Heart First
By Dan Bilawsky
Though vocalist Halie Loren has made a name for herself by bringing her warm and inviting alto to bear on a mixture of pop and jazz classics, she has received far too little attention in the United States. Much of the praise heaped upon her comes from Japan, where her fan base is strong and plentiful, but this Alaska-born, Eugene-based beauty may finally be able to make major inroads in the U.S. market with Heart First.
This fourteen-track program is heavy on the heart theme, her diverse material drawn from disparate sources that fit this overall concept. Nevertheless, it all comes together to perfection. Depending on the song, Loren can be sweet, sly, or sultry, but she always finds the right read.
All of the covers on Heart First have been done ad infinitum, but Loren's ability to find something new in the old makes this a fun ride. She finds the middle ground between Bob Marley's impassioned delivery and Annie Lennox's pop sheen on "Waiting In Vain," strips "Sway (Quién Será)" to its seductive core, and removes any hint of Eartha Kitt from "C'est Si Bon." "All Of Me," underscored by a slow burning bass and tom groove, receives a reading that's far more provocative than the norm.
In Loren's able hands, Neil Young's twang is nowhere to be found on his "Lotta Love," which sounds like a cross between a Michael Bublé pop hit and "Everyday Is A Holiday (With You)" from Esthero and Sean Lennon. While innovation is present in many of the arrangements, Loren doesn't mess with some standards on some standards. "Taking A Chance On Love" and "My One And Only Love" both receive fairly routine deliveries, giving the young vocalist a chance to shine in a more straightforward manner.
While Loren's talents as a songwriter are downplayed here (there are only four originals sprinkled amongst the fourteen tracks), she does make an impact with her self-penned pieces. "In Time," the most moving of Loren's originals, crosses Hem-like serenity with a Sophie Milman-leaning sound, while the title track mixes country inflections with traces of barroom informality. "Tender To The Touch," with its strong R&B influence, is the most pop-leaning of the bunch, and the album-opening "A Woman's Way" proves to be the most breezy, in music if not in words.
The backing band on this album does a fine job throughout, even if it largely serves as window dressing for Loren. Pianist Matt Treder, who regularly brings class, charm and his own instrumental voice into the picture, and trumpeter Rob Birdwell, who makes an impact with only a scant presence on a few tracks, are the notable exceptions.
Heart First should help to elevate Halie Loren's profile on the home front. She's deserving of more attention, and this record is pure magic.
Track Listing:
A Woman's Way; C'Est Si Bon; Waiting In Vain; Sway (Quién Será); Heart First; My One And Only Love; Feeling Good; All Of Me; Tender To The Touch; Taking A Chance On Love; Lotta Love; In Time; Smile; Crazy Love.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Halie Loren: vocals, piano (12); Matt Treder: piano, Rhodes piano; Mark Schneider: bass; Brian West: drums; William Seiji Marsh: guitar; Sergei Teleshev: accordion (1), button accordion (13); Rob Birdwell: trumpet (2), flugelhorn (4, 11); Hank Shreve: harmonica (7); Dale Bradley: cello (12).
Melissa Stylianou
Silent Movie
By Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes
In New York, New York, director Martin Scorsese's ambitiously flawed homage to Manhattan's postwar music scene, taxman Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro) explains to vocalist Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) that a "major chord" is when everything in your life works out perfectly. Professionally speaking, singer-songwriter Melissa Stylianou has achieved a major chord. Across three previous albums, all distinctively good, Stylianou was finding her footing, experimenting with different styles and interpretive approaches. Now, with Silent Movie, she settles into a spellbinding groove that advances her to the forefront of contemporary vocalists, rivaling the storytelling élan of Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon.
Working with her regular quartet - pianist Jamie Reynolds, guitarist Pete McCann, bassist Gary Wang and drummer Rodney Green - augmented by cellist Yoed Nir, percussionist James Shipp and multireedist Anat Cohen, Stylianou traverses an intriguingly wide-ranging assortment of covers that extends from Jerome Kern, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer to James Taylor and Paul Simon. Brazilian singer-songwriter Vanessa da Mata's "Onde Ir" unfolds with the delicacy of an orchid, while Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone" becomes a stunning study in regret. Three originals complete the project, including Stylianou's cautiously romantic lyrics added to Vince Mendoza's "Hearing Your Voice," and her heartbreaking narrative fitted to Edgar Meyer's "First Impressions." Finally, there is the title track, crafted by Stylianou and her husband, Reynolds, which brilliantly depicts the drama of a disintegrating relationship in cinematic terms.
