Nightsongs: A Late Night Interlude
By C. Michael Bailey
Vocalist Janis Siegel is the mezzo-soprano/alto quarter of the Manhattan Transfer as well as half of the female contingency of the same with soprano Cheryl Bentyne. Like Bentyne, Siegel has managed a very successful solo career, releasing ten recordings since 1981. Nightsongs: A Late Night Interlude follows 2006's A Thousand Beautiful Things (Telarc, 2006) and 2004's Sketches of Broadway (Telarc). Siegel is a wholesale master of jazz vocals subgenre: ballads, scats, bop, she competently does them all. Nightsongs endeavors a theme of breezy Caribbean evenings, comfortably humid and crepuscular.
Sonically, this is an exceptional hearing. The engineer is impeccable, and the production is top notch without being overdone. There is a comfortable balance between the shiny and organic in this music. "Love Saves," "Slow," and "Marie" smell like salt and spray in the islands. "A Flower is a Lovesome Thing" is given a measure of funk among other piquant Latin delights, John di Martino modulates time and space over Christian McBride's muscular electric bass. Siegel shares a duet with Peter Eldridge on Jobim's "If You Never Come To Me" that is as provocative as it is simply elegant. Siegel continues to inhabit an upper echelon of jazz vocalist few can aspire to. Siegel wins with this fine band and material.
Track Listing:
Love Saves (Salva Pantallas); Slow; Love and Paris Rain; If You Never Come to Me (Inutil Paisgem); Marie; You're Mine, You; Sweet September Rain; A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing; Midnight Sun; Lover; Say You'll Go; Clair De Lune.
Personnel:
Janis Siegel: vocals; John Di Martino: piano, arrangements; Rob Mounsey: keyboards; Christian McBride: bass; Martin Wind: bass; Paul Meyers: guitar; Steve Khan: guitar, guiro; Dominick Farinacci: flugelhorn, trumpet; Joel Frahm: tenor and soprano saxophones; Alain Mallet: Melodica; Luisito Quintero: Percussion; Joel Rosenblatt: Drums; Peter Eldridge: Vocals; Roger Treece: vocals.
Stefano Bollani
Joy In The Spite Of Everything
By John Fordham
When the Italian virtuoso Stefano Bollani plays piano, the word play applies in its widest senses, and the title of this fine transatlantic session (Americans Bill Frisell and Mark Turner augment Bollani’s Danish rhythm section) could hardly be a better description of his methods. While it would be difficult for the whole album to live up to the delicious opening calypso, Easy Healing, (in which Turner’s sax floats over Frisell’s softly skewed chords, and the melody is formed by a lovely piano-guitar unison), this is a warmly expressive encounter between a close-knit trio and two guests they’d never previously met, and the frequently genre-hopping Bollani freely revels in his straight-ahead jazz. The beboppish No Pope No Party is like a Monk tune played by a cool–school band. In the impressionistic 12-minute Vale, Bollani is in Bill Evans mood and Turner is at his most probing, while, in the piano-guitar duet Teddy, Frisell shows his skill with harmonics and his early schooling as a quiet jazz swinger. Bollani’s vivacious soloing provides many of the highlights, never more so than in the quicksilver title track.
Track Listing:
When the Italian virtuoso Stefano Bollani plays piano, the word play applies in its widest senses, and the title of this fine transatlantic session (Americans Bill Frisell and Mark Turner augment Bollani’s Danish rhythm section) could hardly be a better description of his methods. While it would be difficult for the whole album to live up to the delicious opening calypso, Easy Healing, (in which Turner’s sax floats over Frisell’s softly skewed chords, and the melody is formed by a lovely piano-guitar unison), this is a warmly expressive encounter between a close-knit trio and two guests they’d never previously met, and the frequently genre-hopping Bollani freely revels in his straight-ahead jazz. The beboppish No Pope No Party is like a Monk tune played by a cool–school band. In the impressionistic 12-minute Vale, Bollani is in Bill Evans mood and Turner is at his most probing, while, in the piano-guitar duet Teddy, Frisell shows his skill with harmonics and his early schooling as a quiet jazz swinger. Bollani’s vivacious soloing provides many of the highlights, never more so than in the quicksilver title track.
