHU, KEVIN AXT, AND DANNY GOTTLIEB

WHAT: PERFORMING AT A FREE MORNING CONCERT

WHERE: INTERCONTINENTAL TORONTO CENTRE, 225 FRONT STREET WEST

WHEN: FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2008 AT 11:00AM

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