Monika Ryan - Playfully

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:29
Size: 97,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:09) 1. Keepin' It Light, Keepin' It Mellow
(4:28) 2. Grow Where I'm Planted
(3:34) 3. I See It In You
(4:09) 4. Let Me Love The Whole Of You
(2:48) 5. I Found That Place
(3:59) 6. You Are Magic To Me
(3:56) 7. Slipping Out
(4:39) 8. We're Here
(2:47) 9. Reason To Be Happy
(4:06) 10. Living Thoughtfully
(4:52) 11. Whole and Resounding Love

Expressive NYC-based singer, a graduate of the city's New School, gets to the heart and soul of a set of originals.

Born in New York in the mid-1970s, Monika Ryan took an early interest in jazz and especially jazz singing. Principal among the musicians she admired was Carmen McRae, although from her early 20s she also developed a special ability as a composer.

After graduating from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in the late 1990s, she worked locally and made her recording debut in 2000, her first two albums released under the name Monika Brand. The name change came some while after her 2002 marriage to Jeremy Ryan, with whom she co-owns Resensitize Records.

Her latest album, Playfully, is her 14th and all of the songs are her own compositions, each of them clearly demonstrating her interest in and skill with intelligent and meaningful lyrics. The themes she explores deal with intense emotions arising from the building of personal relationships, of loss and rediscovery, and all are cloaked in an air of optimism, a valuable quality in today’s troubled world.

Ryan’s vocal sound is rich and appropriately expressive and goes to the heart and soul of the songs. She is backed by the trio of pianist Steve Einerson, bassist Rene Hart and drummer Alvester Garnett, all of whom are subtly supportive, with Einerson having some well-taken solo opportunities.

On first hearing, the songs gathered here do not have immediately memorable melodies but many of the lyrics will be retained, at least in the subconscious mind. Those living in the New York area should certainly take the opportunity to attend one of Monika Ryan’s live performances where her impact is likely to be strong.
https://jazzjournal.co.uk/2023/07/10/monika-ryan-playfully/

Playfully

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Teddy Charles - The Many Sides of Teddy Charles

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 80:55
Size: 186,1 MB
Art: Front

( 8:07) 1. Blues Become Elektra
( 7:00) 2. Bobalob
( 7:52) 3. Staggers
( 4:18) 4. Free
( 7:39) 5. Arlene
(11:42) 6. Blue Grens
( 3:17) 7. Speak Low
( 5:07) 8. Skylark
( 9:18) 9. Old Devil Moon
( 5:39) 10. Further Out
( 6:25) 11. No More Nights
( 4:27) 12. Wailing Dervish

Teddy Charles, along with Milt Jackson and Terry Gibbs, extended the legacies of Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo and established the gold standard for modern jazz vibraphonists. Charles was also an innovative composer and arranger whose recordings were some of the most forward looking and highly regarded of the 1950s, especially his Tentet sessions for the Atlantic label in 1956. His versatility is demonstrated by the broad spectrum of musicians with whom he worked during his career ranging from jazz luminaries such as Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, and Gunther Schuller to rhythm and blues stars including Aretha Franklin, Chuck Willis, and Earl Bostic.

Although I have been unable to obtain session details for the discography, Charles recalls doing many recording dates with pop, soul and rock artists including Bobby Vinton, Dion and the Belmonts, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Paul Simon, Diahann Carroll, Betty Barney and organist Ethel Smith. Teddy Charles also produced and supervised many recording dates involving artists such as John Coltrane, Zoot Sims and Howard McGhee, mainly for the Prestige, Bethlehem and Warwick labels. In the 1960s, Charles returned to his other passion in life, sailing.

For years, he was occupied with the maintenance and operation of the Mary E, an historic 72-foot clipper schooner built in 1906. He sold that vessel recently (January 2007) and conducted tours of the Peconic Bay estuary on the historic skipjack Pilgrim. On April 23, 2003, Charles performed in a trio setting with clarinetist Perry Robinson and bassist Ed Schuller at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City. Robinson and Charles had never worked together before this event. It was fascinating to hear the interactions between the unabashedly "outside" clarinetist and the more controlled but still adventurous Charles. On April 17, 2005, Teddy Charles performed with the Tony DiGregorio Trio (Tony DiGregorio, guitar; Tony Oblaney, bass; Keith Dorgan, drums) at DEKK in TrBeCa.