Track Listing:
Easy Healing; No Pope No Party; Alobar e Kudra; Las Hortensias; Vale; Teddy; Ismene; Tales from the Time Loop; Joy in Spite of Everything.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Mark Turner: tenor saxophone; Bill Frisell: guitar; Stefano Bollani: piano; Jesper Bodilsen: double bass; Morten Lund: drums.
Tierney Sutton
Tierney Sutton
Paris Session
By Thom Jurek
One need listen no further than "You Must Believe in Spring," the opening track of Tierney Sutton's Paris Sessions, to grasp that something quite special is taking place between the musicians. This collection of standards and originals recorded in duos and trios between the singer, guitarist Serge Merlaud, and bassist Kevin Axt is a bare-bones journey into the depths of musical intimacy. Recorded over two days at Val d'Orge Studio, these 12 tunes are the product of minimal rehearsal on the day before recording. The arrangements, such as they are, are simple, transparent; the considerable depth comes from the well of the song allowing itself to be expressed so nakedly. The aforementioned cut is a duet, with Merlaud's nylon-string acoustic guitar introducing it. When Sutton enters, the emotional frame is already in place; she fills it with commitment and hope derived from earned wisdom, not wishful thinking. It's a striking contrast to the dusky wordless vocals she provides to the guitarist's own tunes, including "Asma," where Axt's bass bridges the center as singer and guitarist engage in an ethereal and sensual dialogue. Of the other standards here, "Beija-Flor" by Nelson Cavaquinho and Noel Silva is introduced by a long wordless duet with the guitar before Axt enters on an acoustic bass guitar and coaxes surprising harmonic nuances from the familiar bossa nova. The other bossa here, Bruno Martino's "Estate," is perhaps more conventional in articulation, but Sutton sinks so deeply into the grain of the lyric that she owns its emotional expression. Merlaud uses an electric guitar on "Body and Soul," reflecting the multi-harmonic influence of Jim Hall. Sutton draws out the words slowly, purposefully, each syllable infused with a generosity absent of artifice or affect. She's sung this song many times before, but not like this. The resonance in "Don't Worry 'Bout Me" is dialogic. Merlaud's electric guitar doesn't merely comp and fill, but is the other equal voice in a difficult conversation. Axt enters with gorgeous chord voicings providing an equanimity that illustrates the emotional dimension shared between the conversants. Sutton's delivery is even, but far from detached. It affirms the beloved even as a glimpse of romantic pain is betrayed by the ends of her lines. Two of these cuts, "Don't Go to Strangers" and "Answer Me, My Love," will be familiar; they were recorded for and appeared on After Blue, but they fit this context just as well. Paris Sessions is a gem, so elegant, sparse, and intimate in its directness that it is as arresting as it is lovely.
Track Listing:
By Thom Jurek
One need listen no further than "You Must Believe in Spring," the opening track of Tierney Sutton's Paris Sessions, to grasp that something quite special is taking place between the musicians. This collection of standards and originals recorded in duos and trios between the singer, guitarist Serge Merlaud, and bassist Kevin Axt is a bare-bones journey into the depths of musical intimacy. Recorded over two days at Val d'Orge Studio, these 12 tunes are the product of minimal rehearsal on the day before recording. The arrangements, such as they are, are simple, transparent; the considerable depth comes from the well of the song allowing itself to be expressed so nakedly. The aforementioned cut is a duet, with Merlaud's nylon-string acoustic guitar introducing it. When Sutton enters, the emotional frame is already in place; she fills it with commitment and hope derived from earned wisdom, not wishful thinking. It's a striking contrast to the dusky wordless vocals she provides to the guitarist's own tunes, including "Asma," where Axt's bass bridges the center as singer and guitarist engage in an ethereal and sensual dialogue. Of the other standards here, "Beija-Flor" by Nelson Cavaquinho and Noel Silva is introduced by a long wordless duet with the guitar before Axt enters on an acoustic bass guitar and coaxes surprising harmonic nuances from the familiar bossa nova. The other bossa here, Bruno Martino's "Estate," is perhaps more conventional in articulation, but Sutton sinks so deeply into the grain of the lyric that she owns its emotional expression. Merlaud uses an electric guitar on "Body and Soul," reflecting the multi-harmonic influence of Jim Hall. Sutton draws out the words slowly, purposefully, each syllable infused with a generosity absent of artifice or affect. She's sung this song many times before, but not like this. The resonance in "Don't Worry 'Bout Me" is dialogic. Merlaud's electric guitar doesn't merely comp and fill, but is the other equal voice in a difficult conversation. Axt enters with gorgeous chord voicings providing an equanimity that illustrates the emotional dimension shared between the conversants. Sutton's delivery is even, but far from detached. It affirms the beloved even as a glimpse of romantic pain is betrayed by the ends of her lines. Two of these cuts, "Don't Go to Strangers" and "Answer Me, My Love," will be familiar; they were recorded for and appeared on After Blue, but they fit this context just as well. Paris Sessions is a gem, so elegant, sparse, and intimate in its directness that it is as arresting as it is lovely.
