The Pulse of Entertainment: Picturesque Records Releases ‘Robin Simone
Hollywood Orchestra' Featuring Her 17 Piece Band
(June 20, 2025) - "I felt we needed uplifting in the world,"
said Big Band vocalist Robin Simone as we talked about her new album release "Robin
Simone Hollywood Orchestra" (Picturesque Records). "We need happiness...love and light."
Big Band is not just the genre, but she actually has a 17-piece orchestra, plus a conductor.
"It's
a multi-culture group. An intergenerational group," she continued. "We are 17 orchestra members, one conductor and
myself. So, that's 19 total. We perform all over Los Angeles, winning awards. We have 800,000 views on our music video in
seven months. Another single is releasing this Saturday and the third this summer."
"We are inclusive with our
music...black folks started this music," Robin pointed out when talking about her big band and the song selections you
will find on the new "...Hollywood Orchestra" project. Song selections include "No Business Like Show Business,"
" and "Hurray for Hollywood."
The album is set up like a Broadway show. It has an overture, an intermission and a
curtain call that ends with her singing "Swingin' on a Star with Joe (Tribute to Ella)" as the final track. Other
covers include "That's Entertainment'" Cole Porter's "So In Love;" Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's "Come
Rain or Come Shine;" Cole Porter's "It's De-Lovely" which is the current single, and Michel Legrand's "Everything
Must Change."
The "Robin Simone Hollywood Orchestra" project
also has Michel Legrand's "The Windmills of Your Mind," and Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin's "The Man That Got
Away" from the 1954 classic film A Star is Born.
"I
had so much to say," Robin said about the long list of songs on the album. "First, we'll take a few singles off
the album and put them out...In between each song (on the album) is a vignette of people talking about what this music means
to them."
I asked her how she ended up singing Big Band music, and she said, "I was working with Kenny Brail with
his Big Band. He stopped doing that for a while and his conductor and I was talking. I said I wanted to continue. Then Covid
hit...my objective was to get out great music...it took a little time. We did rehearsal outside during Covid."
"It's fun to bring old school back," she said when I mentioned seeing her live
accompanied by a tap dancer. "The Big Band era...we'd (black people) even dressed up."
"I fell in love with movie songs," she told me as our interview concluded. "‘The
Hollywood Medley' (a selection on the album) is to introduce (the Big Band music) and ‘De-Lovely,' the single, that's
a Cole Porter song. It has a (music) video that we shot at a farm!"
Robin Simone has three Top 40 Billboard hits to her
credit and has so far collaborated with Prince and Debbie Allen. www.RSHO.biz
SYNDICATED COLUMN: Dr.
Eunice Moseley has an estimated weekly readership of over one million with The Pulse of Entertainment. She is
also a Business Management/Public Relations Strategist and Consultant at Freelance Associates and is Promotions Director (at-large)
for The Baltimore Times. www.ThePulseofEntertainment.com. EVENTS: "Uplifting
Minds II" Entertainment Conference (ULMII), founded by Eunice in 1999, is into its 26th year. Next events are coming
to Baltimore via Zoom Saturday April 19, 2025, presented by Security Square Mall and The Baltimore
Times, and Los Angeles via Zoom Saturday, November 8, 2025. The ULMII event is a free entertainment
conference offering a Professional Panel Q&A Session, a Professional Talent Showcase and National Talent Competition (vocal,
songwriting, dance and acting) where aspiring artists have a chance to receive over $20,000 valued in prizes/product/services.
Log onto www.UpliftingMinds2.com RSVP for Zoom Access at EventBrite.com or email info@thepulseofentertainment.com.