Linda Ciofalo
Dancing With Johnny
By LuckyJazzMusic
As one of the greatest lyricists in American music history, Johnny Mercer's work is familiar to most. Songs like "I'm Old Fashioned," "That Old Black Magic," "Skylark," "The Days of Wine and Roses," Moon River" and "Come Rain and Come Shine" are oft-covered, and it is rare to find a jazz artist who doesn't include a Mercer number in their repertoire. A vocalist himself, Mercer's lyrics especially found favor with jazz vocalists like Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra, because, as vocalist Linda Ciofalo explains, of their "dancing" quality and attention to the craft of painting a picture and telling a story. That said, tribute albums to Mercer are not as prevalent (one by Rosemary Clooney comes to mind) - perhaps because his "old-fashioned" style has somewhat fallen out of favor, or maybe because he worked with some many different composers - including Henry Mancini, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Woody Herman, Harold Arlen and many more across a range of musical directions. But the strength of his songbook is such that the songs are timeless, and Ciofalo - following her "sun"-themed release Sun-Set (see our review here) - has returned to her early love of Mercer's melodies in presenting this all-Mercer recording. Arranged by the smooth-voiced Ciofalo and pianist John DiMartino, the album includes the aforementioned Mercer gems, as well as "Tangerine," "Early Autumn," "Day In Day Out," "One for My Baby( And One More for the Road)," as well as lesser-known numbers culled from Mercer's more than 1,700 songs - including "Talk to Me Baby," "P.S. I Love You" and "I Remember You." With a superb band backing her, including first rate saxophonist Joel Frahm, bassist John Benitez, drummer Ernesto Simpson, nylon-string guitarist Paul Meyers and percussionist Little Johnny Rivero, along with trumpeter extraordinaire Brian Lynch on several tunes - the direction taken is often an intriguing Latin one. For example, the often sultry "Tangerine" is given a full-blooded Afro-Cuban treatment highlighted by Ciofalo's understated delivery and Lynch's passionate trumpet solo. Hard to believe old chestnuts like "I'm Old Fashioned" and "Days of Wine and Roses" can be done again and be compelling, yet Ciofalo and DiMartino deserve credit for their fresh takes that breath life into these classics. Frahm, as always, is excellent throughout, while the rhythm section deserves credit for their sensitivity and support of their vocalist. And it is hard to not be moved by Ciofalo's heartfelt way with Mercer's words, especially on less-heard deep cuts "Talk to Me Baby" and "P.S. I Love You." A return to the romance and penetrating lyricism of a bygone era, refreshed by modern, Latin-flavored arrangements, and sung by a singer with deep respect for the material.
By LuckyJazzMusic
As one of the greatest lyricists in American music history, Johnny Mercer's work is familiar to most. Songs like "I'm Old Fashioned," "That Old Black Magic," "Skylark," "The Days of Wine and Roses," Moon River" and "Come Rain and Come Shine" are oft-covered, and it is rare to find a jazz artist who doesn't include a Mercer number in their repertoire. A vocalist himself, Mercer's lyrics especially found favor with jazz vocalists like Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra, because, as vocalist Linda Ciofalo explains, of their "dancing" quality and attention to the craft of painting a picture and telling a story. That said, tribute albums to Mercer are not as prevalent (one by Rosemary Clooney comes to mind) - perhaps because his "old-fashioned" style has somewhat fallen out of favor, or maybe because he worked with some many different composers - including Henry Mancini, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Woody Herman, Harold Arlen and many more across a range of musical directions. But the strength of his songbook is such that the songs are timeless, and Ciofalo - following her "sun"-themed release Sun-Set (see our review here) - has returned to her early love of Mercer's melodies in presenting this all-Mercer recording. Arranged by the smooth-voiced Ciofalo and pianist John DiMartino, the album includes the aforementioned Mercer gems, as well as "Tangerine," "Early Autumn," "Day In Day Out," "One for My Baby( And One More for the Road)," as well as lesser-known numbers culled from Mercer's more than 1,700 songs - including "Talk to Me Baby," "P.S. I Love You" and "I Remember You." With a superb band backing her, including first rate saxophonist Joel Frahm, bassist John Benitez, drummer Ernesto Simpson, nylon-string guitarist Paul Meyers and percussionist Little Johnny Rivero, along with trumpeter extraordinaire Brian Lynch on several tunes - the direction taken is often an intriguing Latin one. For example, the often sultry "Tangerine" is given a full-blooded Afro-Cuban treatment highlighted by Ciofalo's understated delivery and Lynch's passionate trumpet solo. Hard to believe old chestnuts like "I'm Old Fashioned" and "Days of Wine and Roses" can be done again and be compelling, yet Ciofalo and DiMartino deserve credit for their fresh takes that breath life into these classics. Frahm, as always, is excellent throughout, while the rhythm section deserves credit for their sensitivity and support of their vocalist. And it is hard to not be moved by Ciofalo's heartfelt way with Mercer's words, especially on less-heard deep cuts "Talk to Me Baby" and "P.S. I Love You." A return to the romance and penetrating lyricism of a bygone era, refreshed by modern, Latin-flavored arrangements, and sung by a singer with deep respect for the material.
