Friday, November 29, 2013

Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - When Lights Are Low

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 51:28
Size: 117.8 MB
Styles: Easy Listening
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[2:36] 1. My One And Only
[1:59] 2. I Was A Little Too Lonely
[3:15] 3. My Mood Is You
[3:04] 4. World Weary
[2:52] 5. When Lights Are Low
[3:14] 6. Fools Fall In Love
[3:36] 7. I Got A Right To Sing The Blues
[3:25] 8. Baby Plays Around
[4:50] 9. The Very Thought Of You
[2:49] 10. What I Was Warned About
[2:57] 11. Baby, Don't You Quit Now
[3:41] 12. No Love, No Nothing
[3:13] 13. Not Exactly Paris
[2:47] 14. Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home
[3:20] 15. I Keep Going Back To Joe's
[3:43] 16. We'll Be Together Again

A perfectly mixed rusty nail requires three parts scotch to one part Drambuie. It's a potent recipe that accurately describes the first full-length pairing of old pals Claire Martin and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.

Drambuie is a honey-smooth concoction that masks a powerful kick, and that's Martin. For my money she's not only the finest female British jazz singer of her generation but possibly of all time. Martin handles vocal duty on six of the disc's 16 tracks. The mellow, well-aged scotch is the multitalented Bennett. Though best known for his film-composition work, the dexterous 74-year-old is equally skilled as an arranger and pianist, as demonstrated throughout this masterful olio of familiar standards and lesser-known treasures. It is, though, Bennett the underappreciated singer who here impresses most.

Flying solo on seven tracks, Bennett lends his distinctively bipolar style (simultaneously suggesting the gut-bucket splendor of Dr. John and the black-tie elegance of Fred Astaire) to tunes that delightfully extend from Noel Coward's soigne "World Weary" to Elvis Costello's forlorn "Baby Plays Around." The cherry in this heady cocktail is the trio of tracks on which Martin and Bennett join forces, particularly a sublime interweaving of "The Very Thought of You" and "I Thought About You." Drink up. ~Christopher Loudon

Recording information: Systems Two Studio, Brooklyn, NY.

Claire Martin (vocals); Richard Rodney Bennett (vocals, piano).

When Lights Are Low

2 comments:

  1. Hi Mat, please could you re-up album for me? Thanks in advance, best wishes, Dave.

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  2. This post has a new link!
    13-06-2016

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