Old Music Time

Elizabeth Doyle hails from South Dakota. She was brought up around all kinds of music from an early age, thanks to a truly musical family. Three of her four grandparents were professional musicians, (including one radio performer and singing cowboy). Her father had played saxophone and clarinet in the Navy during World War II and her mother was an avid singer and pianist. Both parents were fans of big band music, jazz, and the show tunes of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.

Doyle began playing piano at age six and began writing her own songs soon thereafter. In high school, the influences of such female singer/pianists as Carmen McRae and Dorothy Donegan began to take hold and Doyle decided to pursue a degree in music (and French) at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. During a foreign study stay in France, Doyle was lucky enough to have one piano lesson with the legendary Nadia Boulanger.

In recent years, Doyle has become a fixture on the Chicago music scene, with appearances at some of city’s most celebrated rooms, including the Fairmont’s Metropole, The Coq d’Or at the Drake Hotel and a six year run at Chicago’s famous Pump Room. A devotee of the Great American Songbook, Doyle has created a number of themed cabaret shows including, Dakota Blonde: The Lyrics of Peggy Lee, Some Like It Hot: The Hits of Marilyn Monroe, and the show with which she recently made her New York debut, Hollywood Blondes, a tribute to the music sung by some of Hollywood’s most famous (and, of course, blond) leading ladies. Doyle has also written and composed music for several original full length musicals with such titles as Fat Tuesday, Duo and Alice in Analysis.

Doyle’s latest CD is Time Flies, a collection of lesser heard standards and three original tunes as performed by Doyle and some of Chicago’s best bassists. It’s a follow up to Doyle’s self-titled debut.