Karen Shane launched her professional jazz singing career in 1998, the same year her debut album It's Anybody's Spring appeared. Her path toward jazz singing had not always been straightforward. Back in 1967, while still attending high school, she began performing vocals after teaming with Eric Carmen to form a local ensemble devoted to the Beatles, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, and other leading rock acts of the 1960s. Relocating to Los Angeles in 1970, she supported Donna Capers with background vocals during engagements at the Troubadour. Another move brought her to New York City in 1984, where she performed character roles with the American Ballet Theatre in several large-scale productions. During the late 1980s she rediscovered the standards she had known while growing up. Her developing interest in jazz next took her to Florida, where she gained further stage experience at the Key Biscayne Music and Drama Club in productions such as Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance and Rodgers & Hammerstein's A Grand Night for Singing. Throughout the 1990s she began appearing in jazz venues around Miami and Ft. Lauderdale while continuing to refine her vocal approach. The outcome of that work is audible on her first recording. Shane possesses a voice marked by exuberance and confidence, enabling her to render up-tempo numbers with verve and elan while treating ballads with sensual warmth. She is plainly an artist who merits wider recognition.
