Emily Braden Live at the Linen

Soulful jazz vocalist and Boise native Emily Braden will headline a special performance Live at the Linen on Friday, July 10. The concert starts at 7 p.m. at the Linen Building, 1402 W. Grove St. in Downtown Boise’s Linen District. $15 at the door. All ages. Beer and wine available (ID required).

Backed by the Emily Braden Trio (Camden Hughes, piano; Jay Multanen, bass; Greg Belzeski, drums), Braden will perform music from her debut album, Soul Walk. The album, recorded last fall in New York City and featuring top jazz musicians and Braden’s original compositions, will be available for purchase for the first time at her Live at the Linen concert.

Pete Petersen with the Frim Fram Four Fellas will open. The group consists of Pete Petersen (sax), Greg Belzeski (drums), Andrew Cortens (piano) and Cody Ramey (bass). For more information, visit frimfram4.com.

Braden will donate a portion of the proceeds to the Gib Hochstrasser Memorial Fund. Braden’s sold-out performance for the Idaho Jazz Society in December 2008 raised nearly $2,000 for the fund.

Years of hard work have allowed Emily Braden to develop a truly unique style. With her powerful range and soulful sound, the 27-year-old explores gospel wails, confident blues, hard funk, feverish vocal improvisations and heartfelt, subtle ballads.

Braden’s career as a versatile and engaging soloist is rooted in an early passion for powerhouse vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin. She recalls hours spent as a youth memorizing classic vocal recordings and scat solos.

Originally from Boise, Braden moved to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, in 2002 to begin a four-year mentorship with the legendary jazz musician Louise Rose. Braden’s instrument-like improvisations and affinity for the blues gained the attention of world music artist and Juno Award nominee Harry Manx, with whom Braden has recorded and toured across Canada.

Highlights from Braden’s career include headlining Victoria’s JazzFest International in 2008, where she was joined on stage by Wynton Marsalis and members of his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. In March 2009, Braden was selected to perform at the historic Apollo Theater in New York City as a competitor in the world-renowned talent show Apollo Amateur Night. Most recently, she performed at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club as a guest vocalist with the Misha Piatigorsky Octet.

At home in Victoria, Braden explores creative collaborations with hip-hop artist Kia Kadiri, award-winner singer-songwriter Anne Schaefer and Louise Rose. She also is a founding member of the jazz/soul/roots fusion group the Deepdowns.

For more information and audio samples, visit myspace.com/emilybraden.

For more information on the Linen Building and Live at the Linen concert series, call 208.385.0111 or email info@thelinenbuilding.com. Visit thelinenbuilding.com and interact with the Linen Building on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

ABOUT THE LINEN BUILDING: Built in 1910 and originally known as the American Laundry Building, the Linen Building Event Center has been transformed into an architecturally unique special events center. The two-story facility houses three distinct music venues: a 350-capacity concert hall in a retrofitted warehouse space; an intimate, 150-capacity upstairs performance space; and a 1,500-capacity open-air performance space in the epicenter of Downtown Boise’s Linen District.