ALISON DEWAR - BIOGRAPHY

Passionate about music from an early age, Alison grew up singing and performing in Johannesburg, South Africa. From early appearances on stage and TV, Alison gained a wealth of experience, which helped to focus her interest in carving a career in the music industry. Keen to explore a variety of genres, she performed lead vocals with a professional pop band that gigged regularly in Pretoria and then joined the Jo’burg based band No Surprise with whom she recorded and performed original material. Then, in 1993, a trip to Europe introduced Alison to her greatest musical passion…jazz.

After a brief spell in the UK Alison moved to Switzerland in 1996, where she became hooked on jazz. Inspired by jazz legends (including the late, great, Shirley Horn) and determined to learn as much as possible Alison began a formal education in music at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Zurich. She went on to study further with the renowned Zurich Jazz School and enrolled with the St Gallen Jazz School.

Alison performed with the acclaimed Swiss jazz trio In-between as guest vocalist and then formed her own successful jazz quartet in Switzerland prior to moving to the UK in 2005.

In 2006 Alison released her first cd, a five track EP entitled Introducing Alison Dewar. The cd captured a variety of moods and vocal styles from the joyously upbeat Star Eyes to an intensely reflective interpretation of the beautiful Horace Silver ballad Peace. The cd garnered critical acclaim and entered the Best Sellers list at Ray's Jazz in Foyles, London steadily climbing to No.7 in their chart. In Europe Alison’s EP was voted cd of the week on Italian radio, and Softly became track of the week and month respectively on Italian and Greek radio, where the cd reached Top 20. Introducing Alison also received airplay in the US, France, Columbia and South Africa.

In 2007 her debut album, Natural was released and went to No. 1 on an Italian web-radio and No. 2 on Greek radio. In the UK she was interviewed by Jazzwise Magazine as “An artist taking off” and chosen as “Artist of the Month” on a London-based web-radio. On theJazz Jury programme on theJazz DAB radio (UK), her recording of ‘Hi-Fly’ was voted overall 4th amongst the new releases and amongst the vocalists of that week, 2nd place. Natural was selected as CD of the Week in Scotland and South Africa and received very favourable airplay in the UK, US and around the world.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Alison continues to develop and define her craft, inspired by the many great jazz legends past and present. In 2008 she’ll be concentrating on working on her 2nd album due for release in 2009. As of June ’08 she will be based in New York for a year.