The Heart Of The Matter
By Christopher Loudon at JazzTimes
There are distinctive Jane Monheit traits—the stretched notes, the dusky mewing, the ever-present tear in her voice—that can be her best or worst assets. Across the 14 tracks that fill The Heart of the Matter, her eighth studio album, the vote is split. When she ambles through the tender lullaby “Little Man You’ve Had a Busy Day” and the similar “Night Night Stars” (the first song she’s recorded that features self-penned words and music), Monheit’s softly maudlin style is affecting. But the pervasive gloom, far more evident here than on any of her preceding albums, can grow wearisome. Despite the best efforts of such accomplished collaborators as producer, pianist and accordionist Gil Goldstein, guitarist Romero Lubambo and bassist Neal Miner, what was surely intended as wistfulness too often turns leaden. When even as relentlessly peppy a number as Joe Raposo’s “Sing” is made to sound sad, you know you’re adrift in a windless sea.
True to her cabaret leanings, Monheit has always been a good storyteller. Here, though, she’s occasionally guilty of distracting scenery chewing, particularly on an overplayed “Two Lonely People” and a too-emotive “Until It’s Time for You to Go.” Intriguingly, all annoyances disappear when she switches to Portuguese for a double dip into the Ivan Lins songbook, beautifully traversing “Dependes de Nós” and “A Gente Merece Ser Feliz.”
By Christopher Loudon at JazzTimes
There are distinctive Jane Monheit traits—the stretched notes, the dusky mewing, the ever-present tear in her voice—that can be her best or worst assets. Across the 14 tracks that fill The Heart of the Matter, her eighth studio album, the vote is split. When she ambles through the tender lullaby “Little Man You’ve Had a Busy Day” and the similar “Night Night Stars” (the first song she’s recorded that features self-penned words and music), Monheit’s softly maudlin style is affecting. But the pervasive gloom, far more evident here than on any of her preceding albums, can grow wearisome. Despite the best efforts of such accomplished collaborators as producer, pianist and accordionist Gil Goldstein, guitarist Romero Lubambo and bassist Neal Miner, what was surely intended as wistfulness too often turns leaden. When even as relentlessly peppy a number as Joe Raposo’s “Sing” is made to sound sad, you know you’re adrift in a windless sea.
True to her cabaret leanings, Monheit has always been a good storyteller. Here, though, she’s occasionally guilty of distracting scenery chewing, particularly on an overplayed “Two Lonely People” and a too-emotive “Until It’s Time for You to Go.” Intriguingly, all annoyances disappear when she switches to Portuguese for a double dip into the Ivan Lins songbook, beautifully traversing “Dependes de Nós” and “A Gente Merece Ser Feliz.”
Amanda Brecker
Blossom
By Al Campbell
The daughter of the Brazilian pianist/singer Eliane Elias and trumpeter Randy Brecker, singer/songwriter Amanda Brecker had already released two noteworthy albums in Japan in 2008 and 2009. 2012's Blossom is her first album released in the U.S. on the Emarcy label. Brecker reinterprets 11 classic songs that were written mainly by singer/songwriter Carole King. King's soft rock and soul classics are a perfect vehicle for the singer's crossover jazz arrangements, especially on "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman," "You've Got a Friend," "So Far Away," "Will You Love me Tomorrow," and "It's Too Late." Grammy-winning songwriter Jesse Harris produced the session and, in keeping with the album's theme, employed drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, who played on the original Tapestry recording sessions. The release of Blossom also coincides with the 40th anniversary of Tapestry's releas
Roberta Donnay & The Prohibition Mob Band
By Al Campbell
The daughter of the Brazilian pianist/singer Eliane Elias and trumpeter Randy Brecker, singer/songwriter Amanda Brecker had already released two noteworthy albums in Japan in 2008 and 2009. 2012's Blossom is her first album released in the U.S. on the Emarcy label. Brecker reinterprets 11 classic songs that were written mainly by singer/songwriter Carole King. King's soft rock and soul classics are a perfect vehicle for the singer's crossover jazz arrangements, especially on "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman," "You've Got a Friend," "So Far Away," "Will You Love me Tomorrow," and "It's Too Late." Grammy-winning songwriter Jesse Harris produced the session and, in keeping with the album's theme, employed drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, who played on the original Tapestry recording sessions. The release of Blossom also coincides with the 40th anniversary of Tapestry's releas
Roberta Donnay & The Prohibition Mob Band
A Little Sugar
By Jonathan Widran
