Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Georgia Cécile - Only the lover Sings

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:38
Size: 102,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:38) 1. The month of may
(3:31) 2. Come summertime
(3:18) 3. Always be right
(3:57) 4. He knew how to love
(3:19) 5. Goodbye love
(4:58) 6. Harpoon
(4:57) 7. Bittersweet
(3:55) 8. Ever burning flame
(3:01) 9. Blue is just a colour
(3:59) 10. Love the stars you're under

2021 was definitely something of an annus mirabilis for the vocalist and songwriter, Georgia Cécile. She won a host of new fans supporting Gregory Porter on his four dates at the Royal Albert Hall, made her Ronnie Scott's debut, delivered a standout performance at the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening gala, Jazz Voice, and released her debut album, Only The Lover Sings, which scooped ‘Best Album’ at the 2021 Scottish Jazz Awards.

With 10 superbly-crafted original songs, outstanding arrangements courtesy of Cécile's long-standing songwriting partner pianist and composer Euan Stevenson plus a central vocal performance which mixes passion, power and playfulness, this debut is an astonishing achievement. Cécile kickstarted proceedings at ‘Jazz Voice’ with her fine original and album opener ‘The Month Of May’. It's one of several songs (‘He Knew How To Love’ and ‘Goodbye Love’ are two more) which possesses a Bacharach-like richness both in terms of its arrangement and its harmonic journey. The moving ballad ‘Come Summertime’ showcases Cécile's ability to sustain and really sing through the melodic line. Tempos and textures are nicely varied, with ‘the radio-friendly ‘Always Be Right For Me’ shifting easily through the gears, while the pulsating ‘Blue Is Just A Colour’ emphasizes what an incredibly tight band this is.
https://www.jazzwise.com/review/georgia-cecile-only-the-lover-sings

Only the lover sings

David Linx - Be My Guest: The Duos Project

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:30
Size: 157,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:48) 1. Letter to Trevor
(3:59) 2. Hunter
(4:26) 3. Página de Dor
(3:59) 4. Close to You
(5:19) 5. Waves
(4:46) 6. Making Do, Making New
(7:50) 7. Round Midnight
(5:25) 8. My Bee
(2:28) 9. Tonight You Belong to Me
(4:20) 10. By the Seine
(2:59) 11. The Bystander Effect
(6:51) 12. Vanguard
(3:28) 13. I Think It's Going to Rain Today
(3:18) 14. Emportez-moi
(5:27) 15. Como la Cigarra

By turns visceral, touching, transporting and illuminating, this set of 15 duets featuring the Brussels-born, Paris-based vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist David Linx is a collection that stays with you long after the final bar of the extraordinarily powerful ‘Como La Cigarra’ fades away. Penned by the Argentinean writer and composer, Maria Elena Walsh, Linx is accompanied on this particular song by the gorgeous playing of pianist Gustavo Beytelmann.

Appropriately, Linx describes the album as being “a way of continuing to evolve over and over again and remind me of my youth when I rushed into everything I didn't know, with a curiosity that is still intact”. And it’s this incredible artistic curiosity which makes Be My Guest such an enriching listening experience. Whether it’s the nearly eight-minute meditation on ‘Round Midnight’ in the company of pianist Tigran Hamasyan, the intricate polyphonic web of interlocking lines that Linx creates with fellow vocalist Theo Bleckmann in ‘Waves’, or the incredibly poignant album opener, ‘Letter to Trevor’, in which writer and filmmaker Trevor Baldwin recites a letter penned to him when he was a two-month-old baby by his uncle, the late, great writer and playwright, James Baldwin, Linx’s unerring choice of collaborators enables each song to take flight in a magical way.

Other highlights include the exquisite sound of the cavaquinho(a small, four-stringed member of the guitar family) in ‘Pagina De Dor’, courtesy of Rio-born musician Hamilton De Holanda, the incredibly beautiful timbre of cellist Éric-Maria Couturier in ‘Making Do, Making New’, and the understated electronica of ‘The Bystander Effect’, featuring keys player Diederik Wissels, which sees Linx’s increasingly stacked-up vocal riff panning left to right and back again.
https://www.jazzwise.com/review/david-linx-be-my-guest-the-duos-project

Be My Guest: The Duos Project

Martin Speake - Two Not One

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@128K/s
Time: 66:29
Size: 153,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:38) 1. Ablution
(8:03) 2. Besame Mucho
(6:39) 3. For Heavens Sake
(3:34) 4. I Found A New Baby
(4:09) 5. Coleman Hawkins
(6:39) 6. If I Had You
(4:22) 7. I'll Never Forget You
(6:02) 8. Skylark
(4:29) 9. Lester's Blues
(6:01) 10. Our Love Is Here To Stay
(4:37) 11. Happy
(2:59) 12. The Nearness Of You
(4:10) 13. Two Not One

Martin Speake's alto saxophone tone is such a beautiful thing in itself, pure and limpid, that it would be possible to float off on it without noticing what he was actually playing. This would be a pity, because his improvised lines are full of ideas and unemphatic elegance. Colin Oxley, best known for his long tenure as Stacey Kent's guitarist, makes the best possible partner, providing rich, subtle harmonies and discreet but firm rhythmic support. Outstanding in a mixed programme of originals and well-chosen standards is a marvellous two-part invention on a blues by Lester Youg.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/mar/25/speake-oxley-two-not-one

Two Not One