Lucy Yeghiazaryan "Hey Love!" 12"

A limited edition first pressing of, "Hey Love!", the first straight-ahead record in years from master vocalist Lucy Yeghiazaryan, shaped partly by her journey into motherhood. A must-listen for lovers of jazz vocals.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on October 15, 2025, Hey Love! brings together an all-world band featuring Grant Stewart on tenor saxophone, Bruce Harris on trumpet, Tardo Hammer on piano, Peter Washington on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums, with pianist and vocalist Johnny O'Neal appearing on "Blow Top Blues" and "Dedicated to You."

"It's reflective of how my home has changed since having a baby," says Yeghiazaryan. "It's full of joy and silliness and laughter, and I think the record is a summation of all of that - a little bit of the humor that you need to survive real love, a little bit of the seriousness, a little bit of the chaos and the kind of psychotic elements, too, with something like a Blow Top Blues. So I think it's a portrait of my home today."

Hey Love! is Yeghiazaryan's first straight-ahead album in years, despite the fact she is one of the best straight-ahead singers in the world. Over the past half-decade, she has released a series of critically acclaimed projects that showcased her vocals with string arrangements and in duo with piano. Her most recent album, Beside the Golden Door, paired jazz standards with classics from Armenia, where she was born and spent the first decade-plus of her life.

Across ten tracks co-arranged with Grant Stewart, Yeghiazaryan moves through material by Duke Ellington, Cy Coleman, Richard Rodgers, and others. The album opens on "Next Spring," a tune she describes as a challenge to sing while making it seem very simple and easy. On "Witchcraft," she adds a rarely performed verse learned from Ella Fitzgerald and wrote a new ending for the arrangement. "I really like the sound we got with the horns," she says, "because it's sort of reminiscent of Abbey Lincoln's earlier stuff with Riverside Jazz Stars." "Blow Top Blues," a tune she learned from Etta Jones, took on new meaning after becoming a mother: "After having a baby, I finally said, 'Now I can sing this blues.'"

Hey Love! delivers the swinging and storytelling that live audiences know and love, making it an automatic must-listen for fans of Yeghiazaryan all over the world.