Classics from the American Songbook

The Greenwood Lake Public Library will welcome the classically trained vocalist Ellen LaFurn on Thursday, Oct. 3, from 7 to 8 p.m.

With a jazzy stroll through classic music, LaFurn will sing memorable tunes such as "Almost Like Being in Love," "It was a Very Good Year," "When Sunny Gets Blue," and "It's Only a Paper Moon."

She will be accompanied by Vic Cenicola on guitar and Harold Zislan on bass.

LaFurn started singing professionally at the age of 17 with a “show group” called Chang Lee and the Zaniacs, singing at teen dances and niteclubs.

She attended Kean University as a flute major as well as studying privately both flute and voice. At Kean University, she was the featured vocalist with the Big Band Workshop and a member of the Woodwind Choir and concert band.

LaFurn recorded on an album entitled "Danny & Friends" and became the vocalist with the Bob Ackerman Group — through whom she met her late husband, Gerry LaFurn. (He played lead trumpet with Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Charlie Barnet and Jimmy Dorsey, as well as being conductor/arranger for Mimi Hines and Don Costa’s chief orchestrator. He is most remembered for the recording made when he co-led a big band with Charlie Persip called Superband.)

LaFurn has worked and learned from such jazz greats as Roland Hanna, Gus Johnson, Danny Gibson and Miss Rhapsody.

She was a member of the Joe Zarr Trio with the late Al Ross on organ and Warren Battiste on guitar, while also performing with The Traces and the Gary Kay Trio.

LaFurn has returned to performing after taking a brief hiatus to raise her daughter. She has also spent a number of years teaching in the Jersey City public school system.

In her music, the listener will “hear the passion and excitement of a young person together with the experience of a life well lived.”

To register: online at ww.gwllibrary.org, at the front desk or by phone, (845) 477-8377, ext. 101.

The library is located at 79 Waterstone Road in the Village of Greenwood Lake.