CD Music
Henry Mancini: "Music for Peter Gunn"
July 2014
Henry Mancini’s Jazz Score in a Modern-Recording Homage
Harmonie Ensemble/New York; Steven Richman, conductor
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907624
Format: CD
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Remember TV's pioneering Peter Gunn? From 1958 to 1961, women wanted to meet someone like him and men wanted to be him -- both thoughts that would apply to James Bond seven years later. He wore a suit and tie, was oh so debonair, and was so very cool and hardboiled. He had a gorgeous girlfriend (Lola Albright) who sang at the waterfront jazz club Mother's, and he dispatched villains with aplomb (after all, it was a half-hour show). But I bet that more people remember the name of the show's composer (Henry Mancini) better than the actor who portrayed Gunn (Craig Stevens).
Barb Jungr: "Hard Rain: The Songs of Bob Dylan & Leonard Cohen"
May 2014
Protest Songs Still Relevant Today
Kristalyn Records KLCD1
Format: CD
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Barb Jungr is an English singer-songwriter known as a chansonnière and cabaret performer. Though she has drawn from many different styles to fashion her arrangements, it's her singing of the songs of Bob Dylan that has made her famous. She recorded two albums for Linn Records that feature his songs, and even in albums devoted to other performers such as Elvis Presley, she has managed to slip in a song or two from Dylan.
Jeremy Fox: "With Love"
April 2014
The Art of the Arranger
Jazzbill Records
Format: CD
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Music arrangers seldom get their due. Though they handle instrumental ensembles that can make or break the artist out front, their names are usually in fine print on the back cover of the album. I found With Love intriguing because it is the arranger, Jeremy Fox, who takes top billing. Fox has degrees from Western Michigan University and the University of Miami, and since 2001 has coordinated the SMV Vocal Jazz Camps around the US. Since 1999 Fox has received ten awards from DownBeat Magazine, including Best Written Song, Best Arrangement, and Best Studio Engineering.
Will Kimbrough: "Sideshow Love"
April 2014
Will Kimbrough Takes the Lead
Daphne (self released)
Format: CD
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Will Kimbrough has often served as a sideman in backup bands for the likes of Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris (just to name a couple; the list is long), but on his new album, Sideshow Love, it's all his show and he proves more than up for it. He's a terrific songwriter, an appealing singer, and he plays mean, lean guitar, banjo, mandolin, and more. At times I heard shades of Rodney Crowell (no surprise there), Tom Waits, and Loudon Wainwright III. I use those names merely as a reference point, because Kimbrough doesn't actually sound like any of them, but he triggered those connections in one way or another when I listened to his superb CD.
A.J. Croce: "Twelve Tales"
February 2014
Acoustic Rock Singer Effectively Meshes Different Styles and Genres
Compass Records 4623
Format: CD
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Not content to coast on the success of prior albums, A.J. Croce took on the Herculean task of creating a 12-cut album using six different producers and recording locations. The main thing his producers have in common is that they're all considered legendary -- Cowboy Jack Clement, Allen Toussaint, Greg Cohen, Mitchell Froom, Tony Berg, and Kevin Killen.
The Iveys: "Jenna's Song"
February 2014
Solid Acoustic Rock from El Paso
Self released
Format: CD
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I have a theory that folk and acoustic music will never die. No matter what the decade or the prevailing musical styles, musicians will find a way to include folk and acoustic elements. Look at the recent popularity of Mumford & Sons and Lady Antebellum. They play sold-out houses in very large venues. The Iveys aren't quite there yet, but they have played over 500 shows and had six national tours, albeit in some smaller venues. Their fans pay more than lip service to the three-piece sibling band, having entirely funded their third and newest album, Jenna's Song.
The Dave Miller Trio with Rebecca DuMaine: "Better Than Anything"
February 2014
A Swinging Delight
Summit Records DCD 619
Format: CD
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The title song for Better Than Anything was written some years ago by David "Buck" Wheat and Bill Loughborough and has become a standard for many jazz performers, but I've never heard it set forth so persuasively as in the first cut of Rebecca DuMaine's new CD. With its endless list of delights, always culminating in "better than anything except being in love," the tune can become breathless or kitschy, but DuMaine manages to make it swing with her beautifully enunciated approach. It's a great start to an album that's the swingiest affair I've heard in some time.
Bob Dorough: "Eulalia"
January 2014
Upbeat Jazz at 90
Merry Lane Records LLC
Format: CD
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Back in the day, one of my favorite bands was Spanky and Our Gang. They were a little stronger on folk than rock and sang some devilishly clever tunes, one of them being "Five Definitions of Love." I marveled that anyone could create such flowing music from reading the dictionary, and I was at a loss to describe the style. Spanky and Our Gang weren't just rock, or just folk, and what was that other element that made them irresistible?
Charlotte de Rothschild and Danielle Perrett: "Christmas Lullabies"
December 2013
Soothing Holiday Music to Heal Jangled Shopping Nerves
Format: CD
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If your nerves are frayed by shopping the malls where “A Holly Jolly Christmas” or “The Little Drummer Boy” are being blasted out with 16-percent harmonic distortion by inadequately powered sound systems, Christmas Lullabies might be just the album for you.
Tchaikovsky/Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn: "Nutcracker Suites"
December 2013
First Recording in 50 Years of an Ellington Classic
Harmonia Mundi HMU907493
Format: CD
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The Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn version of Nutcracker Suite has not been recorded since Duke's original in 1960. How great, then, to have an excellent new rendition in superb sound. And what a stroke of genius to pair it with Tchaikovsky's original, which is why this disc is titled Nutcracker Suites.