Among veteran songstress Roberta Donnay's career accomplishments is having her song "One World" selected as a world peace anthem for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations; it was also the theme for World Aids Day in South Africa. On her delightfully jazzy, sassy, and colorful follow-up to 2008's jazz standards project What's Your Story, the multi-talented singer aims to achieve global unity in a different way: by pouring A Little Sugar on our differences, taking us back some 80 or 90 years and exploring a time of musical Renaissance that can still tug the heartstrings. In exploring the world of Prohibition-proto-jazz, many singers possessing her charming blend of girlishness and saucy conviction could go the easy route and sing some of the Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Hoagy Carmichael faves we all know. But there's nary a Gershwin tune to be found, and her two jaunts into Berlin's catalog (the elegant and wistful trio piece "Say It Isn't So," the playful Latin romp "(Tropical) Heatwave," and the single dip into the Carmichael canon (a graceful, swaying "Rocking Chair") take her off the beaten path and into the deeper artistry of those composers and their era. Many of Donnay's song choices reflect her love of strong, outspoken female composers and artists whose songs were practically forerunners of the later women's lib movement. Opening with the swinging and sultry, brass-fired "Oh Papa" accomplishes this in two ways, because the song was originally recorded by "Mother of the Blues" Ma Rainey and later under a different title by Bessie Smith. Likewise, the brisk and lively "You Got to Swing and Sway" -- a song that's so danceable one wonders why it is still so obscure -- which was penned by blues singer Ida Cox in the late '30s when she was making a comeback. The stride/Dixieland-influenced "Mama's Gone Goodbye," originally recorded in 1923, invokes another name largely lost to history but which bears some research: Sippie Wallace. Donnay's big-band arrangement of "Sugar Blues" owes more to Ella Fitzgerald's later recording than any that appeared when it was penned in 1920. Perhaps the epitome of the Great American Songbook -- and often recorded by popular artists -- "You Go to My Head" is given a tender, sparse jazz arrangement. Donnay's voice could make any classic material sound wondrous and timeless, but the fact that she digs so deep into American musical history -- and works with some of the Bay Area's top jazz musicians (under the guise of the Prohibition Mob Band) -- makes A Little Sugar not only sweet, but a recording that will stand the test of time.
Kat Edmonson
By Jonathan Widran
Among veteran songstress Roberta Donnay's career accomplishments is having her song "One World" selected as a world peace anthem for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations; it was also the theme for World Aids Day in South Africa. On her delightfully jazzy, sassy, and colorful follow-up to 2008's jazz standards project What's Your Story, the multi-talented singer aims to achieve global unity in a different way: by pouring A Little Sugar on our differences, taking us back some 80 or 90 years and exploring a time of musical Renaissance that can still tug the heartstrings. In exploring the world of Prohibition-proto-jazz, many singers possessing her charming blend of girlishness and saucy conviction could go the easy route and sing some of the Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Hoagy Carmichael faves we all know. But there's nary a Gershwin tune to be found, and her two jaunts into Berlin's catalog (the elegant and wistful trio piece "Say It Isn't So," the playful Latin romp "(Tropical) Heatwave," and the single dip into the Carmichael canon (a graceful, swaying "Rocking Chair") take her off the beaten path and into the deeper artistry of those composers and their era. Many of Donnay's song choices reflect her love of strong, outspoken female composers and artists whose songs were practically forerunners of the later women's lib movement. Opening with the swinging and sultry, brass-fired "Oh Papa" accomplishes this in two ways, because the song was originally recorded by "Mother of the Blues" Ma Rainey and later under a different title by Bessie Smith. Likewise, the brisk and lively "You Got to Swing and Sway" -- a song that's so danceable one wonders why it is still so obscure -- which was penned by blues singer Ida Cox in the late '30s when she was making a comeback. The stride/Dixieland-influenced "Mama's Gone Goodbye," originally recorded in 1923, invokes another name largely lost to history but which bears some research: Sippie Wallace. Donnay's big-band arrangement of "Sugar Blues" owes more to Ella Fitzgerald's later recording than any that appeared when it was penned in 1920. Perhaps the epitome of the Great American Songbook -- and often recorded by popular artists -- "You Go to My Head" is given a tender, sparse jazz arrangement. Donnay's voice could make any classic material sound wondrous and timeless, but the fact that she digs so deep into American musical history -- and works with some of the Bay Area's top jazz musicians (under the guise of the Prohibition Mob Band) -- makes A Little Sugar not only sweet, but a recording that will stand the test of time.