The quartet swung compellingly through a variety of jazz standards on a lovely, warm afternoon in lower Manhattan. Teddy Charles often performed at the Scrimshaw Restaurant in Greenport, NY with trombonist Bob Hovey, pianist Neil Ralph and drummer Andy Collier. Charles appeared as a special guest with the Chris Byars Quartet at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City on October 12 & 13, 2007. Performing some of Charles's own compositions, the ensemble included John Mosca on trombone, Ari Roland on bass and Stefan Schatz on drums with Chris Byars on alto, tenor and soprano saxophones and flute. Teddy Charles passed on April 16, 2012.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/teddy-charles/

The Many Sides of Teddy Charles

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Caity Gyorgy & Mark Limacher - You're Alike, You Two

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:43
Size: 85,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:39) 1. Nobody Else But Me
(4:13) 2. A Fine Romance
(2:47) 3. Yesterdays
(4:04) 4. I'll Be Hard To Handle
(3:30) 5. You Couldn't Be Cuter
(4:23) 6. Bill
(3:08) 7. I'm Old Fashioned
(3:51) 8. April Fooled Me
(3:53) 9. Pick Yourself Up
(3:10) 10. The Bartender

Do you like scat singing? My Mum absolutely hates it the wordless vocal improvisation featured on so many of Ella Fitzgerald’s sides (which she loves, by the way) are, in her words, “just din.” In fact, much to my chagrin, Mum sometimes says the same about jazz in general. (And yet she has so many of Ella’s records. She adores Nat King Cole and is partial to both Eva Cassidy and Dean Martin, too figure that one out).

I like scat singing and believe, like many people, that Ella’s contribution sits comfortably within its topmost tier. Caity Gyorgy (pronounced George) clearly feels the same way, for her latest record opens with a whole bunch of scat. And it’s remarkably good I first put this record on to soundtrack the washing up, but quickly downed the scrubbing brush when Gyorgy’s aural acrobatics began. If the International Olympic Committee gave out medals for vocal gymnastics as well as artistic, rhythmic, trampoline etc., then Canada would be taking gold this year.

Hailing from Calgary, singer-songwriter Gyorgy recently became the youngest ever two-time winner of the JUNO for Best Vocal Jazz Album, for last year’s Featuring (having previously won with Now Pronouncing: Caity Gyorgy in 2022). And it’s clear to hear why: her pristine vocals have a breathy clarity, precision and dynamic range to rival Ella herself and that isn’t a comparison any halfway respectable jazz critic makes lightly. No tonic interval is beyond Gyorgy’s nimble navigation, whether sung or scatted. She reminds me of one of those stunt drivers who parallel parks by handbrake turning at high speed and just whipping the car in.

You’re Alike, You Two is a duet record celebrating the music of Jerome Kern, featuring piano accompaniment by Mark Limacher a departure from the award-winning formula of Gyorgy’s two previous records, which both featured full bands. But if the Canadian singer took a chance on employing a single musician, she picked the right one. Limacher, the keyboardist and music director at Theater Calgary, appears regularly with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, when he isn’t composing for the same or else hosting award-winning radio shows and podcasts.

His playing is, as one might expect from such an impressive résumé, delightfully deft, filling every little gap between and beneath Gyorgy’s vocalizations with exactly the right amount of music while never once impinging on them. His uncomplicated comping and melodious improvisations are precisely the kind of playing I aspire to (and make me realize that I use my piano’s sustain pedal far too much, filling space with sound to compensate for a comparative lack of skill).

If any doubt remained about Gyorgy’s Fitzgerald fandom, the album features several tunes more or less famously performed by the First Lady of Song. “Yesterdays,” “A Fine Romance,” “Hard to Handle,” “You Couldn’t Be Cuter,” and “I’m Old Fashioned” all appear, and all are superbly sparse reinterpretations. The record’s other numbers are equally listenable and include “Nobody Else But Me” (as sung by Sarah Vaughan), “Bill” (by Annette Warren, in Showboat), and “April Fooled Me” (à la Dorothy Fields).

I think “Pick Yourself Up” must be my personal highlight, ending as it does with a tremendous crescendo of voice and piano, capped off with a thwack of the bottom F from Limacher and a barely audible chuckle from Gyorgy, who was obviously as delighted with the track’s conclusion as I was.

Album closer “The Bartender” is a Gyorgy original, taking a swipe at certain detractors who called her double JUNO win fluke and who discount her talent on account of her young age. “So you think I lack experience / in the land of bar room escapades,” she begins, “Well I love a classic as much as the next.” The lyrics go on to blast the haters who “oppose what [they] fear” “cannot endorse what has not been aged years,” all delivered through the clever metaphor of fixing the listener a cocktail an Old Fashioned, obviously.

It’s a cleverly subtle diss track with a lovely melody, which proves Gyorgy to be as capable a writer of old-timey jazz as she is a singer of it. (Her JUNO-winners were both self-penned, by the way.) If Caity Gyorgy isn’t someone already on your radar, then she should be. Look for her work in all good record stores particularly this delightful disc. By Dave Doyle
https://syncopatedtimes.com/caity-gyorgy-mark-limacher-youre-alike-you-two/

You're Alike, You Two

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