Time: 58:19
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front
01. All Too Soon (4:00)
02. Somebody Loves Me (3:49)
03. Chelsea Mood (6:27)
04. Something's Gotta Give (4:53)
05. I Was Doing All Right - Know You Now (7:57)
06. Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye (4:56)
07. Where Or When (3:56)
08. I'll Wind (You're Blowing Me No Good) (4:08)
09. All Of You (4:18)
10. I Used To Be Colorblind (3:55)
11. I've Got You Under My Skin (5:47)
12. This Time The Dream's On Me (4:08)
Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald is a tale of two titans, Monheit and Nicholas Payton, who arranged and played trumpet on a majority of the selections. Payton, through is svelte arranging, created an accurate picture of what jazz is supposed to sound like in the near future. Compare the 1960s television show Lost in Space to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (Warner Brothers, 1982). Lost in Space's vision of the future was foolish hyperbole to the point of being campy. The "futuristic" clothing and technology was overwrought and inaccurate. In Blade Runner, there existed remnants of things that would have been familiar to anyone living 100 years before (Harrison Ford's noir trench coat, fedora, earth tone shirt and tie, for example). Payton's deft touch is similar to that of Scott's in that he makes the songs performed here sound out of the present ordinary while not jettisoning them into unrecognizability.
Monheit's elastic voice is comparable only to that of Betty Carter. A contemporary specialist with the Great American Songbook, Monheit is an aural encyclopedia of singing styles blended into her own vision. In the same way that Payton quotes Sonny Rollin's "Sonnymoon for Two" on "All of You," Monheit quotes the style of Phoebe Snow from 1975's "Poetry Man." There are examples of this synergy between Monheit and Payton throughout this recording. On the lengthy medley "I Was Doing All Right/Know Your Now," Payton quotes "he Girl from Ipanema" and "If I Only Had a Brain" in the same solo phrase. Monheit, for her part, combines the diction of Fitzgerald with the occasional slurred, dragging phrasing of Holiday to approximate Sarah Vaughan in Heaven, all the while sounding like only Monheit can.
The repertoire is classic Ella. Superbly articulated Ellington-Strayhorn, "Chelsea Mood" rubs up against an insistent and sexy "Something's Gotta Give." This performance of "I've Got You Under My Skin" competes with Beat Kaestli's performance of the same on his 2010 Invitation (Chesky Records) for best original arrangement while Monheit's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" is as emotionally wrenching as any song could be sung. Perhaps the best thing about Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald is the title, one that promised more of the same. And that is good...very good. ~C. Michael Bailey
Personnel: Jane Monheit: vocals; Nicholas Payton: trumpet (1-5, 6-11), piano (11), organ (11, 12); Michael Kanan: piano (1-11); Neal Miner: bass (1-11); Rich Montalbano: drums (1-11); Daniel Sadowrick: percussion (1-11); Brandee Younger: harp (5,12).
Monheit's elastic voice is comparable only to that of Betty Carter. A contemporary specialist with the Great American Songbook, Monheit is an aural encyclopedia of singing styles blended into her own vision. In the same way that Payton quotes Sonny Rollin's "Sonnymoon for Two" on "All of You," Monheit quotes the style of Phoebe Snow from 1975's "Poetry Man." There are examples of this synergy between Monheit and Payton throughout this recording. On the lengthy medley "I Was Doing All Right/Know Your Now," Payton quotes "he Girl from Ipanema" and "If I Only Had a Brain" in the same solo phrase. Monheit, for her part, combines the diction of Fitzgerald with the occasional slurred, dragging phrasing of Holiday to approximate Sarah Vaughan in Heaven, all the while sounding like only Monheit can.
The repertoire is classic Ella. Superbly articulated Ellington-Strayhorn, "Chelsea Mood" rubs up against an insistent and sexy "Something's Gotta Give." This performance of "I've Got You Under My Skin" competes with Beat Kaestli's performance of the same on his 2010 Invitation (Chesky Records) for best original arrangement while Monheit's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" is as emotionally wrenching as any song could be sung. Perhaps the best thing about Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald is the title, one that promised more of the same. And that is good...very good. ~C. Michael Bailey
Personnel: Jane Monheit: vocals; Nicholas Payton: trumpet (1-5, 6-11), piano (11), organ (11, 12); Michael Kanan: piano (1-11); Neal Miner: bass (1-11); Rich Montalbano: drums (1-11); Daniel Sadowrick: percussion (1-11); Brandee Younger: harp (5,12).
The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald
Monheit & Payton, Great. Thanks Mai for the post.
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