Ask & You Shall Receive8/29/2025 In a celebratory mood today for a few reasons, but one is because it's my birthday! This year has been a feat of physical and emotional endurance for me as I learn to navigate parenthood while continuing my artistic career. Whew! I'll let you know how well I'm balancing that juggling act in 5 years. Haha In the meantime, I have a gift for YOU! Ever since I put together my first "Great American Songbook" Show at the Manship Theatre's Hartley/Vey Studio, people have asked me, "When's the next one????" Well... Mark your calendar for Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, cuz this will be an exciting night: PASSPORT TO PARADISE WITH ASHLEY ORLANDO: A Swinging Sojourn of Jazz, Joy, and Jet-Setting  Fasten your seatbelt and let your imagination take flight!
“Passport to Paradise with Ashley Orlando” will take you on a swinging sojourn of jazz, joy and jet-setting with songs from the 1920s to the present day. Join jazz vocalist and ukulele artist Ashley Orlando and her band as they whisk you from the sun-kissed shores of Hawaii to moonlit nights in Paris; from the vibrant rhythms of Rio to the soulful sounds of New Orleans. Featuring timeless classics like “Come Fly With Me,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (Iz version), “One Note Samba,” and “La Vie en Rose,” this evening blends romance, whimsy, and irresistible grooves with golden age glamour. Come to paradise with these incredible musicians: Ashley Orlando (vocals/ukulele), Raudol Palacios (cello), Connor Underwood (piano), Dave Hinson (bass) and John Jones (drums)!
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Big Show Announcements!8/14/2025  School is starting back up here in Louisiana, and my fall performance schedule is shaping up to be quite eventful. Come join in the fun!
In the meantime, here's to tackling today's routine tasks and rehearsals with the same infectious curiosity and enthusiasm as my 1-year-old, Ethan. He can't walk unassisted yet, but a couple weeks ago, he accidentally turned an empty Kirkland diaper box (sitting all alone by the backdoor just waiting to be recycled) into his own personal push-walker. This unexpectedly unleashed FREEDOM to explore most of the house on his own, which he now delights in doing all day long. He even prefers this cardboard box to the ACTUAL push-walker we bought him. haha. Gotta love toddler ingenuity :) With gratitude, Ashley A Dash of Courage8/8/2025 Two-ish years ago, I bought a beautiful red tulle dress for a "big gig" (as a soloist with the symphony)! The dress was a tad too large in places, but it was also unlike anything I had ever worn before and made me feel bolder just looking at myself in the dressing room mirror. "Woah!" I remember thinking when I first tried it on. "Maybe it can be easily altered." I felt enchanted enough by the uniqueness of the dress to at least take a chance and paid $40 to bring it home. In the days that followed, my mom and I tried to "fix" the dress with our minimal sewing skills, but it wasn't working out quite like I hoped. In that state, I did not feel comfortable wearing the dress to sing in front of a symphony and 1,800 spectators. Disheartened, I hung the dress up in my closet, and there it stayed...HAUNTING ME. Until last Saturday night. Two+ years later... When I could finally zip up the dress again (FUN SIDENOTE: I learned a couple days before that aforementioned symphony concert that I was pregnant with my son, so technically, it was his "onstage debut" :P). And I dared to TRY AGAIN. This time I was fully committed to the dress and called in the professionals at a bridal shop around the corner from my house. The lovely ladies there didn't know me from Adam, but they immediately took me under their wing like my fairy grandmothers and worked their magic so that that night I could FINALLY (AND COMFORTABLY) muster up my courage to wear "the dress" for a "big gig"--this time with a "big band!" And I'm so glad I did :D As my 1-year-old's books remind me every night before bed: "When things don't work out like you hoped the first time around, don't give up too easily. Trust your gut and try again!" With gratitude, Ashley  Seeking Synchronicity7/19/2025 You know those rare days when everything seems to be going RIGHT? When good things keep happening to you all day, like lucky pennies falling from the sky? :) This happened to me last week. Synchronicity. It's unusual but oh so sweet. And I don't say this to brag, because it's not (mostly) due to luck. It's the result of MONTHS of tiny actions to prepare for "good things" (for example, new gigs require practicing new repertoire ahead of time, updating equipment regularly, etc.) and then placing yourself over and over again in interesting situations that help you to interact with people in positive ways. It's saying "yes" to thousands of tiny actions that align with your overall goals and saying "no" to ones that don't. It's not waiting for things to come to you but creating your own projects and challenges. When you do that regularly, sometimes additional opportunities will pop up that weren't even on your radar before, but you'll be in the right place at the right time, and ready to say "yes." I don't wait for great days like this to take action, but I treasure them when they do show up and give me an extra burst of energy to keep moving forward! I hope you experience synchronicity, too, every now and then in your life. If not, how about trying something new this week? An activity a bit out of your ordinary routine. Or something fun that helps you tap into your inner child. You never know what you might learn or who you might meet! With gratitude, Ashley  Whirlwind Week7/2/2025 What a fun experience it was to stay in the heart of the French Quarter (the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, just behind St. Louis Cathedral) and immerse myself in traditional jazz for 6 days during the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp! Stepping out of my comfort zone also paid off tremendously since I did the guitar track (i.e. ukulele since I don't play guitar. haha--the instructors are the best in their fields so they were still able to work with me). Now I feel a lot more confident "locking in" with the rhythm section (guitar/piano, drums) in full-band situations. It was also exciting to meet fellow trad jazz players from throughout the U.S. (and even the U.K., France, and Australia). I shared some of the fun on social media Facebook and Instagram, but here's a link to the recap video on YouTube! With gratitude, Ashley  Hi From the French Quarter!6/20/2025 As you're reading this newsletter, I am likely nose deep in traditional jazz music, history, and guitar/banjo/ukulele stylings at the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp in the French Quarter! I'll be sure to post some of the fun on social media, so follow along with me on Facebook or Instagram for real-time, behind-the-scenes pics and videos. With gratitude, Ashley  The Show of the Summer6/12/2025  If you're looking for a fun date night idea or some fabulous evening entertainment INDOORS this month, please join us for the BIGGEST show of the summer right here in Baton Rouge:
"A Salute to Bobby Darin" benefitting Capital Region Crime Stoppers & presented by REV on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025, from 7pm to 10pm at the LSU Union Theater! This top notch big band concert will include Darin's major hits (Splish Splash, Dream Lover, Beyond the Sea, Mack the Knife, and more) performed by Ned Fasullo and His Fabulous 17-piece Big Band Orchestra with a few special guest vocalists (including yours truly)! There will be cash bar for concessions & adult beverages, and a large portion of this event's proceeds will benefit Capital Region Crime Stoppers, which now provides services & safety content to an 8-parish area. If you were hoping to see me on stage this summer, this is your chance! I can't wait to see you there. With gratitude, Ashley When the Joyologist Loses Her Joy5/12/2025 You may think that someone who people refer to as a "joyologist" rarely feels down or sad, but unfortunately, I am 100% human, too :p With negative news seeming to hit 24-7 these days (and from every angle/medium, etc.), I've been struggling a bit more than usual to bounce back from challenges to my baseline "go-get-em" outlook. So I was pleasantly surprised when a speaker friend of mine in California asked me out-of-the-blue to perform last month at his virtual Rotary Club Meeting featuring Wall Street Journal columnist and JazzWax editor Marc Myers. Marc is based in NYC and has written about music and jazz for decades. What an honor to get to connect and hear him speak! What I didn't realize until halfway through the meeting was just how much I needed to hear Marc's specific message for that day: the importance of finding positivity in the world and how music can help. So in case hearing what he shared with us that day can help to pull you out of a funk, too, here's the meeting video below. With gratitude, Ashley Feeling Good4/21/2025 Have you ever attended an outdoor event where the weather was determined to be the STAR of the party?
It was so windy during my recent private event performance with the Fat City Swing Band at a marina in Slidell, LA, that the heavy breeze knocked over a drum cymbal while we were setting up and later, a speaker, just after we'd finished a song! Dust flew into eyes of anyone without sunglasses (thankfully I had 5 forgotten pairs in the center console of my car that I eventually dug up and handed out to those who needed a pair). But the funniest (and scariest) part-- any sheet music that wasn't clothes-pinned down was sure to fly away (I had to chase a few pages for the rhythm section). It's on days like this when you truly appreciate the skill level of the people you're working with. I'm so grateful the bandleader had picked people who knew how to make beautiful music in challenging circumstances. That combined with their can-do attitude went a LONG way in keeping the collective mood up. We made the best of the tricky weather and had a great time, too! I hope to get the chance to play with the Fat City Swing Band again. Enjoy this 1-minute recap video here! With gratitude, Ashley April In Paris4/2/2025 As the jazz standard says, that's the dream, anyway, right? Funny enough, I worked in Paris for almost a year in my mid-20s but totally missed the month of April, so you'll have to take Ella Fitzgerald & Count Basie's word for how beautiful it is. I can confirm, however, that April in the French Alps is GLORIOUS :) Things have been a bit quiet lately on the outward front, but a lot of preparations are happening behind the scenes this spring:
What a pleasure it is to sing with so many different groups covering favorite standards from the 1920s-1960s! On the home front, Ethan is 8 months old, growing more adorable by the minute (how is that even possible???) and awake for most of the day now. As every working parent knows--whether they work from home or not--it's a constant challenge to juggle quality time with him plus getting things done, so my goal these days is to update you at least monthly in case you don't follow me on social media or at AshleyOrlando.com. See you soon at an event soon! With gratitude, Ashley  AuthorAshley Orlando is a jazz vocalist/ukulele artist and joyologist on a mission to help 1 million women find their voice through music, inspiring stories, and communication skills. Archives
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