| Turned to Blue | | Posted Sunday, September 10, 2006 10:11:34 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Turned To Blue is a classic representation of Nancy Wilson showcasing the full spectrum of experiences that come with a five decade career in entertainment. The legendary songstress delivers a story through ballads as only she can, premieres unparalleled treatments of new songs and swings with a big band harking back to her days with Cannonball Adderley and the Billy May Orchestra. There is something for everyone on Turned To Blue. Set for worldwide release on August 22, 2006, on the MCG Jazz label, this collection of songs tells a story that portrays our basic nature to love so deeply, despite the inevitable human struggle with loveÂ's power. Wilson illustrates the many expressions of love, ranging from powerful lost love to hopeful yearning for new love, as depicted through new arrangements of the 1940s classics Â"Be My Love,Â" Â"IÂ'll Be Seeing YouÂ" and Â"This Is All I Ask.Â" The hard driving, swinging big band songs Â- Â"Take Love Easy,Â" Â"Taking A Chance On Love,Â" and Â"Old FolksÂ" Â- reflect the lighter side of love. The title track, Â"Turned To Blue,Â" is a musical version of Â"My Life Has Turned To Blue,Â" a poem by Dr. Maya Angelou, former Poet Laureate for the United States.... | |
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| | | Metheny / Mehldau | | Posted Friday, September 08, 2006 8:11:33 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | For Brad Mehldau, this collaboration started at that "life-changing moment" when, as a 13-year-old, a friend played him "Are You Going With Me" from the Pat Methany Group's 1982 live double-album, Travels. Years later, Pat Methany heard "Chill" from saxophonist Joshua Redman's 1994 album Moodswing that featured Brad Mehldau on piano. Since, the two artists have forged an artistic partnership based on shared inspiration, not just mutual admiration. This album features music by both Methany and Mehldau, and was recorded at Right Track Studio (NYC) in December of 2005.... | |
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| | | Mythologies | | Posted Sunday, September 03, 2006 12:11:48 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Considerable time, thought and Guggenheim grant money went into the making of Patricia Barber's Mythologies, an ambitious modern take on Ovid's Metamorphoses. As she is wont to do, the Chicagoan continually reminds us of her aspirations to art with her joyless, half-whispered vocals and show-offy intellectualism. The song sequence, which seems destined for a staged reading, never escapes its literary trappings. But in reflecting on the age-old dance of dreams and destiny, the poetry is mostly good, and sometimes better than that ("unrequited love/is what i know of love/spellbound/I will stay"). And though Barber mostly keeps her considerable skills as a pianist under wraps after getting in some seductive and darkly rumbling licks early on, the varied musical settings prop the songs up. Mythologies ranges from jazz balladry to Hendrixian reveries (via guitarist Neal Alger), lifts openly from Joni Mitchell's Hejira, and tells another tale with hip-hop and a children's choir. This isn't an album for the Diana Krall set, and even some of Barber's early followers may take a pass, but for listeners on her wavelength, it will cast a spell. --Lloyd Sachs... | |
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| | | Astral Weeks | | Posted Friday, September 01, 2006 12:11:55 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Never mind that Van Morrison is one of the most indelible songwriters of the 20th century--take each album on its own terms. On 1968's seminal Astral Weeks, a twentysomething Van Morrison can be found belting his gospelly, bluesy vocals in just as fine a form as he would be 20 years hence. In the sociopolitical context of the times, the album cried out about such ubiquitous '60s themes as cultural oppression and social upheaval. But it is Morrison's vocal dexterity and passion that maintains such timeless appeal. Take tracks like "Madame George" or "Cyprus Avenue" and you'll find such beautiful mourning, it'll be clear why modern songwriter Sinéad O'Connor once publicly exclaimed: "Van Morrison should be friggin' canonized." --Nick Heil... | |
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| | | Blues in the Night | | Posted Tuesday, August 29, 2006 12:11:50 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | On this album, jazz-cabaret singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway pays tribute to her hometown Chicago's best-known musical export, the blues--though her take is largely devoid of that genre's pared-down grit, instead exploring two of its offshoots: a sophisticated, elusive melancholy and upbeat, horn-heavy swing jazz. Callaway's penchant for the latter is evidenced by the jumping opening track, "Swingin' Away the Blues" and the percolating "Lover Come Back to Me" (on which she integrates her trademark scat singing). A "blue" mood is evoked on, for instance, "Blue Moon" and a not-entirely-convincing take on Sondheim's "No One Is Alone." But Callaway is also among the rare performers in the cabaret scene to write some of her own material, and she obliges here as well, with good results on the humorous "The I'm-Too-White-to-Sing-the-Blues Blues" (on which she emulates brass instruments) and "Hip to Be Happy." --Elisabeth Vincentelli... | |
