Bio
Bio
Singer Songwriter Ali Shaw, has been playing her Bluesy heartfelt original tunes around NYC and the East bay for the past ten years. With a strong emotional connection to her audience she is an experience to see.
Her vocals are intense and addictive to listen to as is her performance and the music she writes. Performances in NYC include Rock Ridge Hall ,The Alphabet lounge ,El taller ,The Carlyle Hotel and Dannys. In the east Bay this past year Ali worked with two wonderful musicians and performed at the Solano Festival, 4th street market and a few candle light house parties in Albany .
Shaw began her professional theatre career at the age of eight when she played the lead role of Anne in The Raft of Medusa, a dramatic play at the Manhattan Children's Theatre. Followed by" A Tribute to James Cagney" as a lead soloist and tap dancer choreographed and directed by the well regarded Tommy Tune, who taught her how to do her first set of "Wings".
At the age of 12 Alison had her first recording contract with Sandcastle records and landed a single called "Santa clause, Dear Santa Clause" on the country charts and had radio play in those regions of the US.A long span of other jazz and blues performances, plays, musicals, readings and cabarets followed . She had wonderful reviews for her role in Peace Child as Katia, a Russian young lady trying to bring peace and end the cold war. It was at the Kennedy Center and the Riverside Church in NYC. Followed by a lead role in Take me along, also at the Kennedy Center and on Broadway.
Ali won the lead role in Frankenstein an Operetta and drama that was off- Broadway and then planned for Broadway as well but the show did not make it. As well as many performances at local nyc fesitivals and fairs
.In the Late 80s she made it to number 37 on the Billboard Charts for her single "When boys cry" under the new name Ashley Paul.. As Ashley Paul, she traveled all throughout the world for this song, selling records in the US, Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and Asia.
After she had a follow up single "Color me yours" released in 1990. , with many years of performances following.
Ali was also was trained in both Jazz and Classical Vocals by both Shirley Lemmon and Maria Farnsworth of the Metropolitan opera. She also studied with the infamous Henry le Tang for tap, the Hines brothers for Vop. While she studied acting at HB studios, and William Esper, as well as the top coach at the Professional Children's School in NYC. She also a long-time member of both Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and ASCAP.
Ali started writing her own music about ten years ago. She writes blues ,rock and some folk style music, in addition to one recent rap song she wrote and produced...She is always open to covers , Led Zeppelin, Sheryl Crow, Aretha ,Olivia N John .traditional Jazz standards and even a holiday songbook. Ali can make any song her own.
DISCOGRAPHY
About Ali
"-A Bunch of Cool Music by: David Finkle ( Backstage.com)
Alison Shaw is trying to find herself. Or is it that Ashley Paul is trying to lose herself? Blonde, nubile Ashley hit the late '80s record charts with teen-tart singles long before Britney and Christina realized wearing skimpy outfits makes you sing better.
But now the Dwight graduate has grown up, and met and married Mr. Upper-East-Side-Right. And she understands the allure of a classy basic black dress with tasteful costume jewelry. She also knows she still wants to air her amazing, two-pronged voice.Yes, even though Ashley Paul has been replaced with Alison Shaw, there are remaining hints of two different people in the lady's pipes.
This dichotomy is, however, an asset. Throughout "Blues Ali," which remains at Danny's Skylight Room the next two Tuesdays, Alison Shaw leaps from high head notes to ground-scraping low notes in a single bound.
With her opener, she declares "I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues" (Ted Koehler-Harold Arlen), and so she does, because, whether or not the blues seem precisely suited to her rich-little-rich-girl manner, she sings them with authority.
One ditty she wails particularly well is Bob Telson's "Calling You." During a shortish set—for which Tedd Firth plays in his usual refined way and to which bassist Saadi Zain and saxophonist Ryan Shore add funky sound—the only attention Shaw gave her formerly Paul self was a so-fast-the-words-got-lost rendition of her oldie, "When Boys Cry," which she wrote with Victoria Shaw and Peggy Stanziale.Shaw's patter concerns her transition from virginal schoolgirl/slutty pop goddess to life as a loving bride and zip-code 10021 charity volunteer.
Because the gab frequently sounds like recitation, that's where she and director Erv Raible need to do immediate repair work."-A Bunch of Cool Music by: David Finkle( Backstage.com)See email for more press
GIGS