Abigail Riccards & Tony Romano - Soft Rains Fall

Styles: Vocal and Guitar Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:26
Size: 95,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:56)  1. I Get Along Without You Very Well
(3:28)  2. Chega De Saudade
(4:24)  3. Blame It On My Youth
(3:16)  4. Stardust
(4:41)  5. Both Sides Now
(2:37)  6. Beautiful Love
(3:01)  7. Kathy's Song
(4:42)  8. I Can't Make You Love Me
(3:41)  9. I Wish You Love
(2:50) 10. The Nearness Of You
(3:42) 11. Bring It On Home

Vocalist Abigail Riccards’ collaboration with guitarist Tony Romano, Soft Rains, is a stylistically unique voice and guitar recital. Although this type of pairing brings to mind the Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass sessions, this is disc contains a very different kind of duets. There are Spanish classical influences, as on “Chega De Suadade,” that sounds like a Joaquin Rodrigo composition both when Romano is in the spotlight and while he is driving Riccards’ evocative vocal stylings up and down the musical scales. Elsewhere, on “Beautiful Love,” Django-esque strumming is paired with vocal improvisations, one of two tracks that feature Riccards’ scatting skills. The other, “I Wish You Love,” is perhaps the “jazziest” on the album with a short but advanced guitar work. Romano plays angular lines on “Blame It On My Youth,” where his carefully placed notes frame Riccards’ mellow contralto; soft as honey with a bite of spice like heady mead.  Her voice is well suited for Joni Mitchell’s poetic words giving “Both Sides Now” a personal treatment without altering the spirit of this classic song. 

Her versatility is on display with her interpretation of Paul Simon’s “Kathy’s Song,” which flows smoothly from her lips revealing a vulnerability that is buried deep inside the music. Her heartbreaking delivery of romantic ballads is heard on “I Can’t Make You Love Me” with touches of folk music, and the Sam Cooke classic “Bring It On Home” maintains its earthiness but is infused with jazz sensibilities particularly on the closing guitar solo. On an album full of intimate moments, the most intimate tunes are “The Nearness Of You,” which is transformed to a voice and guitar conversation, “I Get Along Without You Very Well,” with enough musicality to the recitation of the lyrics to create a melancholy mood without overshadowing Romano’s sparse notes, and “Stardust,” where Riccards’ deceptively simple delivery is like someone humming to themselves but with a phrasing so exact and so one-of-a-kind that it belongs in the best of jazz venues. With the high quality of their musicianship, Riccards and Romano have created a record more stimulating and engaging with their bare-bones delivery than any overproduced vocal jazz album. ~ Hrayr Attarian  

http://www.chicagojazz.com/cd-reviews.php?SEARCH=review&REV=142.

Personnel:  Abigail Riccards – Voice; Tony Romano – Guitar

Soft Rains Fall

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