Rosie Vela - Zazu (1986)

Roseanne "Rosie" Vela is an American model and singer-songwriter. Vela's family later moved to Arkansas, where she attended the University of Arkansas. While studying art and music, Vela also began modeling. She married the Arkansas born musician, Jimmy Roberts, but he died of cancer shortly after. Following this, Vela moved to New York where her modeling career took off and she graced the covers of various magazines from the 1970s onwards, and has appeared in numerous television commercials. Turning her attention to music, Vela built a home recording studio for herself and signed a recording contract with A&M Records. She released her debut album, "Zazu", in 1986. The entire album was written or co-written by Vela, and was produced by Gary Katz. It is also notable for the fact that it included contributions from both Donald Fagen and Walter Becker  "Zazu" is a solid pop/rock effort that could be described as an interesting combination of Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. Vela doesn't have a great voice her voice is small and thin, but like jazz great Chet Baker, she demonstrates that you don't have to have a fantastic vocal range to be expressive and deliver a meaningful album. Favoring a relaxed, cool-toned style of singing.

The album produced the singles, "Magic Smile", "Interlude" and "Fool's Paradise".

Following Zazu, Vela did not release any further recordings, but has since become a backing vocalist for other musicians; including ELO on their 2001 album; Zoom.

Track listing

01.  Fool's Paradise  - 4:04   

02.  Magic Smile  - 4:26   

03.  Interlude  - 4:07   

04.  Tonto  - 5:40   

05.  Sunday  - 4:32   

06.  Taxi  - 3:27   

07.  2nd Emotion  - 4:47   

08.  Boxs  - 3:55   

09.  Zazu  - 4:46   

Release:  1986

Label:  A&M

Genre:  Pop, Rock

Lenght:  39:50

Producer:  Gary Katz

All Songs Written By:  Rosie Vela 

Personnel

Rosie Vela - Vocals, Keyboards 

Donald Fagen - Keyboards

Walter Becker - Soloist [Guitar] 

Jimmy Haslip -  Bass

Jimmy Bralower - Drums

Jim Keltner - Drums

Yogi Horton - Drums

Neil Stubenhaus - Bass

Michael Been - Guitar

Backing Vocals – Joy Askew, Jenny Peters, Joy Askew, Rosie Vela

Rick Derringer - Guitar

Aaron Zigman - Synthesizer

Tony Levin - Percussion

Larry Fast - Synthesizer