It’s Ashley Orlando's most ambitious musical project yet.
A jazz singer and ukulele player, Orlando has recruited an all-star band of musicians for her Friday concert at the Hartley/Vey Studio Theatre.
For “Summer Swing: The Great American Songbook & Beyond,” Orlando’s supporting players are multi-instrumentalist Don Vappie, winner of the 2021 Steve Martin Banjo Prize; Emmy-winning pianist, composer and arranger Mike Esneault; Doug Stone, saxophonist, clarinetist and LSU assistant professor of jazz studies; guitarist Brian Breen; and drummer John Jones.
“Every time I tell people who’s in the band they say ‘Wow,’ ” Orlando said. “It’s exciting that they agreed to work with me.”
She and her musicians will perform music from the 1920s through the 1960s. A fan of New Orleans stars Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima, she’ll include some of their material as well as songs associated with mid-20th century pop star Nat King Cole and contemporary crooner Michael Bublé. The Canadian singer was one of Orlando’s early inspirations.
“He was a young person who made classic songs cool again,” she said of Bublé. “I love doing that as well, putting my own spin on things.”
'Summer Swing: The Great American Songbook & Beyond' will feature Ashley Orlando and an all-star band of musicians.
As for the accomplished musicians who’ll join her Friday, Orlando simply asked and they said yes.
“Asking is something a lot of people don’t do,” she said. “Asking doesn’t mean you’re going to get a yes, but if you don’t ask, you definitely won’t get a yes.”
For much of her life, Orlando dared not make such ambitious requests. Growing up in Ponchatoula, she was a shy child and teen.
“People couldn’t even hear me speak,” the now extroverted performer recalled. “Freshman year at Ponchatoula High School, I was terrified, so anxious about going to a big school with people I didn’t know.”
After keeping to herself during that first year of high school, Orlando experienced a breakthrough in the summer between her freshman and sophomore years. A friend on the school’s dance team offered to help her secure a place on the team.
“She had no fear that I would not make the team,” Orlando remembered. “I was like, ‘OK, yeah. Let’s try this thing.’ ”
Sure enough, Orlando joined the Ponchatoula High School Wavettes. She also got more involved in music and theater and joined the yearbook staff.
“I learned that I could work through challenges, and I translated that to a lot of different aspects of my life,” she said.
Graduating from LSU in 2008, Orlando earned a people-oriented degree in public relations with a minor in music.
“There are times when I can revert to my shy, quiet side, but I learned that I love people and I get energy from learning about them,” she said.
Despite being a professional singer at churches, weddings and other functions since she was 15, Orlando didn’t sing jazz until her 30s.
“Because I was classically trained,” she explained of the operatic instruction she received from the ninth grade through undergraduate studies at LSU.
“I didn’t know how to sing things that weren’t on the page,” she said. “I let fear take over and I put my desire to sing jazz aside for a decade.”
In 2017, the ukulele, that diminutive cousin of the guitar, opened the door to a whole new world of music. Visiting her sister in Hawaii — where ukulele is the official modern musical instrument — Orlando bought her first ukulele. Celebrities who played the instrument, such as Jason Mraz, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, inspired her to give it a try.
“I thought that if ukulele is simple and Zooey Deschanel is singing jazz songs with it, then maybe I can play jazz with it,” Orlando said.
Back in Baton Rouge, Orlando joined the mostly senior citizens in the Ukulele Orchestra at St. Alban’s Chapel on the LSU campus. Following her husband’s 2017 transfer to Texas, she joined Houkulele, Houston’s 800 member-plus ukulele club. It was an ear-opening experience that helped her learn to improvise.
Orlando and her husband, Adam, returned to Louisiana from Houston last year. In various musical configurations, she’s performed at Bistro Byronz and Jubans in Baton Rouge; Café Sydnie Mae in Breaux Bridge; and the Gloriette restaurant in Covington. She’s also a cantor at St. Aloysius Catholic Church.
“It was a winding journey to get here,” she said. “But everything I’ve done makes me ready for what I’m doing now.”