Track Listing:
You Must Believe In Spring; llm; Don't Go To Strangers; Beija-Flor; You're Nearer; Estate; All Too Soon; Asma; Body And Soul; Izzat; Don't Worry 'Bout Me; Answer Me, My Love.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Tierney Sutton: vocals; Serge Merlaud: acoustic guitar, electric guitar; Kevin Axt: acoustic bass guitar.
David Feldman
David Feldman
Piano
By Galeria Musical
O piano é um instrumento fascinante tanto para quem o toca quanto para quem o ouve sendo bem tocado. E é mais que justa a homenagem ao instrumento e ao seu som feito por David Feldman ao batizar o seu álbum singelamente de “piano”. David resolveu chamar o disco de “piano” com “p” minúsculo por querer transpassar ao ouvinte o clima intimista, sereno e suave que o piano pode oferecer.
O músico estreou em CD no ano de 2009 com o elogiado “Som do Beco das Garrafas”, e agora retorna com um álbum onde sessenta por cento das canções são autorais e inéditas, o que reafirma o momento de dedicação ao instrumento e de criatividade deste músico que acumula importantes feitos, como o de ter ficado entre os 10 maiores pianistas do mundo na competição de piano-solo do Festival de Jazz Montreaux, evento curado por ninguém menos que Quincy Jones.
Dessa forma, David vai dando vida a canções como “Conversa de Botequim” (Noel Rosa, Vadico), que ganha leveza sem perder a sua ginga original, e a inédita “Chobim” (David Fieldman), que funde Chopin e Tom Jobim com melancolia e lirismo.
No currículo de David também está o fato de já ter trabalhado com diversos ressonantes nomes de nossa MPB, como Maria Rita, Leny Andrade, Leila Pinheiro, Wilson Simoninha, dentre tantos outros.
“Piano” é um disco sofisticado e certeiro quando o assunto é o elegante som do piano, e momentos como “Sabiá” (Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque), que encerra o disco, e a dobradinha feita com ele mesmo em “Esqueceram de Mim no Aeroporto”, por si só já valem o disco.
By Galeria Musical
O piano é um instrumento fascinante tanto para quem o toca quanto para quem o ouve sendo bem tocado. E é mais que justa a homenagem ao instrumento e ao seu som feito por David Feldman ao batizar o seu álbum singelamente de “piano”. David resolveu chamar o disco de “piano” com “p” minúsculo por querer transpassar ao ouvinte o clima intimista, sereno e suave que o piano pode oferecer.
O músico estreou em CD no ano de 2009 com o elogiado “Som do Beco das Garrafas”, e agora retorna com um álbum onde sessenta por cento das canções são autorais e inéditas, o que reafirma o momento de dedicação ao instrumento e de criatividade deste músico que acumula importantes feitos, como o de ter ficado entre os 10 maiores pianistas do mundo na competição de piano-solo do Festival de Jazz Montreaux, evento curado por ninguém menos que Quincy Jones.
Dessa forma, David vai dando vida a canções como “Conversa de Botequim” (Noel Rosa, Vadico), que ganha leveza sem perder a sua ginga original, e a inédita “Chobim” (David Fieldman), que funde Chopin e Tom Jobim com melancolia e lirismo.
No currículo de David também está o fato de já ter trabalhado com diversos ressonantes nomes de nossa MPB, como Maria Rita, Leny Andrade, Leila Pinheiro, Wilson Simoninha, dentre tantos outros.
“Piano” é um disco sofisticado e certeiro quando o assunto é o elegante som do piano, e momentos como “Sabiá” (Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque), que encerra o disco, e a dobradinha feita com ele mesmo em “Esqueceram de Mim no Aeroporto”, por si só já valem o disco.
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