There is something undeniably seductive about jazz music – its glamour, its sex appeal, and its earnest, soulful roots all appeal to a comfortable, old-fashioned music sensibility. There exists a select few who appreciate jazz on another level, people who see one step beyond the classic image and recognize jazz as an entirely fresh form of pop music. Rosey is one of these rare characters. Her new album The Old Fashioned Way expresses a respect for the genre by re-introducing it to a contemporary audience; using vintage jazz standards style, and rich, supple vocals she touches upon frustration, joy and love to remind us that true passion is never outmoded.

Rosey’s affair with music began as a child joyfully discovering her parents’ records. She recalls falling in love with the Beatles’ music at age seven; an event that would lead to a lifelong of musical pursuits. By the time she was in college, she had sought out and embraced a wide spectrum of music and used Boston’s Emerson College Radio station as a forum for exploring everything from world to urban sounds. She worked behind the scenes in the music industry for music promoters, doing assorted jobs at clubs, and at labels in LA and her native New York. But it was the day that Rosey picked up her guitar that she found her true calling; one which she refers to as “her awakening”. She moved to San Francisco, formed a band and started playing venues as small as the local wheat-grass shops and restaurants, shortly working her way up to The Bottom of the Hill and Bimbo’s before moving back to New York. This time it was to play regular haunts such as Spy, the Mercury Lounge, the Bitter End, and CBGB’s. Her demo began getting buzz until it reached executives over at Island Def Jam, who released her debut Dirty Child (2002).

After hearing the seductive “Love” track in the soundtrack of Bridget Jones’s Diary, and “The Afterlife” in the Farrelly Brothers comedy Shallow Hal, the media was quickly charmed by her debut. When she went on her first tour, it was as a supporting act for Melissa Etheridge and Meredith Brooks. It was not long, however, before Rosey felt the need to return to what she knew and loved best. “I kept at it, creating and recording ‘modern’ sounding music, and I felt stuck in a mold that didn’t fit. I’ve always wanted to create timeless music. The kind my parents raised me on – jazz, blues, folk, funk, classical. My favorites were always the jazz and blues songs. The way those live recordings sounded… a bunch of people in a room, a few mics, it was magic.” She quite literally changed her tune, and set to work creating a new sound blending jazz, blues, bossa-nova, and folk with contemporary lyrics. The effect? A refreshing classic.

The singer songwriter attributes a huge part of her style to her musically inclined family; both parents were lifelong singers, both grandparents were musicians, (one played the organ and the other was a radio DJ/classical pianist in the forties), and both her grandmothers were music teachers. With such ingrained musical presence, Rosey’s raw natural talent, as well as her passion, is to be expected. Yet Rosey has never taken her music for granted. “Now I’m free to bellow if I need to—like a real woman with her heart and soul in the music. I can finally be myself while writing, recording and performing. And I have never been happier in my life.” Call us old-fashioned, but we think she has never sounded better.