Music » Vocal Jazz Music

Shirley Horn is one of the great voices in jazz, her warmly breathy, slightly gritty voice investing ballads with rare depths of meaning. There's a level of emotional intensity here that's achieved by few singers, and it's made even more compelling by Horn's innate reserve. On May the Music Never End, Horn acts as producer as well, and she eschews the lush string accompaniments of 2001's You're My Thrill for the minimum accompaniment of a piano trio. It only magnifies the intimacy of her performance, with pianist George Mesterhazy's spare, understated chords gently lapping against her voice on songs like Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" and Michel LeGrand's "Watch What Happens." Long-time drummer Steve Williams adds real drama to "Everything Must Change." Horn has always had a special affinity with trumpet players--having recorded with both Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis--and here Roy Hargrove turns up on two tracks, adding subtle punch to "Take Love Easy" and "Ill Wind." There is also a guest appearance by Ahmad Jamal, and his sparkling piano further illuminates "Maybe September" and "This Is All I Am." --Stuart Broomer

Release Date: 2002-12-10, Audio CD, Taragon

2 CD SET//They're Playing Our Song -Great Romantic Standards - Volume 2///Disc 1 /// 1 I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm -Dean Martin 02:46 2 Cheek To Cheek -Peggy Lee 02:49 3 Young At Heart -Jimmy Durante 02:50 4 The Way You Look Tonight -Doris Day 03:28 5 Embraceable You -Jack Jones 03:04 6 These Foolish Things -Jo Stafford With The Art Van Damme Quintet 03:27 7 Hello, Young Lovers -Johnny Mathis 04:18 8 September In The Rain -Julie London 01:42 9 There! I've Said It Again -Bobby Vinton 02:23 10 But Not For Me -Linda Ronstadt 05:29 11 The More I See You -Andy Williams 02:24 12 In The Still Of The Night -Engelbert Humperdinck 04:15 13 Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing -Jerry Vale 02:41 14 Where Or When -Ray Conniff And His Orchestra 03:20 15 If Ever I Would Leave You -Robert Goulet 03:18 Disc 2 /// 1 You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It) -Patsy Cline 02:48 2 It's De-Lovely- Johnny Mathis 02:49 3 You Do Something To Me -Ella Fitzgerald 02:24 4 Love Is Here To Stay- Nat King Cole 02:49 5 Someone To Watch Over Me -Rosemary Clooney 03:39 6 The Song Is You - Tony Dorsey With Frank Sinatra 03:26 7 It's Wonderful -The McGuire Sisters 02:14 8 The Nearness Of You -John Gary 02:41 9 Strangers In The Night -Mel Torme 02:40 10 It's Easy To Remember- Perry Como 03:16 11 Come Rain Or Come Shine -Polly Bergen 02:47 12 Begin Th Beguine- Andy Williams 03:15 13 It's Magic -Doris Day 03:27 14 How Deep Is The Ocean- Vic Damone 04:02 15 All The Way -Patti Page

More than most tribute albums, singer Karrin Allyson's remembrance of John Coltrane makes a genuine attempt to relate to its subject--not only in retracing his 1961 offering, Ballads, song by song and luxuriating in the deep, swelling tenor sounds of Bob Berg and James Carter, but also in giving the tunes plenty of room to breathe. Resisting the temptation to dress them up with overt displays of style, she approaches them in a straightforward, emotionally understated fashion, capturing their essence with taste and intelligence. In the end, Allyson doesn't have quite enough color or depth to sustain such a long set of slow stuff (the album, also featuring Steve Wilson on soprano sax, concludes with three other ballads associated with Trane, notably his classic "Naima"). This is a singer who needs to breathe as much as sigh. But taken individually or in short doses, songs such as "Say It (Over and Over Again)" and "What's New" impart an exquisite sense of control. Allyson's radiant high notes never fail to move you. --Lloyd Sachs

Blossom's final recording with songs from Blossom, Sting, Michel Legrand, Ivan Lins and others. An amazing production with arrangements that will leave you in the clouds. Note: we are not responsible for the "Blossom Baby Boom" that may result from this recording!

Given his seemingly effortless ability at melding such disparate forms as jazz and gospel with his own rare melodic gifts, it's not hard to view George Gershwin as America's first classical crossover artist. But as this glorious, 41-track double-disc introduction to Gershwin's epochal repertoire quickly demonstrates, that assessment woefully shortchanges the sheer grandeur of "Rhapsody in Blue" or the sultry earthiness of "Summertime." Singer and pop musicologist Michael Feinstein produced the set (as well as contributing a new recording of "Home Blues"), and under his guidance it understandably leans toward Gershwin's remarkable body of songcraft, though it also includes more concert-oriented pieces such as the "Rhapsody" and "Prelude No. 2," both in original performances by the composer. But Feinstein's loving sense of American pop song history insures that the performances here are both inspired and enlightening. Indeed, his choices represent not only a who's who of 20th-century pop and saloon singers--spanning a rich pantheon that includes Jolson, Kelly, Astaire, Holliday, Sinatra, Bennett, Waters, Torme, Clooney, Day, Vaughan, and Fitzgerald--but deftly underscore Gershwin's transcendent synthesis of style, era, and distinctly American subject matter. Also includes a written tribute by modern songwriter Diane Warren and an essay by Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Page. --Jerry McCulley

Release Date: 2002-02-26, Audio CD, Umvd Special Markets

23 year old singer/pianist Jamie Cullum is the new and genuinely exciting face in the jazz scene, crossing over like no male jazz singer since Harry Connick Jr. He has been described as 'the youngest swinger in town' (The Times) and 'Sinatra in sneakers' (The Guardian), while Jazzwise Magazine notes 'Cullum's mellifluous tone, clarity of diction, exciting pianism - clearly mark him out as a young artist with immense potential.' This refreshingly hip debut album features jazz standards and covers of contemporary hits such as Radiohead's High and Dry. It also showcases his superb originals, the title track and I Want To Be A Popstar.

Freelon isn't much of a lyricist (a typically stiff couplet is "We have come to find/ Intimate connection of heart and mind"), but she has a sure instinct for the way melody flows. Her soprano isn't overpowering, but it is extremely graceful and thus perfectly fits the easy-going songs she writes and chooses. Her road band of pianist/arranger Bill Anschell, bassist John Brown and drummer Woody Williams are also well attuned to this approach; after two-plus years together, the four musicians seem to glide as one. The album does include standards by Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen and the like, but the highlights are a leisurely treatment of Dizzy Gillespie's "Birk's Works" and a dreamy version of the old folk tune "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair." --Geoffrey Himes

Release Date: 1994-06-21, Audio CD, Polygram Records