Award Winning Jazz Vocalist June Cavlan’s Debut Album A Portrait of June Features Two Leo Robin songs – “If I Should Lose You” and “Hello, Ma! I Done It Again”
June Cavlan is an award winning Jazz vocalist based in New York City. June’s unique and charismatic interpretations of works from the Great American Songbook are inspired by legendary vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, and Barbra Streisand. June’s debut effort, “A Portrait of June”, not only showcases her immense vocal prowess but also her skills in arranging, composing, and vocal improvisation.
Being raised locally, studying music in Miami and then evolving into a triple threat vocal instructor, jazz singer and recording artist in New York is not a path many local artists would take. But June Cavlan is no ordinary artist.
The Soquel-born singer tells how she got started singing. “I was born and raised in Santa Cruz,” she recalled. “We lived off Thurber Lane, and I went to Soquel High School. I grew up listening to a lot of Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. My dad used to work a little with the Monterey Jazz Festival, so I grew up with jazz in my life.”
Singing came along when June was in her early teens. “I started in musical theater during middle school. When it comes to jazz, especially the ‘Great American Songbook,’ musical theater is definitely the next-door neighbor to jazz,” she laughed, adding, “When I started high school, I really wanted to get into choir.” She worked hard, and it paid off. “I auditioned for the upperclassman ensembles, and I got in. I was 13, a freshman, I ended up singing lead soprano in the jazz choir.”
Ever since her debut album, June can be seen performing in and around New York City and also in her hometown of Santa Cruz and the Bay Area. With various projects in the
works, her rising vocal jazz trio The Sunhouse Singers (Joie Bianco and Kate Kortum), and her blossoming relationship with her label, La Reserve, June Cavlan breathes new life into this timeless and beloved art form.
With an eclectic mix of material, the impressive debut album A Portrait of June presents the jazzy June Cavlan’s cavalcade of characters. One moment she’s struggling with romance (albeit with pep!), imagining that “living would seem in vain” if her lover leaves her. That’s the mindset for “If I Should Lose You,” written by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin. In the same team’s shrugging “Hello, Ma! I Done It Again,” also written by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin, used in two 1941 movies, she’s a daughter addressing her mother. Ella Fitzgerald recorded this song early in her career, and the captivating Cavlan, who can swing and scat-sing, fits the Fitzgerald mold. The legendary lady is a likely role model/musical ancestor, but the new kid on the block is not merely a chip off the old block. She has plenty of creative spark and sparkle of her own. Her timbre is as bright as the clever ideas in the musical arrangements, which she crafted herself. Musical accompaniment is spot on and spry: kudos to pianist Connor Rohrer, bassist Aidan McCarthy, drummer Max Marsillo and trumpeter Jason Charos.
A 1941 gangster comedy film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone. Mob boss Cesar Romero takes babysitter Virginia Gilmore out for a Christmas night date at his club and then helps her achieve her dream of becoming a nightclub singer. Virginia Gilmore sings “Hello Ma! I Done It Again” (lyrics by Leo Robin with music by Ralph Rainger).
Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra recording of “Hello, Ma! I Done It Again” in 1941.