Meredith D' Ambrosio
By Myself
By Raul D'Gama Rose
The deliciously husky contralto of Meredith d'Ambrosio is unlike any other today, but that's obvious. What is not immediately evident is the effect it has, the body's temperature rising slowly—not after listening to a few charts on By Myself, for that would take too long; but after hearing but a few short choruses. By the time the song in question is over, the mind is delirious and ready to surrender body and soul to d'Ambrosio. Of course it helps that the vocalist is a truly gifted storyteller who inhabits the many sultry tales in Arthur Schwartz's music, whose noir music she celebrates on this album.
D'Ambrosio has a voice that is limited in its range; not unlike Shirley Horn, she uses what she has to the best effect. She is essentially a troubadour who tells a story with sublime elegance and vividness. And she breaks hearts like the spurned lover in the last track of the album, the legendary "Haunted Heart." Like that lover, d'Ambrosio sings in grey tones and sometimes in the colors of rust and terracotta. Her annunciation is clear and her inflection just barely above a whisper. None of this seems to matter though. She begins a line softly, and just when it seems it will continue to sound at that low pitch and die there, d'Ambrosio takes the pitch up a few quarter tones; repeating the line, she spirals it back and down a notch. The faint vibrato in her voice dies and there is a faint echoing "ahumph" in its place, or just a sigh—a very sad sigh.
Like Sheila Jordan, pitch does not matter much. The song's emotion is delivered in minute, nuanced quarter and sixteenth tones that seem almost hidden to the ear. The key is listening to d'Ambrosio with the whole body. Sometimes a sigh will mean more than a whole unspoken series of choruses. There is much of this in many of the songs here. "I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan" is one such song that echoes these emotions in just that manner. This is also the nuanced manner in which "You And The Night And The Music" is written—and sung by d'Ambrosio.
The vocalist is also her own best accompanist and, like Horn, the dynamics she employs on piano are as nuanced as her own voice. Although this is a consistent feature of the album, the crowning moments come in "Dancing in the Dark," because the lyric line is almost constantly accompanied by the piano and when it is not, the piano continues as if it were d'Ambrosio's voice itself. With this album, d'Ambrosio joins Sheila Jordan as one of the finest living story tellers in music.
Track Listing:
By Myself; Through A Thousand Dreams; Once Upon A Long Ago; If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You; All Through The Night; High And Low; I Guess I’ll Have To Change My Plan; You And The Night And The Music; Something To Remember You By; Dancing In The Dark; Then I’ll Be Tired Of You; Why Go Anywhere At All?; I See Your Face Before Me; Haunted Heart.
Personnel: Meredith d’Ambrosio: piano, voice.
Pat Mallinger Quartet feat. Bill Carrothers
Home On Richmond
By Dan McClenaghan
Minneapolis/St. Paul-bred Pete Mallinger, steeped in the tradition of saxophonists Charles Lloyd, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, opens Home on Richmond with Lloyd's "Third Floor Richard." The Chicago-based saxophonist's quartet takes the tune on a wild ride, like a jalopy with a bad wheel alignment careening down a mountain road with questionable brakes. It's a loose-jointed, freewheeling eleven minutes, and the brakes are just barely applied as the group segues into a rollicking thirteen-minute version of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," a tune that gets covered often, but never quite like this.
Recorded live at Chicago's Green Mill, the quartet, also featuring pianist Bill Carrothers, always sounds as if it's walking the edge of a precipice, teetering, up on one leg, arms scooping air for balance, spontaneous as all get out. Carrothers' solos on the opener are romping, devil-may-care, rough-cut gems, glistening between Mallinger's jagged notes.
