Monday, August 25, 2014

Rebecca Kilgore with the Harry Allen Quartet - I Like Men

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 71:03
Size: 163.2 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[5:36] 1. I Like Men/I'm Just Wild About Harry
[5:31] 2. The Gentleman Is a Dope
[5:42] 3. The Boy Next Door
[3:40] 4. An Occasional Man
[3:14] 5. Goldfinger
[5:30] 6. Ballad of the Sad Young Men
[6:15] 7. The Man I Love
[5:15] 8. For Every Man There's a Woman
[4:31] 9. Marry the Man Today
[4:53] 10. He Needs Me
[3:39] 11. He's a Tramp
[3:29] 12. He's My Guy
[2:57] 13. Down Boy
[4:25] 14. One Man Ain't Quite Enough
[6:19] 15. The Man That Got Away

As the album title suggests all the tracks relate to the male of the species in one form or another, this is not a new concept but has been tried and tested to great advantage by Peggy Lee and many of these songs have been recorded by Miss Lee including two of her own compositions.

Rebecca Kilgore has developed into a first class interpreter of classic material and on this album she is accompanied by four musicians who are sympathetic to her style of vocalising. Rossano Sportiello has taken over the role vacated by Dave McKenna and John Bunch on their demise. Like Scott Hamilton Harry Allen knows when to fill the spaces and when to stay in the background, his solos are an added bonus. Joel Forbes on bass and Kevin Kanner on drums rounding out a superb team.

The album opens with a medley of two songs associated with Peggy Lee “I Like Men / I’m just wild about Harry” but Miss Kilgore puts her own stamp on them and with Harry Allen contributing a swinging solo on the second tune it makes for a very satisfying track. The title track from the James Bond film “Goldfinger” would not appear to be suitable material for a singer of the calibre of Miss Kilgore but she pulls it off with ease and turns it into something of quality. The same could be said of Frank Loser’s “Marry the man today” but combined with attractive solos from both Harry Allen and R4ossano Sportiello Rebecca turns it into an easy paced swinger.“Ballad of a sad young man” is Harry Allen and the rhythm section with Harry providing a sensitive ballad reading of the song with Rossano Sportiello catching the mood with a fine solo. It is not we hear songs like Harold Adamson and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Down boy” and Harold Arlen and Truman Capote’s “One man ain’t quite enough” on many singer’s albums but Rebecca Kilgore is prepared to dig a little deeper and uncover gems like these and is to be applauded. This is one of the best vocal albums I have heard in some time and with such a class backing group it’s got to be a winner. ~Roy Booth

Rebecca Kilgore - vocals; Harry Allen - saxophone; Rossano Sportiello - piano; Joel Forbes - bass; Kevin Kanner - drums.

I Like Men

3 comments:

  1. The idea came from an old Peggy Lee record. Not bad, but I heard sommething better by this singer.

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