Biography

In her debut Zoho music release My Ship: Songs from 1941, vocalist Dawn Derow performs the music from her award-winning cabaret show of the same name. Her stunning renditions on this album are not only an homage to classic songs of the WWII period, but a tribute to the performers who kept hopes high until America achieved victory.

The CD features a 14-song collection of chart-topping music composed or sung by some of the most legendary and prolific performers of the era, including Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Kay Kyser, Tommy Dorsey, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Billie Holliday, and The Andrews Sisters.

Dawn Derow, her acclaimed Music Director Ian Herman, and her highly accomplished musicians put a respectful spin on iconic songs such as “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)”, “Skylark”, “Why Don’t We Do This More Often?”, “Let’s Get Away from It All”, “White Christmas”, and the come-hither invitation of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”

As renowned jazz and cabaret writer James Gavin states in the CD’s liner notes: “World War II is so far behind us that almost every living link to it is gone. But in her acclaimed cabaret show, My Ship: Songs from 1941, and in this album of its music, Dawn Derow—a smart, sexy, expressive, and vocally polished woman of today—evokes that year as vividly as if it were happening now. You’ll be plunged into a time of massive upheaval and all its colliding emotions—the wistfulness, the loss, and the giddy escapism only that music could bring.”

Dawn Derow – vocals
Ian Herman – piano, music director
Tom Hubbard – bass
Daniel Glass – drums, percussion
Robin Zeh, Joyce Hammann, Paul “Dale” Woodiel – violins
Katarzyna Bryla – viola
Deborah Assael – cello
Sean Harkness – guitar
Benny Benack III – trumpet & cornet
Aaron Heick – saxophone, flute & clarinet
Dan Levine – trombone
Produced by Paul Rolnick