Media Information - For Immediate Release

SHAKURA S'AIDA CELEBRATES THE RELEASE OF DEBUT CD, BLUEPRINT

Toronto launch concert at Live @ The Courthouse set for May 15/07

An active member of the Toronto music scene for over 20 years, it's taken that long for Brooklyn-born singer Shakura S'Aida to create a long-awaited debut blues recording, Blueprint. She'll launch the 11-track CD at a special concert at Toronto's new jazz venue, Live @ The Courthouse, on Tuesday, May 15.

Raised in half a dozen US cities and in Switzerland, the multi-lingual Shakura S'Aida (pronounced "shah-koo-rah sigh-ee-da") relishes Toronto's wide-ranging music community. In addition to solo work with her own band, she's a regular member of Bill King's Saturday Night Fish Fry Band and was lead singer with the 13-piece world music band, Kaleefah.

Having performed on stages around the world and nominated twice for Maple Blues Awards as "Female Vocalist of the Year", S'Aida is a powerful performer who has appeared with legendary artists including Ruth Brown and organist Jimmy Smith; she's also played at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theatre. She recently performed a duo performance with Grammy-winning New Orleans musician and actor Chris Thomas King (Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou) for a CBC recording and toured with Dawn Tyler Watson, Angel Forrest, Suzie Vinnick and Lulu Hugues in Quebec and the United States as a member of Les Grandes Dames du Blues.

Inspired by classic blues and soul artists, she describes her debut CD as a blueprint of a musical journey combining elements of jazz, blues and gritty soul. Blueprint is distributed in Canada by Vancouver-based Festival Distribution and produced by James Bryan, a member of Philosopher Kings and currently guitarist for Nelly Furtado.

Who: Powerful vocalist Shakura S'Aida

What: CD release party for her debut recording "Blueprint"

Where: Live @ The Courthouse (56 Adelaide Street, Toronto - 416-214-9379)

When: Tuesday, May 15; three sets, starting at 8:00 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.)

Tickets: $10 at the door

Websites:

www.shakurasaida.comwww.richardflohil.com
www.festival.bc.ca

For media information, interviews and photographs, please contact:

Richard Flohil or Sarah French
Tel: 416-351-1323, Fax: 416-351-1095
Email: sarahfrench.rflohil@sympatico.ca

Richard Flohil & Associates
60 McGill St.
Toronto, ON M5B 1H2

PH: 416 351 1323
FAX: 416 351-1095

E-MAIL: sarahfrench.rflohil@sympatico.ca

Website: www.richardflohil.com

Working with Stony Plain Records, Downchild, Jeff Healey, Martyn Joseph, Treasa Levasseur, Loreena McKennitt, Porkbelly Futures, Roxanne Potvin, Paul Reddick, Justin Rutledge, Serena Ryder, Christine Tier, and some 20 Hugh's Room, Roadhouse and Rivoli concerts each year ... Editor and writer, Applaud! Canadian Music on the World Stage.