Her debut jazz CD, 2008’s “They Oughta Write a Song,” won Best Vocal Jazz Album of the year in the JPF awards (then the world’s largest independent music awards). She was signed in 2010 by JVC/Kenwood Entertainment (Japan/Asia) and in 2011 by Justin Time Records. Halie has since released nine additional albums including two Japan-only releases, and gone on to win many awards as both a singer and a songwriter. Loren’s original song “Thirsty” won the Independent Music Awards’ best jazz song of the year in 2011. Her 2012 release, “Heart First,” was honored by Japan’s Jazz Critique Magazine as the best vocal jazz album of year, and reached No. 1 on the iTunes Canada jazz albums chart. In 2013, “Simply Love” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Jazz / Japan and entered iTunes Canada as #1 jazz album. Her 2014 best-of compilation release “The Best Collection”, 2015’s “Butterfly Blue”, and 2016’s “Live at Cotton Club” also hit #1 on Billboard Japan’s jazz chart.
Along with recording success, Loren’s live performances have expanded to include performances with the Jazz Orchestra of Sicily, the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra in Oregon, the Monroe Symphony in Louisiana and the prestigious International Britt Fest Orchestra. For the past seven years she has traveled east to west in the U.S. and other parts of the world, including Canada, Japan, Italy, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Haiti, and Egypt. The last few months of her tours have included sold-out tour dates in Japan, Korea (including a Korean festival performance with an audience of over 25,000), Quebec, Florida, and Georgia. Last year found her in London and New York working on a new album of her original material “From the Wild Sky” with UK producer Troy Miller, a project for which she raised over $68,000 of funding from her worldwide fans via crowdsourcing site Kickstarter. “From the Wild Sky” was released worldwide in April 2018, and since then, Loren has been touring in support of it with tour dates across North America, Asia, and Europe, with more on the horizon.
About Sukiyaki (You Took Your Love Away from Me) by Halie Loren
Sad lyrics set to happy music are my favorite kind of salty-sugary treat. The original version of this song, “Ue o Muite Arukō” (sung by Kyu Sakamoto in 1963), was the first Japanese pop song I was introduced to many years ago, and it has been in my mind swimming around almost daily ever since. Though the lyrics I’m singing are different (these English lyrics are courtesy of A Taste of Honey circa 1980), I still feel that sense of bittersweet contrast of bouncy rhythm and lyrical heartbreak that I found so captivating about the original.
The musicians featured on this track are notable talents in the Canadian Jazz scene (and fellow Justin Time Records artists) Taurey Butler (piano), Morgan Moore (bass), Sam Kirmayer (guitar), and Jim Doxas (drums). The song was recorded in Montreal, Canada and produced by Halie Loren and co-produced by Morgan Moore.
