Live at Vic's Las Vegas (Deluxe Edition) Nicole Zuraitis & Friends

• 1 Got My Mojo Working (Live) 08:05
• 2 Nearness Of You (Live) 07:16
• 3 All Stars Lead To You (Live) 11:22
• 4 Pure Imagination (Live) 05:44
• 5 Jolene (Live) 08:56
• 6 Middle C (Live) 05:43
• 7 Everything Must Change (Live) 08:00
• 8 Reverie (Live) 07:17
• 9 Rhiannon (Live) 05:41
• 10 Round Midnight (Live) 11:02
• 11 Wichita Lineman (Live) 07:25
• 12 The Coffee Song (Live) 04:28
• 13 Right In Front Of Me (Live) 05:13
• 14 Georgia On My Mind (Live) 04:28
• 15 Sea Line Woman (Live) 11:11
• 16 Do I Move You (Live) 05:51
• 17 Pure Imagination (Alt Take) (Live) 05:14
• 18 The Coffee Song (Alt Take) (Live) 05:04
• 19 20 Seconds (Live) 05:32
• Total Runtime 02:13:32

Info for Live at Vic's Las Vegas (Deluxe Edition)

Nicole Zuraitis cut this album “Live at Vic’s” in Las Vegas, Nevada. With the accompaniment of her hot band, Zuraitis opens with the 1956 R&B hit record “I got my Mojo Working” originally recorded by Ann Cole. Muddy Waters was actually the artist who made this song popular in 1957 when he covered it. The song quickly became a blues standard. Rachel Eckroth shares a soulful organ solo and Tom Scott’s saxophone solo is memorable.

The thing about Nicole Zuraitis is her amazing vocal phrasing. Even though this is a blues and R&B standard, she interjects jazz into her arrangement. At one point, she scats and during the song presentation she phrases the lyrics in a very jazzy way.

Ms. Zuraitis received two back-to-back GRAMMY wins recently, including the 2024 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. She was the first independent artist to win in this category. The talented young vocalist is also proud to say she wrote and arranged that complete winning album. It was co-produced by the celebrated jazz bassist, Christian McBride.

Nicole Zuraitis grew up in Connecticut. She attended Litchfield public schools and Holy Cross High School in Waterbury. She is the premier vocalist for the Birdland Big Band and also frequents Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center, Birdland, the Blue Note Jazz Club and more. In addition to singing, she is a competent songwriter.

Zuraitis ‘swings’ “The Nearness of You” with Idan Morim’s guitar dancing beside each note in a lovely way. Samuel Weber takes an impressive solo on his double bass, followed by Morim expressing himself boldly during an improvised guitar solo. Nicole comes back into the song scatting her way through the chord changes of the first couple of verses. On the bridge, she returns to the lyrics, still phrasing in a very jazzy way.

A song called “All Stars Lead to You” comes next, with it’s luscious production by her all-star band. Both Tom Scott on sax and Keyon Harrold on trumpet make outstanding musical statements during their awesome improvisational solos. They are spurred forward by the dynamic drums of Dan Pugach. Nicole Zuraitis is composer of this song.

The Willie Wonka film tune “Pure Imagination” has become a “go-to” for jazz musicians. Nicole Zuraitis makes it her own.

Another original that the vocalist co-wrote with Billy Seidman is titled, “Middle C” with a very cute lyric and an arrangement that throws me back to the 1940’s. However, the melody and some of the lyrics are quite contemporary. “I like my man, like I like my notes. Not too high and not too low. No slight of hand, no complications. … You’re the do, in my do-re-me. Baby, you’re my middle C,” she sings.

I was touched when she sang my friend Bernard Ighner’s amazing jazz standard, “Everything Must Change.” With only the sensitive accompaniment of guitarist, (Idan Morim), her voice soars, using her full range. When they reach the second verse, “Winter turns to Spring…” the band joins them, with the Quincy Jones pick-up inserted. However, I was disappointed in their arrangement going forward. It turned into a cacophony of excitement, almost a musical rock arrangement. I think the song is just too beautiful for that kind of production.

