Brian De Lorenzo to Release TOAST OF THE TOWN, VOL. 1

Cabaret Classics will release Toast of the Town, Volume 1, the new big band album from Boston-based vocalist Brian De Lorenzo, on CD and streaming and digital platforms on Friday, June 13. Featuring the Tom LaMark Orchestra, this swinging collection features both time-tested standards and hidden gems.

The album – produced by Doug Hammer for Dreamworld Productions, with music direction and arrangements by Tom LaMark – features exclusive cover art by lauded Vanity Fair illustrator Robert Risko. To order Toast of the Town, Volume 1, please visit BrianDeLorenzo.com
 
De Lorenzo will celebrate the recording with a special concert on Tuesday, June 17 at 7:30 PM at Club Café’s Moonshine Room in Boston, MA. Tickets are available HERE.
 
Toast of the Town, Volume 1 features beloved big band favorites associated with the greatest singers of mid-century standards, including Frank Sinatra; Sammy Davis, Jr.; Tony Bennett; Rosemary Clooney; Ella Fitzgerald; Judy Garland; and Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé. Select highlights include golden-age classics by legendary songwriters like Cy Coleman (“The Best Is Yet to Come”), Jerome Kern (“All the Things You Are”), Cole Porter (“I Love Paris”), and Harold Arlen (“Gotta Have Me Go with You”), and more.
 
“Although I loved standards from the Great American Songbook, having been a fan of Ella Fitzgerald, Steve and Eydie, Barbara Cook’s Rodgers & Hart album, Natalie Cole, and Barbra Streisand’s early recordings, I rarely performed them in my early cabaret shows. I had a degree in musical theatre, so my focus was on musicals from the 1960s onward. However, I enjoyed learning standards for various musical revues and fundraising concerts and thought, ‘I want to sing some of these in my cabaret shows.’ So in 2004 I performed my first show that was primarily standards. In the early 2000s I had discovered a series of recordings called “Capitol Sings” – compilations from Capitol Records’ catalog from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s and began collecting them – for the music as well as for the fun mid-century look of the cover art. Little did I know at the time that I would end up commissioning the artist of those covers, Robert Risko, to create the artwork for this album.”
 
He continues: “Since my first tribute show, Unforgettable: The Songs of Nat King Cole, I’ve also celebrated the songs of Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Nothing beats singing with a big band, so I contacted my friend Tom LaMark, who devised the arrangements you hear on this album. Some of the numbers require a more intimate accompaniment and are performed with a jazz trio or quartet.”
 
In addition to standards from household-name writers, Brian also includes some special surprises: “I first heard ‘All About Love’ on Natalie Cole’s album Take a Look. The lyrics were fun and clever. As someone who loves singing ballads, I’m always looking for uptempo numbers to add variety — especially ones that are less familiar. So when I was putting together a show celebrating Nat “King” Cole in 2013, I wanted to include this song, even if Nat probably never performed it. The music wasn’t in print, so I had Tom LaMark create a chart for me. When I researched the song I discovered that both Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé – two of my many favorite American songbook singers – had made solo recordings of it. And one of the two writers, Bill Dana, and I were coincidentally both born in Quincy, Massachusetts!”
 
“My introduction to ‘The Lady from 29 Palms’ was from Elena Bennett’s 1998 album A Wrinkle in Swingtime, arranged and conducted by Fred Barton. I fell in love with her singing and Fred’s arrangements. I like to include less familiar comic numbers on my albums, and this one certainly fit the bill. I was also enamored of the artwork on Swingtime, so I commissioned a similar portrait for my album from the same artist, Robert Risko.
 
Toast of the Town, Volume 1 concludes with a subtle mid-tempo version of Barry Manilow and Marty Panzer’s “I Was a Fool to Let You Go,” the only song on the album written after 1960. According to Brian: “When I was growing up, I had a fair number of Barry Manilow albums, including Even Now, which is the source of ‘I Was a Fool...’ Because I like surprising audiences with songs by writers they might not expect – and also because I identified with the song’s protagonist as an ‘outsider’ – I sang the lesser known Manilow/Marty Panzer song ‘All the Time’ on my first album, Found Treasures. In recent years I have been performing “I Was a Fool…” and with its bluesy, mid-century feel, it really deserves to be considered a standard and it felt right for this record.”
 
With Brian De Lorenzo’s spirited singing and Tom LaMark’s brisk music direction, Toast of the Town, Volume 1 is more than just a time capsule of the past, but a deft and creative exploration of how our collective songbook has evolved.