Thursday, July 15 - A spectacular double bill featuring Vince Andrushko and Alyssa Graham

This Thursday at Umi Café:

7:30 to 9:00 PM - Vince Andrushko, Winnipeg

9:00 to 11:00 PM - Alyssa Graham, New York

Alyssa Graham:

One of New York's most promising jazz vocal talents, already critically acclaimed and moving CDs off of record store shelves around the world, Alyssa Graham has chosen Umi Café to make her Ottawa debut. ALYSSA GRAHAM – ECHO“Echo” is chosen as one of the “Top 10 Vocal Albums Of 2008” by iTunes“Critics’ Choice: Best Of 2008” by Jazziz MagazineDebuted at #24 on Billboard Music Chart“Publisher’s Top Pick For 2008” by All About JazzALYSSA GRAHAMGraham's 2008 release "Echo" was a Critics' Choice CD selection in the New York Times, which hailed Graham as "The right voice... a sumptuous and flexible croon." Praise for Graham has been unanimously supportive with The Washington Post claiming "The honey-voiced chanteuse... smokes!" and iTunes honoring Alyssa's work as one of the "Top 10 vocal albums of 2008."Now Graham is back in the studio working on her newest group of songs with Grammy Award winning Producer, Craig Street (NorahJones, Cassandra Wilson, K.D. Lang). This Spring/Summer Graham is doing a special group of "stripped" performances around the country with a small group in order to introduce audiences to the music from her upcoming project before its completion. Most shows will be two guitars and voice only. She will be performing new music as well as songs from her album “Echo” which Billboard Magazine applauded as a "Startlingly mature set of sumptuous jazz/pop."

Vince Andrushko:

Vince Andrushko's songs take you places. But, more than that, they give you a sense of all the history that went into making that place at that moment just so. He has an engaging voice overflowing with style and character that compels you to keep listening in a way that's becoming rare in these days of instant communication. Vince was raised where the open prairie and the big sky meet the big city, on the outskirts of the indomitable underdog of Canadian culture, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. When he's not treating you to one of his originals, it's not unusual to hear him play songs by AC/DC and Jimmie Rodgers back-to-back. Listening to him perform gives you a sense that maybe time doesn't behave exactly how you thought it did.