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| | | Easy To Love | | Posted Sunday, August 27, 2006 12:11:48 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Although she was born and bred in Italy, Gambarini brings a distinctly American jazz flavor to Easy to Love. On the title track, her multi-octave range can be seen as an indication of the "cool school" but when she starts swinging she's anything but cool! Her scats and melodies breathe beautifully and her melodic lines have a lighter, airier quality that finds her swinging but in a softer, more relaxed manner. Billie Holiday's anthem "Lover Man" has been claimed as part of the cool jazz movement and Gambarini certainly offers an outstanding variation of this sublime ballad. Even Gershwin would have enjoyed her passionate reworking of "Porgy, I's Your Woman Now/I Loves You Porgy." Gambarini is equally successful at presenting this Great American Songbook standard as a medley of sentimentality with a range of penetrating cries and whispers implicated in her voice. From ballads to bop, Roberta proves she's no stranger to the art of swing or the bop idiom. Once into "On The Sunny Side of The Street" she teases with playful scats and daring vocalese that would renew anyone's vocal jazz ambitions. "Lover Come Back To Me" adopts a different tonal palette as she launches into a swinging set complete with searing scats that clearly show her respect for Ella Fitzgerald. Joined by the inimitable James Moody on tenor sax and vocals on "Lover Man" and "Centerpiece," the saxophonist adds his instinct for melodic development and own brand of scatting. Adding further to Gambarini's style is a mellifluous but dynamic ensemble that includes Chuck Berghofer and John Clayton on bass, Tamir Handelman and Gerald Clayton on piano, Willie Jones III and Joe La Barbera on drums.... | |
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| | | Hindustan | | Posted Thursday, August 24, 2006 12:11:40 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Coming from an Ellington-inspired band whose previous albums include Harlem Nutcracker and Marlowe, which featured an atmospheric suite that conjured the world of Raymond Chandler's hardboiled detective, Hindustan raises expectations of another extended thematic piece, perhaps along the lines of Duke's Far East Suite. But the album title and desert-themed cover art derive from the inclusion of a 1918 tune given a colorful, expansive and characteristically refined reading by the Sultans of Swing. The rest of Hindustan ranges far and wide in showcasing David Berger's gifts as a writer and arranger and the seasoned orchestra's winning ability to combine Ellington's coloristic flair and Count Basie's lightly treading approach. Unlike those ensembles that stiffly mine big band tradition, this one remains flexible, whether illuminating Thelonious Monk's ties to Ellington on Berger's "Monkey Business" or highlighting the country-blues side of Dinah Washington via Aria Hendricks' vocal of "I Don't Hurt Anymore." With a nod to the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band, the boppish elements fit like fist in glove: even as Mark Hynes heats up on tenor saxophone on "Poor Butterfly," the answering reeds remain insistently mellow. --Lloyd Sachs... | |
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| | | From This Moment On | | Posted Tuesday, August 22, 2006 12:11:37 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | From This Moment On is an eleven-song collection that captures the Canadian-born sensation in full swing, in great company, and at the top of her game. It could also be called her strongest, most cohesive release to date. Krall - for the few still unknowing - is the 41-year old sensation whose cool, heavy-lidded vocals and strikingly sensitive piano-playing has helped her transcend barriers of genre to become a popular artist of the first order who has carved herself a permanent position at the top of the jazz charts. In songs, mood and delivery, From This Moment On reveals Krall's personal ardor for that golden era of song-making, when Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and (especially) Nat "King" Cole were in their prime. It's musical territory that Krall has often explored, but this album was certainly not a case of simply repeating past formulas: Krall's A-team of support - producer Tommy LiPuma, engineer Al Schmitt and arranger/bandleader John Clayton - were on hand to ensure that inspiration was kept on an edge, unhindered by the studio environment.... | |
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| | | Aja | | Posted Saturday, August 19, 2006 12:11:34 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | History gives Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen the last, hearty laugh on this, the crown jewel in their remarkable canon of '70s Mensa pop. Sneaking onto the charts a half-decade earlier with sinuous, jazz-inflected "rock," the dysfunctional duo's acerbic, anti-heroic visions had been critically lauded for their band identity and killer guitar riffs, then promptly challenged when the two songwriters retired from the road, dissolved any formal band lineup, and used the studio as laboratory. Aja carried the added indignity of its increased focus on sophisticated jazz models and musicianship, which carried the Dan's ambitions even further in terms of suave harmonies, intricate song structures, and brilliant playing. Time has proven them wiser than their rock crit detractors: These seven songs abound in knotty plots, sneaky imagery, and drop-dead brilliant performances from a blue chip studio repertory studded with first-call jazz players epitomized by Wayne Shorter's towering solo on the title song. From the hard-boiled jazz romance of "Deacon Blues" to the twisted Homeric vamp of "Home at Last," the veiled but ominous swing of "Peg" to the sci-fi eroticism of "Josie," Aja is a modern pop classic and the coolest fusion record no one ever thought to lump in that category. --Sam Sutherland... | |
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| | | The Jazzmasters, Vol. 5 | | Posted Wednesday, August 16, 2006 10:11:39 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Jazzmasters V is the newest installment in the Jazzmasters series. The Jazzmasters albums are the work of PAUL HARDCASTLE, who penned the multi-million selling anthem to the Vietnam War, "19," and the mega 80's dance hit "Rainforest." More importantly, Hardcastle is consistently one of the biggest selling format artists in smooth jazz. Each Jazzmasters album has included a #1 single on the National Smooth Jazz charts. Features single "Free As The Wind."... | |
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