Kat Edmonson
Way Down Low
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Branching away from standards on her second album Way Down Low, Austin-based jazz vocalist Kat Edmonson also expands her musical worldview, going beyond the sophisticated cabaret of her 2009 debut Take to the Sky and creating a breezy neo-tribute to the swinging '60s. That was the decade that produced Brian Wilson's "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," one of the few covers on Way Down Low and a sentiment that applies to Edmonson but in a different way. Where the Beach Boy was pining for the days before rock & roll, Edmonson would certainly feel more comfortable in either the '60s or '50s, where bossa nova, swing, and pop mingled happily, as they do here. Certainly, these sounds give Way Down Low a distinctly retro vibe, but Edmonson isn't living in the past, she's pledging allegiance to a tradition, a tradition she finds flexible enough to refashion for modern times. And Kat Edmonson is a modern girl -- after all, she funded the production of Way Down Low via Kickstarter, a move that gave her artistic freedom and professional production, taking full advantage of those two elements. Way Down Low is rich and varied, as are Edmonson's girlish vocals, which never succumb to cloying sweetness or stereotypical scatting. She's nimble and creative within the boundaries of her chosen traditions, which is why Way Down Low feels simultaneously fresh and timeless.
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Branching away from standards on her second album Way Down Low, Austin-based jazz vocalist Kat Edmonson also expands her musical worldview, going beyond the sophisticated cabaret of her 2009 debut Take to the Sky and creating a breezy neo-tribute to the swinging '60s. That was the decade that produced Brian Wilson's "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," one of the few covers on Way Down Low and a sentiment that applies to Edmonson but in a different way. Where the Beach Boy was pining for the days before rock & roll, Edmonson would certainly feel more comfortable in either the '60s or '50s, where bossa nova, swing, and pop mingled happily, as they do here. Certainly, these sounds give Way Down Low a distinctly retro vibe, but Edmonson isn't living in the past, she's pledging allegiance to a tradition, a tradition she finds flexible enough to refashion for modern times. And Kat Edmonson is a modern girl -- after all, she funded the production of Way Down Low via Kickstarter, a move that gave her artistic freedom and professional production, taking full advantage of those two elements. Way Down Low is rich and varied, as are Edmonson's girlish vocals, which never succumb to cloying sweetness or stereotypical scatting. She's nimble and creative within the boundaries of her chosen traditions, which is why Way Down Low feels simultaneously fresh and timeless.
Gloria Estefan
The Standards
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Gloria Estefan always has had an element of cabaret in her act but she's never tackled that staple of the supper club, the Great American Songbook, prior to 2013's The Standards. Produced by her husband and longtime collaborator Emilio Estefan, The Standards plays it by the book, choosing familiar songs and playing them in familiar ways. Namely, there are plenty of syrupy strings and tinkling pianos, sometimes punctuated by the murmuring saxophone. Occasionally, Estefan shakes things up a little, adding a little Latin flair to "You Made Me Love You" or moving "What a Wonderful World" toward the parameters of adult contemporary soft rock, styles that suit her just fine without abandoning the concepts of the tried and true. While Estefan may not be extremely well-suited for these songs -- she doesn't burrow into their meaning, she doesn't surprise with her phrasing -- she sings them sweetly in a manner suited to the record's spirit. It's designed as comfort music, after all, so it should be performed in a comforting way, which it is.
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Gloria Estefan always has had an element of cabaret in her act but she's never tackled that staple of the supper club, the Great American Songbook, prior to 2013's The Standards. Produced by her husband and longtime collaborator Emilio Estefan, The Standards plays it by the book, choosing familiar songs and playing them in familiar ways. Namely, there are plenty of syrupy strings and tinkling pianos, sometimes punctuated by the murmuring saxophone. Occasionally, Estefan shakes things up a little, adding a little Latin flair to "You Made Me Love You" or moving "What a Wonderful World" toward the parameters of adult contemporary soft rock, styles that suit her just fine without abandoning the concepts of the tried and true. While Estefan may not be extremely well-suited for these songs -- she doesn't burrow into their meaning, she doesn't surprise with her phrasing -- she sings them sweetly in a manner suited to the record's spirit. It's designed as comfort music, after all, so it should be performed in a comforting way, which it is.
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