Album Notes

MAUDE MAGGART, the chanteuse who started her performing career in the clubs of New York and Los Angeles , has exploded into one of today’s most compelling international concert artists. She has been hailed as “bewitching” by The New York Times, “utterly enchanting” by the New York Post, “stunning” by the Los Angeles Times and “transfixing” by New York Magazine.

Her latest CD Maude Maggart Live – which includes classic love songs such as “You Go To My Head,” “Skylark,” “I Can’t Get Started,” “All The Things You Are” and “The Song Is You,” in addition to rarely-heard vintage compositions by Kurt Weill (“The River Is So Blue”), Jerome Kern (“Let’s Begin”) and Harry Warren (“Coffee In The Morning, Kisses In The Night”) – was released on March 13, 2007. USA Today, which labeled the disc “Pick of the Week,” said “with her sultry-sweet tone and quivering vibrato, Maggart conveys a singular freshness and unmannered sensuality.”

This new CD continues a year of astonishing success for Maude, including a spot on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List,” a feature segment on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and a Time Out New York cover story. Maude recently filmed her screen debut in a new movie about composer Kurt Weill by director/actor/screenwriter Robert Downey, Sr. She recorded a duet with Broadway and TV star John Lithgow for his new CD, The Sunny Side of the Street, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. In addition to annual sell-out runs at the Oak Room of the fabled Algonquin Hotel in New York and the Gardenia in Hollywood , Maude made her London debut in February as part of Jeff Harnar’s “American Songbook in London ” series at the Jermyn Street Theatre.

Her concerts have become celebrity magnets, attracting such boldface names as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lynn Redgrave and Neil Simon. Her latest show, “Good Girl/Bad Girl” – which explores the emotional complexities of songs written for both naughty and nice, and others open to interpretation – opened to rave reviews in New York and Los Angeles . She reprised the program in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theater Company and it will be broadcast on Chicago Public Radio this fall.

Her previous CD, Maude Maggart Sings Irving Berlin, features well-known standards from Berlin’s catalog such as “The Song Is Ended,” “Always” and “What’ll I Do,” as well as lesser known songs such as “When I Leave The World Behind,” “Slumming on Park Avenue” and “Yiddisha Nightingale.” Her 2004 CD, With Sweet Despair, includes Depression-era gems such as “Happy Days Are Here Again,” “ Forty Second Street ” and “Night and Day,” along with rarely recorded numbers by Harry Warren (“Remember My Forgotten Man”), Marshall Barer (“Beyond Compare”) and Cole Porter (“How Could We Be Wrong?”). Her music has been championed by New York broadcasting legend Jonathan Schwartz, the eminent British broadcaster Russell Davies on the BBC and Garrison Keillor on NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Maude is the scion of an acclaimed show business family: her grandmother starred in the George White Scandals of 1926, her grandfather was the star vocalist for the famed Harry James Big Band, her parents met while performing with Lauren Bacall in the Broadway musical Applause, and her sister is pop singer-songwriter Fiona Apple.

Born and raised near 125th Street in New York City , Maude created a stir in Hollywood with her debut show at the Gardenia, when The Los Angeles Times said “Maude Maggart’s talent and imagination offer hope for the future of cabaret.” Fostered by Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Feinstein, Maude has performed at nightclubs around the country, including Feinstein’s at the Regency in Manhattan, the Plush Room in San Francisco, the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, the Savor Room in St. Louis and Schroeder’s in San Diego.

For the 92nd Street Y’s “Lyrics and Lyricists” series, Maude starred in Easy to Love: The Love Songs of Cole Porter and Kurt Weill In America, the latter which will be released on CD this spring. She will return to the series in June 2007 for Noël Coward and His Ladies, curated by Steve Ross. In 2005, she was featured in the LAByrinth Theatre Company’s Obsession benefit, curated and directed by John Patrick Shanley. Maude is the recipient of the 2005 Time Out New York Award for Special Achievement, the 2005 MAC Award for Best Female Debut and the 2005 Back Stage Award for Special Achievement.

Over the past year, she has headlined shows at New York ’s Downtown River to River Festival, Guild Hall in East Hampton , the Hudson Opera House, the Oregon Festival of American Music, the Bridgeport Playhouse and Michael Feinstein’s “Standard Time” concert series at Carnegie Hall. She appeared as the special guest star with the MYO Dance Company in Garden of Reason – a theatrical event with song, dance and magic – at the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood .