Naomi LaViolette’s New Jazz Standard

There’s a certain brand of female singer-songwriter these days that’s hard to describe accurately. These ladies lilt about atop a cloud of influences -jazz, mainly, but also with attachments to ethereal acousto-rockers of yore like Joni Mitchell and Carol King. This new brand of lady musicians takes classic influences and spins them with originality and a personal touch. In a world that insists upon specific definition, such concoctions can be hard to pin down, genre-wise. Is it Norah Jones-like pop? Subtle, sophisticated songcraft? Jazz-based, piano-driven, sultry chanteuse-ery?

When it comes to the work of Naomi LaViolette, perhaps we can just call it some damn fine songwriting. LaViolette, who hails from Portland and now lives in Wilsonville, begins long, slow burn of a run through several McMenamins venues this month (starting this Thursday, February 15, sharing the bill with Michele Van Kleef at Wilsonville’s Old Church), and she’s been garnering quite a bit of attention due to her new self-title debut album and its well-wrought brand of…damn fine songwriting. We figured we’d give you a little preview of her work, via the videos below, and also by noting you can stream the first four songs of her new debut album by visiting her website.

So all you fans of smart-jazzy-original-delicate-fierce-intelligent-poppy-but-notdumb songwriting: We’ll see you in February!