Hazel Jade Rogers

Full spread 2 page Interview With Hazel Jade in November 2011 - Music Review Unsigned

It's not often we make a point of highlighting teenage talent the likes of Dublin-based Hazel Jade Rogers, now a savvy fifteen-year-old, whose first non-school performance was a mere two years ago, when she sang in the opera Carmen in a major Irish concert hall........ (see review for more info...) - Sentimentalist Magazine / New York

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http://fingalindependent.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=5PW550PYAY9&linkid=36ce09b6-9a16-4d45-95fe-965468c72a26&pdaffid=zk%2fDWszRo5%2fsMvOX6gonAA%3d%3d - Fingal Independent

Her robust blues/jazz voice was unexpected.

When I heard the lyrics to Fake People 'some people ... lost in their dreams ... my heart turns more black every day' It reminded me of many teenagers I've dealt with over the years who've felt lost, and lacked the ability to express what's bothering them.

Some teenagers do as the song states; they fake it, to which Hazel asks a good question, "Why do they live a life like that?"

That question prompted me to play Fake People to my current students. They connected with the song because many claim that other teenagers live "fake" lives. So then I asked, "If we recognize the fakeness of people, then are we in any way 'fake'? Why do so many of us put up a front, a front similar to what PBS FrontLine's 'The Merchants of Cool' says is common among American teens?

Hazel's song appears to express a common feeling among many young people. So I like this song a great deal.

I like the melody of "Love is a Losing Game." Here, Hazel plays a style of music that I like very much. Though the emotion is one of sadness, her voice is soothing.

With "I'm Alone", I continued to feel for the singer, as this song follows up on "Love is a Losing Game." Man! That's why they call it the blues isn't it?

I really liked the change from verse to chorus in "Musicians of the Future". This song also reminded me of many teens I have worked with who have lost friends for one reason or another.

The pain they've shared seems to be put into words here. This is followed by "You Try Being a Child" and these should be two songs teens can relate to and adults should strongly consider.

Listening to these two songs brought about a thought which I have carried for a long time, "I am glad that I am no longer an adolescent" or "a teenager in today's times".

Most intriguing is the feeling that is experienced in these songs. The common theme among most of the songs is not one of joy, but struggle, of "the blues". This is why I am confident to say that Hazel's work is great musical art. I felt the music and the lyrics. I related to it on a deeper level.
- Larry Monks - St Pius Houston

She is indeed extremely talented and I am sure Hazel definitely has a future in this field, if she so chooses to.

She certainly has a strong voice...

I do find it bizarre that a 13-year-old is composing love songs and singing them in anquished tones; but suppose I am just out of date!? I hadn't even thought about boyfriends at that age, or indeed for another five years. What a different age we live in now!

Anna Baggallay, Independent

- Anna Baggallay - Jo'berg - South Africa