To open the “Reverie” song, her patter to the crowd explains, she’s a self-taught pianist and a recovering opera singer. Yes, she does have the range and ability of an opera singer.

This album is a double disc set and offers you sixteen songs that show Nicole’s wide range of repertoire. She covers tunes by Stevie Nicks with the same ease and excellence as when she sings “Round Midnight” by Thelonious Monk. Her love of music crosses genres. She sings several original songs, but also includes compositions by Nina Simone, Jimmy Web, Dolly Parton, and Hoagy Carmichael.

This recorded concert is absolutely entertaining. It’s an example of a fresh voice on the jazz horizon. (Dee Dee McNeil, makingascene.org)

Nicole Zuraitis, voice, piano
Camila Meza, guitar
Carmen Staaf, piano
Dan Pugach, drums
Tamir Shmerling, bass
Rachel Eckroth, organ
Idan Morim, guitar
Dan Pugach, drums
Samuel Weber, bass
Keyon Harrold, trumpet
Tom Scott, saxophone

Nicole Zuraitis
As a recording artist, Nicole has released five albums as leader, and her sixth album, How Love Begins, co-produced with eight-time GRAMMY-winner Christian McBride, won BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM at the 2024 GRAMMY® awards and features all original music. She is the only person ever to have won this award who wrote and arranged the entire album herself.

In addition to leading her quartet, Nicole performed and recorded with the Birdland Big Band as the premier vocalist before taking off as a large ensemble leader of her own, co-producing the Dan Pugach Big Band and guesting for major big bands around the globe. She has headlined at Newport Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Caramoor, Saratoga Jazz Festival and Tanglewood, along with iconic NYC jazz clubs like Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center, Birdland, the Blue Note, the Carlyle, 54 Below and the late, great 55 Bar. She also has appeared as a featured soloist with the Savannah Philharmonic, Asheville Symphony, and Macon Pops as well as the Danish Radio Big Band.

Nicole is a featured artist and producer on her husband’s, renowned drummer, bandleader, and composer Dan Pugach, 2025 GRAMMY-winning album, Bianca Reimagined: Music for Paws and Persistence (Best Large Ensemble) for which they composed the GRAMMY-nominated song, “Little Fears” (Best Jazz Performance). Nicole is a vocalist on the GRAMMY-winning “Last Sunday in Plains: A Centennial Celebration” alongside Jon Batiste, Keb’ Mo’, and LeeAnn Rimes. In 2024, Broadway World honored Nicole with the “Best Big Band Show” Award and she’s a 2025 Rising Female Vocalist in Downbeat Magazine. Nicole’s arrangement of Dolly Parton’s Jolene, co-written with Dan Pugach, was nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY®, springboarding her career and making her a household name in the modern-day jazz landscape. In 2020, she was named in the top 40 under 40 for 2020 in Connecticut Magazine, and her weekly live stream during the Covid-19 crisis, “Virtual Piano Lounge,” was featured in Forbes Magazine.

Nicole has collaborated with an extensive list of luminaries, including Christian McBride, Tom Scott, Keyon Harrold, David Cook, Gilad Hekselman, Veronica Swift, Benny Benack, Stephen Feifke, Cyrille Aimee, Antonio Sanchez, Javon Jackson, Nikki Giovanni, Dave Stryker, Omar Hakim, Rachel Z, Helen Sung, Melanie, Morgan James, Darren Criss, Livingston Taylor, Thana Alexa, Rachel Eckroth, Don Braden and Bernard Purdie. She is a proud educator and a current vocal faculty member at NYU and the Litchfield Jazz Camp. In 2024, Post University awarded Nicole an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters.

An ardent activist with a decade-long track record of giving back, her release of How Love Begins coincided with a self-produced music festival and day of activism for Save the Sound.Org. All proceeds of the GRAMMY winning album Bianca Reimagined go to pitbull rescues Nicole and Dan have fostered through the last 15 years.

This album contains no booklet.