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From Bangkok to New York City to Carbondale, jazz vocalist Sony Holland has toured her voice around the world.

Holland hails from San Francisco, where she got her jazz start singing on the city's Fisherman's Wharf. She now tours worldwide, selling thousands of copies of her CDs. She made her most recent stop Wednesday night for a half-full McLeod Theater.

Holland took the stage clad in a leopard print dress and gold jewelry as her backing band took their positions behind her.

Holland's accompanying musicians included SIUC's New Arts Jazztet and Joe Davidian on piano. Davidian was a member of the National All-Star Grammy Jazz Big Band in 1999 and has performed with jazz greats like Tito Puente and Kevin Mahogany.

The New Arts Jazztet features school of music assistant professors Tyler Kuebler on wind instruments and Phil Brown on the bass.

The band had their first rehearsal with Holland just hours before the performance. Brown said Holland is a first class professional artist who had all her music in order and ready for the band to perform.

"Her professionalism is the reason we can put on the show we did with only one rehearsal," said Brown.

All night the crowd tapped their feet and bobbed their heads to the rhythms and applauded loudly after each song.

She began the night singing "Come Fly With Me," a tune made famous by Frank Sinatra.

She then made her way through some original songs penned by her husband and performed a number of other covers.

She left the jazz realm once to take on Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Holland said she had performed the song on Valentine's Day of this year as a joke for the crowd.

Between each of the songs, Holland took a minute to thank the crowd and introduce her next song, sometimes telling a story behind the tune.

Holland did two workshops for the School of Music Tuesday. When she went to dinner later that night, the power was out at the restaurant, and Holland said she felt like she was trapped in a Hitchcock film, but overall her reception and time spent in Carbondale were quite warm.

"My whole stay I've felt very welcome," said Holland.

Luke McCormick can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 254 or lmccorm2@siu.edu.

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