Mallinger's title tune explores more sedate and overtly pretty territory. Carrothers is given a lot of room, and the pianist turns in a sparkling extended solo, before adeptly comping behind a solo from bassist Dennis Carroll that leads into Mallinger's craggy blowing.
"Living Space" comes from the Coltrane songbook, circa 1965. Mallinger switches from tenor to soprano, and the quartet captures the dense, free and spiritual intensity of late-Trane to perfection, with drummer George Fludas exploding around another startling Carrothers solo. Mallinger's soprano blows back in, re-injecting Trane-like spiritual tranquility into the mix.
While the set is mostly an edge-of-the-seat listening experience—so well-suited to a live show—the quartet also delves into pensive beauty. Carrothers' "Snowbound" opens with a gorgeous piano intro, and then drifts on Mallinger's long, drawn-out notes over the rhythm section's spare accompaniment, a piece of music that, in its unalloyed beauty, nearly equals Carrothers' "Peg," from the pianist's marvelous "A Night at the Village Vanguard" (Pirouet, 2011).
The closing "Nagasaki" returns to a swooping and swerving jazz mode, the quartet blowing out in high gear on an outstanding night of live music.
Track Listing:
Third Floor Richard; Smile; Home on Richmond; Living Space; Snowbound; Nagasaki.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Pat Mallinger: tenor, alto and soprano saxophones; Bil Carrothers: piano; George Fludas: drums; Dennis Carroll: bass.
Sarah Elgeti Quintet
Into The Open
By Edward Blanco
From the Danish Radio (DR) Big band—directed by such greats as Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely—to the jazz environment of Copenhagen's Café Montmarte, Denmark has been at the forefront in nurturing and producing some of the finest jazz musicians in Europe and, indeed, the world. Saxophonist/flautist Sarah Elgeti is the latest Danish wonder to emerge on the international stage, astounding critics with Into the Open, by her all-Danish quintet. Elgeti wields her sax like a veteran journeyman, pens her own music, is an educator and as a multi-instrumentalist on this debut, performing on tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and percussion.
The leader pairs with alto and baritone saxophonist Marianne Markmann-Eriksen, creating a saxophone front line that powers the music in an assertive yet stylish manner. The very brief "Home" seems more of a warm-up for Elgeti, the only featured soloist, sounding off on a number many have described as Nordic in nature. Nevertheless, "Bossa Among the Trees" reveals a superb band and the first Elgeti-Markmann-Eriksen saxophone combination on a pulsating bossa-influenced excursion. "Out in the Fields" takes the band to a quieter landscape, maintaining the musical conversation between the saxophonists while highlighting beautiful chords from Christian Bluhme Hansen's nylon string guitar.
The funk is alive and well coming into the open on the gyrating "Downstairs," while "Ringe I Vand" (let it rain) and "Clouds" share common atmospheric textures, showcasing Elgeti on flute. The swinging, hard bop "Blustering Waves" captures excellent play from Ben Besiakov on Fender Rhodes, though it is not the main highlight of the tune. The all-out saxophone assault from the leader and Markmann-Eriksen's husky baritone are the featured voices, augmented by Mikkel Uhrenholdt and Magnus Poulsen's additional alto saxophones.
With the short "Clouds" drifting into more mellow territory, the light and melodic "Angelique" (dedicated to her mother) takes the sensitive balladic route, offering Elgeti an opportunity to strike a warm and tender tone. In stark contrast, the official finale, "Night Moves," provides a very different approach with an improvised avant-garde sound. The album concludes with a fusion-tinged percussive rendition of "Bossa Among the Trees" as a remixed bonus track.
Presenting a variety of styles from bop, bossa and funky blues to straight-ahead and avant-garde, Into the Open is a sparkling debut from the Sarah Elgeti Quintet, a group of unheralded Danish musicians led by the newest saxophone voice to emerge from Denmark's proud jazz scene and culture. Virtually unknown in the United States, with this gem of a recording, Elgeti is poised to take her music into the open embrace of American audiences.
Track Listing:
Home; Bossa Among the Trees; Out in the Fields; Downstairs; Ringe I Vand; But I Wish I Could; Trying To Forget; Blustering Waves; Clouds; Angelique; Night Moves; Remix/ Bossa Among the Trees.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Sarah Elgeti: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, percussion; Marianne Markann-Eriksen: alto saxophone, baritone saxophone; Christian Bluhme Hansen: guitar, percussion; Ben Besiakov: piano, Fender Rhodes (5, 8, 10); Mikkel Uhrenholdt: alto saxophone (5, 8); Magnus Poulsen: alto saxophone (8).
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