Home » Member Page

Laura Ainsworth

The "new-vintage" jazz singer who is reinventing classic big band/lounge jazz for the 21st Century

About Me

Remastered and expanded Japanese CD version of Laura's best-of LP “Top Shelf” releases Sept. 2021. New album “You Asked For It” coming Feb. 2022. All music and merch now available at https://shop.bandwear.com/collections/laura-ainsworth-shop/products/ain005

“You can keep all those pop divas, the only one for me is Laura Ainsworth...” - Eric Harabadian, Jazz Inside magazine

Granddaughter of a 1920's female jazz pianist and daughter of legendary big band saxophonist Billy Ainsworth, who was playing for Tommy Dorsey at 17, Laura Ainsworth has classic supper club jazz in her DNA. The Dallas-based singer's pure, rich tone and nearly three-octave range (one critic gushed that she is as “sweet-voiced as a meadowlark crossed with a hummingbird”) has attracted some of the top players in the Southwest to her side, including 2011 “Dallas Jazz Musician of the Year” Brian Piper. She calls her style “nu-vintage,” because it combines modern jazz elements and her contemporary outlook and sense of humor with the elegant style of the great big band and supper club performers of the '40s and '50s that she grew up hearing. One jazz radio host said she is reminiscent of the great Verve and Capitol albums of the '50s, only uniquely today.

Her debut CD, “Keep It To Yourself,” featuring the Brian Piper Trio and several great guest musicians, spans the decades, from fresh twists on standards like “Skylark” and “Love For Sale” to forgotten gems from the 1920's-'50s, to contemporary tracks, like the sexy but hilarious title song. “Gifted with a sultry, swoon-inducing croon…The whole album is among the year's most consistently engaging jazz releases, performed with class and heartfelt passion.” – AllAboutJazz.com

Laura's second album, “Necessary Evil,” ups the ante with a full big band composed of 13 of the greatest horn players in Texas on the title track and the brand new big band classic, “Last Train to Mercerville,” a tribute to her favorite lyricist that cleverly weaves references to nearly three dozen Johnny Mercer classics into the lyrics and arrangement. This album has a theme, reflected in the packaging that's styled after film noir posters and pulp detective novels. Laura offers up love songs with dark or unusual twist: lost love, unrequited love, desperate love, love gone wrong and just-plain-fed-up love. “My goodness, it is brilliant.” - Koop Kooper, host, “Cocktail Nation”

On the strength of “Necessary Evil,” Laura performed in Dubai and India, where she shot a video of the title tune.

Her third album “New Vintage” was hailed by critics as “sublime,” “a perfect album” and “her breakthrough.” It received numerous indie music awards and nominations, including an unprecedented sweep of the Artists Music Guild Awards for Album, Video and Female Vocalist of the Year.

“Top Shelf,” an audiophile 180-gram virgin vinyl LP, collects 10 choice tracks from her first three CDs. It proved so popular in Japan that in Sept. 2021, Ratspack Records is releasing an expanded CD version in Japan with deluxe packaging, one previously unreleased Irving Berlin gem, and warm remastering by Jessica Thompson, who was Grammy-nominated for “Errol Garner: The Complete Concerts by the Sea.”

“This is Vintage Now, Vol. 2: Happiness is a Way of Life,” a compilation of leading artists in the growing vintage music genre, includes Laura's version of “An Occasional Man” from “New Vintage” as the lead-off track.

In 2022, Laura's label Eclectus Records signed a deal with major South Korean distributor Music Island to bring her catalog to South Korea. Her entire catalog remastered by Jessica Thompson was made available digitally. Her fourth album of new material, “You Asked For It,” was released digitally in SK on May 27th, to be followed by a July 15th release as a deluxe mini-LP CD and MP3s in Japan, and as an MP3 album and import CD in the US.

“You Asked For It” is a change of pace with a casual party feel, celebrating the end of the pandemic by bringing together Laura's great band of top Texas jazz players live in the studio, playing a collection of mostly standards, all requested by fans.

For more information, visit www.lauraainsworth.com.

My Jazz Story

I love jazz because...it's in my blood! My late father, Billy Ainsworth, was a musical prodigy who dropped out of school at 17 after he stunned the seasoned musicians of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with an in-off-the-street audition. He was on the band bus the next day as Dorsey's alto sax and clarinet player, and never looked back. He played with great bandleaders such as Freddie Martin, Tex Beneke and Ray McKinley, some before he was out of his teens (they had to lie about his age to get him into nightclubs). Many older musicians have told me he was the greatest alto sax player they ever worked with. He was equally great on clarinet and was clarinetist and harmony singer for cocktail jazz pioneers, the Ernie Felice Quartet. He eventually left the road and settled down, and that's when I came in. By that time, he was, by day, vocal group session leader/player/arranger for classic jingles and commercial music produced in Dallas. At night, he played in society bands, jazz combos and elegant showrooms. Tuesdays were slow in the showrooms, so band members' families got in free, and my mom took me to see him backing such legends as Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Steve and Eydie, and a very old Ella Fitzgerald. Between that, hearing his record collection, growing up around the legendary musicians and singers who were like aunts and uncles to me, and just listening to him practice around the house, filling the neighborhood with incredible jazz sax riffs, I couldn't help becoming that weird kid who was listening to Peggy Lee, Ella and Manhattan Transfer when my classmates were listening to rock, country and soul. Even though he died before I ever sang professionally, he remains my inspiration and all my CDs are dedicated to him. I like to think that he'd like my music, since it's built on the foundation he handed down to me.