Year: 2021
Time: 46:09
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 106,9 MB
Art: Front
(2:52) 1. Fine and Dandy
(4:16) 2. Honeysuckle Rose
(5:45) 3. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
(3:15) 4. Sing, Sing, Sing
(2:46) 5. Pick Yourself Up
(5:36) 6. Somebody's Crying
(3:43) 7. Let's Face the Music and Dance
(3:19) 8. Four Brothers
(2:26) 9. Drum Boogie
(4:04) 10. Tenderly
(3:27) 11. Whisper Not
(4:34) 12. Tea for Two
"I saw Anita O'Day live in 1987, at Teatro Principal in Valencia. Her and clarinetist Buddy DeFranco were the guest artists in tour with Woody Herman’s Orchestra, which was then led by Frank Tiberi. I barely knewher then; she looked like a nice old grandma, but I wasn’t impressed. Almost 70 then, her best days were behind her. I discovered her little by little, thanks to the wonderful albums that I slowly managed to get my hands on, and to films like Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1960), where a hat with feathers, a pair of white gloves and a black cocktail dress became the iconic get-up that today we associated with her.
In any case, for those of us without ties to her and her times, her independent character, her defiance of apartheid, her addiction problems and her flashes of genius on stage feel very far away. For us, Anita O'Day means mainly a vocal style. A style that share with Billie Holiday the limitations of their tone and timbre —as well as the creative solutions to overcome them—, with Ella Fitzgerald the passion of rhythm, and with Mel Tormé the overwhelming imagination necessary to recreate well-known songs and turn theminto one surprise after another.
Teresa Luján is also an independent soul among us. A singer who spends her time teaching and investigating —she is one of the foremost experts in Tete Montoliu when she decides to face an audience, it is always after careful consideration of the project. She is not particularly keen on experimenting, butwhen she looks back in search of inspiration, there isn’t a hint of nostalgia in her eye. Her interest in Henry Mancini or the Boswell sisters is focused on the more timeless aspects of their work. Now, with her tribute to Anita O'Day she wants to highlight just how modern she was.
This CD also represents a step forward in Teresa Lujan’s career as a singer. For the first time she is confronting an artistwith a similar stylistic frame, range and color to her own. Although Teresa’s voice has a deeper timbre and a more pronounced vibrato, she manages to sidestep the main danger in this endeavor, which was imitation. And she does so using her strongest suit, which she also shares with her admired O’Day: the more jazz-oriented aspects of her craft. And being backed by a trio —and an excellent trio at that,withMiano, Ferrer and Pérez, experts inmaking the music walk— a fresh, swinging approach is guaranteed. When all is said and done, a feeling of freedom pervades their music, and the end result belongs to all of them, not taxes, no tolls, no buts.
The choice of songs hearkens back to Anita O'Day, but with subtle innovations with respect to her better-known versions. The first three tracks were already on the LP 'Anita' (1956), with orchestrations by Buddy Bregman and some tunes for small group. Teresa Luján’s «Fine and Dandy» still uses the original arrangement, but focusing more on the pure vocal sensuality of the first bars, to later go into a beautiful scat that remindsme of Chet Baker. From the initial walkin’ bass, «Honeysuckle Rose» also sounds like the 1956 arrangement, but Teresa adds a vocal solo, followed by two more by Richi Ferrer and Fabio Miano. «A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square» is the first ballad,which lets Teresa showmore of her personality, her range of colors and phrasing, as she let’s herself be dragged by the beautiful melody, never straying too far from the intimacy that O'Day imparted to her own version. (tbc: https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/teresa-lujan-albums/53998-sings-anita-o-day.html)
Personnel:
Teresa Luján (vocals), Fabio Miano (piano), Richi Ferrer (bass), Julio Pérez (drums).
Recorded at Infinity Estudios, Madrid, June & September 2019
Teresa Luján Sings Anita O'Day
