Verona Chard To Give You Fever

LONDON, UK (Top40 Charts/ Mbop Productions) - Five years after making her professional debut with the late, great British jazz lynchpin Humphrey Lyttelton, vocalist Verona Chard has wrapped her sultry tones around a clutch of classic compositions on her own offering, Fever, due for release on July 21.
Inspired by the music of another of the nation's great jazz stalwarts, John Dankworth - and his 1964 release Shakespeare and All That Jazz - the West Country chanteuse set about selecting a set of songs she could re-work herself. On the musical adventure, the former Royal Academy of Music student said: 'It set me thinking that there must be a wealth of material to explore and I wasn't disappointed.'

Suitably inspired, Fever saw her joined by a cluster of renowned musicians, including the award-winning saxophonist Alan Barnes and harpist Fiona Clifton-Welker as they breathed new life into the work of Elton John, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim plus Lyttelton and Dankworth themselves. From her sensual, yet melancholy take on the Peggy Lee title track, which has been played on UK Jazz Radio, to Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate standard Why Can't You Behave? - it's an eclectic mix, expertly handled.

Available from Amazon, play.com, direct from the www.veronachard.com plus major outlets - prior to Fever being officially launched at Chelsea's 606 Jazz Club on July 21, Verona will now play the Marlborough Jazz Festival on July 10 before an 11-date UK tour kicks off in August.