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CD Music

The Iveys: "Jenna's Song"

Details
CD music

February 2014

Jenna's SongSolid Acoustic Rock from El Paso

Self released
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
***1/2

Overall Enjoyment
****

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.

Read more …

The Dave Miller Trio with Rebecca DuMaine: "Better Than Anything"

Details
CD music

February 2014

Better Than AnythingA Swinging Delight

Summit Records DCD 619
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

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.

Read more …

Bob Dorough: "Eulalia"

Details
CD music

January 2014

EulaliaUpbeat Jazz at 90

Merry Lane Records LLC
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****1/2

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

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?

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Charlotte de Rothschild and Danielle Perrett: "Christmas Lullabies"

Details
CD music

December 2013

Christmas LullabiesSoothing Holiday Music to Heal Jangled Shopping Nerves

Nimbus Records NI7095
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

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.

Read more …

Tchaikovsky/Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn: "Nutcracker Suites"

Details
CD music

December 2013

Nutcracker SuitesFirst Recording in 50 Years of an Ellington Classic

Harmonia Mundi HMU907493
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
****1/2

Overall Enjoyment
****

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.

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Tianna Hall and Chris Cortez: "Noel"

Details
CD music

November 2013

NoelHoliday Tunes from Houston

Blue Bamboo Music BBM023
Format: CD

Musical Performance
***

Sound Quality
***1/2

Overall Enjoyment
***1/2

After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans-based guitarist Chris Cortez moved to Houston where he quickly became a part of that city’s jazz scene. He founded Blue Bamboo Music, which not only gives him a recording outlet for his own talents, but also makes it possible to focus attention on other performers from the Houston area. One of the latter is singer Tianna Hall, whose often-sultry voice is heard on all but one of Noel’s tracks.

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Tim Warfield: "Tim Warfield’s Jazzy Christmas"

Details
CD music

November 2013

Tim Warfield's Jazzy ChristmasPassionate Jazz Rhapsodies on Familiar Holiday Tunes

Undaunted Music UM007
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
***1/2

Overall Enjoyment
****

For the past few years, I've received albums of holiday music on the late side. Had I reviewed them, readers would have been hard pressed to purchase one in time for the holiday celebration. This year, however, there have been a lot of fine releases that started arriving in September, so there's no such problem. Starting this week, then, I'll be covering the best of the holiday titles, a group that runs across all genres. These aren't discs you'll find at Walmart or Best Buy, but you can easily obtain them from Amazon.com, CD Baby, or other online dealers. If you're lucky enough to have an old-fashioned dealer in your neighborhood, you can probably find them there.

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Gina Kronstadt: "Come Over"

Details
CD music

October 2013

Come OverContemporary Jazz with Pop Influences

Falloff Records FO 1002
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

Gina Kronstadt is based in Los Angeles and has a tremendously impressive resume as a violinist. I can say without reservation that you must have heard her. Her motion-picture credits include Pirates of the Caribbean, Disturbia, Star Trek, and three or four dozen others. She's also played on audio recordings by artists such as Ray Charles, Sheryl Crow, Taylor Swift, Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart, and Elton John. And she's been on a lot of TV shows, including The Voice, The Tonight Show, and more.

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The Swingle Singers: "Weather to Fly"

Details
CD music

September 2013

Weather to Fly50 Years and Still Going Strong

World Village 450025
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****1/2

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

Can it be? The Swingle Singers are 50 years old, and Weather to Fly is their first 50th-anniversary album. It seems like only yesterday that the brainchild of Ward Swingle swept in from Paris and informed us that Bach and other Baroque composers could be successful with a hot-jazz treatment. The group has gone through a lot of personnel changes in their half century of existence. Ward Swingle left the group to form his own New Swingle Singers and is still alive, back in Paris after a stay in the United States, doing new arrangements and guest conducting.

Read more …

Tierney Sutton: "After Blue"

Details
CD music

September 2013

After BlueAn A+ Tribute to Joni Mitchell from Tierney Sutton

BFM Jazz 302062419-2
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****1/2

Sound Quality
****1/2

Overall Enjoyment
****1/2

When Tierney Sutton was recording for Telarc, I always felt that she had great promise but that she tried too hard, sometimes resulting in uncomfortable grandstanding. But 2011 brought American Road, her first disc for BFM Jazz, and everything seemed to change. Her voice had matured and darkened a bit, and she seemed more at home and less driven to prove a point, which made her all the more able to make those points.

Read more …

  1. Cheryl Bentyne and Mark Winkler: "West Coast Cool"
  2. Lorraine Feather: "Attachments"
  3. Lyn Stanley: "Lost in Romance"
  4. Randi Tytingvåg: "Lights Out"
  5. Vincent Cross: "A Town Called Normal"
  6. Nancy Harms: "Dreams in Apartments"
  7. Abigail Riccards: "Every Little Star"
  8. George Shearing & Don Thompson: "George Shearing at Home"
  9. Matthew Morrison: "Where It All Began"
  10. Thisbe Vos: "Under Your Spell"
  11. Mustered Courage: "Powerlines"
  12. Denise King & Olivier Hutman: "Give Me The High Sign"
  13. Thomas Gansch and Georg Breinschmid: "Gansch & Breinschmid Live"
  14. Ben Sidran: "Don’t Cry for No Hipster"
  15. Raquel Bitton: "Rhythm of the Heart"
  16. Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo: "Melody Magic"
  17. Laila Salins: "Elevator into the Sky"
  18. Tim Mahoney Band: "Shine Through"
  19. The Summarily Dismissed: "To Each!"
  20. Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship: "Song of Simeon: A Christmas Journey"
  21. Dallas Wind Symphony; Jerry Junkin, Conductor: "Horns for the Holidays"
  22. Jacqui Sutton: "Notes from the Frontier: A Musical Journey"
  23. Barluath: "Source"
  24. Letizia Gambi: "Introducing Letizia Gambi"
  25. Fiona Apple: "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do"
  26. Susie Arioli: "All the Way"
  27. Georg Breinschmid: "Fire"
  28. Hiroe Sekine: "After the Rainfall"
  29. Jamie Ousley: "A Sea of Voices"
  30. Bill Toms: "Memphis"
  31. The SSJ All-Stars: "From California With Love"
  32. Dale Ann Bradley: "Somewhere South of Crazy"
  33. Duda Lucena Quartet: "Live"
  34. Stevie Nicks: "In Your Dreams"
  35. Megan Slankard: "A Token of the Wreckage"
  36. Take 6: "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
  37. "Christmas with The Washington Chorus"
  38. Esperanza Spalding: "Chamber Music Society"
  39. John Escreet: "Don't Fight the Inevitable"

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