"welcome doses of warmth, wit and playfulness." - The Ottawa Citizen

"The first great record of 2012! 'Digging Me, Digging You' is a brilliant work of vocal beauty and composition choices. I am very happy to have stumbled onto a new and exciting vocalist such as Amy Cervini. I think you will be too. 'Digging Me, Digging You' will be on my list of top albums in twelve months. Guaranteed. Highly Recommended."
- Jazz Wrap

"Cervini has a charming left-of-center voice that never mimics Dearie but respectfully honors her . . . a joyful effervescence that's emotionally honest and affirming" - ICON

"an impeccable release that is as entertaining as they come!"- @Critical Jazz

"From beginning to end, 'Digging Me, Digging You' will make you smile - if this recording does not brighten your day, seek outside help." - Step Tempest

"Amy Cervini is a talented enough vocalist that it isn't the slightest bit distracting to not have that adorably individual style and delivery that is unmistakably Blossom Dearie."
- All About Jazz

"Amy Cervini is a sublime conqueror of The Great American Songbook" - Gaffa

"An honest, self-assured and honey-dripping presence."
- All Music Guide


Singer Amy Cervini's Homage to Hip Jazz Pixie Blossom Dearie, "Digging Me, Digging You", Out Today on Anzic Records

The album presents Cervini's fresh take on vintage originals and standards associated with Dearie, backed by an all-star New York jazz combo

Tour Dates in Celebration of "Digging Me, Digging You":

Long Island Winterfest, Jazz on the Vine
March 3, 3 - 5 PM - Palmer Vineyards
Jesse Lewis - guitar, Matt Aronoff - bass, Deric Dickens - drums

March 6 & 7, 7 - 9 PM - 55 Bar, NYC
Anat Cohen - clarinet, Joe Magnarelli - trumpet, Jesse Lewis - guitar,
Matt Aronoff - bass, Matt Wilson - drums

Canada
March 16, The Jazz Room, Waterloo, Ontario
March 20, Fourth Stage, National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
March 25, Hugh's Room, Toronto, Ontario
April 19, The Cellar, Vancouver, BC
April 20, Yardbird Suite, Edmonton, AB

Amy Cervini- whom The New York Times describes as "a thoughtful and broad-minded jazz singer" for her free-spirited, genre-blind approach - pays homage to a childhood idol with "Digging Me, Digging You": A Tribute to Blossom Dearie. To be released in January 2012 by Anzic Records, Cervini's third solo album features her backed by a band of all-star New York jazz players as she re-envisions the vintage art of "jazz pixie" Blossom Dearie via a contemporary sensibility. Time Out New York has praised Cervini's work for "tearing down boundaries between old and new jazz styles, rock, pop, country and more - a reminder of Duke Ellington's old axiom that there's just two kinds of music, good and bad."

Blossom Dearie (1924-2009) was a jazz singer beloved by the cognoscenti from New York to London to Paris and beyond. Miles Davis and Gil Evans were among her famous fans and friends in the '50s, to be joined by John Lennon in the '60s. Dearie said her key influences included Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and the team of George Burns & Gracie Allen; that, wrote jazz vocal authority Will Friedwald, was "a statement that speaks volumes about the nature of her music and the importance of humor therein, particularly mischievous, impish humor." Dearie paired a small-yet-pure voice with an ever-swinging sense of rhythm, and she had a deft way of delivering a lyric. Friedwald described the storytelling in her singing as being like a striptease, "giving up secrets only slowly and reluctantly."

"Digging Me, Digging You" - the album title drawn from the lyrics to "Hey John," a song Dearie wrote after bonding with John Lennon on a TV chat show ("Hey, John, look at me digging you digging me") - is more than an homage to Dearie's vocal sensibility and repertoire; it's a tribute to the way she and other old-school artists made records. Cervini and her "family" of musicians - including pianist Bruce Barth, bassist Matt Aronoff, drummer Matt Wilson, clarinetist Anat Cohen and trumpeter Avishai Cohen, among others - recorded mostly live in the studio with everyone together, without rehearsals and in a single eight-hour day. Producer Oded Lev-Ari made artful, sympathetic arrangements beforehand, though there was enough room in the music that Cervini often told the musicians to play what they felt. And in James Farber, they had an ace recording engineer who could handle it all on the fly.

"With this album," Cervini says, "I'm not paying tribute so much to Blossom Dearie as a singer and a pianist as I'm paying tribute to the choices she made as a singer and a pianist." The Toronto-bred, New York-based Cervini was told by people that she sounded like Blossom Dearie "before I had even heard her sing - and once I did, I recognized a lot of the way I felt about music and singing in her. She seemed like a kindred spirit."



On "Digging Me, Digging You", "there is something for the jazz purist, for a cabaret aficionado, for people who like things a little more left of center," Cervini says. "We're not advancing the cause of jazz or anything with this record - it's meant to entertain, something with a fun energy that help gives your day a lift. That's what Blossom has always done for me."

Cervini has recorded two previous solo albums - Love Fool (2009, Orange Grove) and Famous Blue (2007, Orange Grove) - which saw her range interpretively from Cole Porter, Billie Holiday and Leonard Cohen to the Cardigans, Feist and Depeche Mode. Live, she has performed in clubs and concert halls from Toronto to Tel Aviv and in prime New York venues from the 55 Bar, Cornelia Street Cafe, Joe's Pub and the Knitting Factory to the Jazz Standard, Birdland, the Blue Note and Carnegie Hall. She works regularly with her "North Americana" group Jazz Country and the vocal ensemble Monday Off. The Ottawa Citizen declared that "the ex-pat Canadian sings terrific, gimmick-free jazz [with a] poise, intelligence and an unforced honesty that makes every song ring like it was her own."

# # # #

Press photos and sound samples available at: www.amycervini.com
Video available at: www.youtube.com/amycervini

For interview requests and more information, please contact:
Jason Paul Harman Byrne at Red Cat Publicity
347 578 7601, redcatjazz@mac.com