Thursday Night Jazz: AurallaurA’s “The Critique of Capital: An Engaging Revue” (Album Launch)

City of Asylum is ecstatic to welcome jazz vocalist and composer AurallaurA (Laura Chu Wiens) for the launch of her sophomore album, The Critique of Capital: An Engaging Revue, a confident, cabaret-like romp through jazz, world music, and other genres. AurallaurA’s distinctively clear and agile voice is often layered into intricate three-part harmonies, and she makes incisive social commentary on our difficult and uncertain era. Some highlights include raucous gospel song “Oh No Honey,” percussive Latin tune “Draw You Down,” a mature and novel interpretation of “Over the Rainbow,” and a blistering samba version of the Taiwanese folk song “Gao Shan Qing.” This album leads with the strong collaboration between Laura Chu Wiens and multi-instrumentalist performer and arranger Greg Lutz, which treats the listener to an expansive palette of virtuosic solos on keys, sax, guitar, flute, clarinet, and more. 

The album will be released and sold on vinyl and CD, and it will be available online through digital platforms like Bandcamp and streaming platforms.

Featured Musicians:

Laura Chu Wiens: vocals

Greg Lutz: keys

Curtis Johnson: sax, clarinet, flute

Jeff Leonhardt: guitar

Justin Brown: bass

Jay Constable: drums

About the Author:

Laura Chu Wiens, also known as AurallaurA, is a jazz and world music composer and vocalist. She grew up in a Chinese-American household, and having lived extensively overseas, is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. AurallaurA has studied and performed folk music in Chiapas, Mexico, township jazz in Cape Town, South Africa, Roma music in Belgrade, Serbia, and Lisu minority folk music in Yunnan, China. Notably, she has also written and performed vocal music for four BBC Radio 4 Dramas produced by the Prix Italia and Sony Gold Radio Academy Award–winning audio artist, Gregory Whitehead, some in collaboration with Nick Zammuto of “The Books.” Those pieces were broadcast nationally across the UK on BBC Radio 4 and at the Glasgow Radio Festival “Radiophrenia,” most recently in 2020. Finally, Laura Chu Wiens has also performed over a hundred jazz concerts in the Pittsburgh region over the last several years with the band RML Jazz. AurallaurA’s critically-acclaimed freshman album, Exetastes, released January 2024, was in the Roots Music Report top 15 for World Music radio plays for 12 full weeks, and also hit the top 30 radio plays for NACC Jazz and NACC World Music reports for radio plays. The ensemble played two sold-out concerts at the City of Asylum in 2022 and was followed by AurallaurA original music concerts in the Sweetwater Center for the Arts Summer Jazz Series and the Pittsburgh cultural district jazz venue, Con Alma. In Fall 2024, the group released an EP entitled She Goes for Blue, which has been in heavy rotation with jazz stations in the United States, South Africa, and Italy. 

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is open for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Please visit OpenTable or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.