Allegra Levy - Lose My Number

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:48
Size: 119,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:14) 1. Samba De Beach
(5:55) 2. Livin' Small
(8:06) 3. Tiffany
(6:04) 4. Strictly Ballroom
(7:22) 5. C. J.
(7:05) 6. Dover Beach
(4:02) 7. Ukulele Tune
(4:36) 8. Zephyr
(4:21) 9. Lose My Number

Allegra Levy is a young singer who has made a reputation for herself through her witty songwriting and performing. She has sung a lot of her own songs on previous releases but on this one, she changes things slightly by writing her own lyrics to the music of trumpet player John McNeil. McNeil was Levy's mentor at the New England Conservatory and she complements his slightly off-balance tunes with lyrics that range from the dark and sardonic to the emotional and poetic. Levy's voice flows over the twists and turns of McNeil's melodies with the flexible ease of an Annie Ross or Nancy King. She delivers her acid putdowns of a dance partner on "Strictly Ballroom" and some unidentified scoundrel on "C.J." with a carefree breeziness that belies the sting in her words. In contrast to that, she is very good at conjuring quieter moods on other songs. She conveys innocent wistfulness on "Dover Beach" and "Ukulele Tune" and quiet sensuality of "Zephyr" and "Livin' Small." The music becomes especially dreamy on the last song when Levy's singing mixes with the trumpet of John McNeil himself in one of his three guest appearances on the CD.

Outside of McNeil's cameos and an appearance by Pierre Dorge playing ukulele on "Ukulele Tune," the instrumental work is all done by three female musicians. Carmen Staaf plays piano, Carmen Rothwell is on bass and Colleen Clark plays drums. Their work subtly complements the understated emotions and cunning humor in Levy's singing. The three come off strongest on "Lose My Number" itself. They go through abrupt tempo changes, as Levy tells off another man who can't take a hint, her voice suddenly moving between fast and slow. When Levy breaks into giddy scatting, the band flies excitedly alongside her, disintegrating into abstraction beside her flippant coos, before coming back together for a last chorus. This CD is a sly little romp that sways between dark sarcasm and intimate romance, bringing the writing of John McNeil and the singing of Allegra Levy together into an enjoyable package. Jerome Wilson https://www.allaboutjazz.com/lose-my-number-allegra-levy-steeplechase-records.

Personnel: Allegra Levy: voice / vocals; Carmen Staaf: piano; Carmen Rothwell: bass, acoustic; Colleen Clark: drums.

Lose My Number

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Allegra Levy - Cities Between Us

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:42
Size: 147,6 MB
Art: Front

(6:38)  1. Cherry Blossom Song
(5:13)  2. Lullaby of the Orient
(5:24)  3. I Shouldn't Tell You
(4:12)  4. Misery Makes the Music
(5:07)  5. Yesterdays
(5:14)  6. Dear Friend
(5:28)  7. Sleepwalk with Me (In Sek Tong Tsui)
(4:37)  8. Soy Califa
(8:40)  9. Leaving Today
(6:18) 10. Down Sunday
(6:45) 11. Cities Between Us

He continues to move in the wake of tradition including Peggy Lee and Chris Connor the young New York singer and author, a graduate of the New England Conservatory. After the debut of 2014 (Lonely City, SteepleChase) in this second album Allegra changes its organic and expressive climate. The new partners include Kirk Knuffke at the cornet, Jay Anderson on the double bass and Billy Drummond on drums, while the general atmosphere is no longer intimist and melancholic but rhythmically relaxed and full of groove. In this regard Neil Tesser, who wrote the cover notes, notes that the subtitle of the album could be The Lighter Side of Allegra Levy. All the vocal talents expressed in the debut are confirmed: elegant timbral flare, interpretations that alternate lightness and emotional intensity, highlighting flexibility of register, colloquial warmth and good interpretative taste. In the debut album, Allegra also distinguished herself for her talent, which we find here. All songs are his except "Yesterdays" the famous theme of Jerome Kern and another couple of standards, which the singer has provided texts. After a "Cherry Blossom" with a captivating thirties arrangement, they follow the lullaby ballad "Lullaby of the Orient" by Duke Jordan, the first of two arrangements by John McNeil and still "I Should not Tell You" where the intense emerge Stephen Riley's websterian tenor sax and the spirited Knuffke.

Everything flows to the end with a good balance between the vocal and the instrumental dimensions, with interventions always sought after and attentive to melodic values. Translate by Google ~ Angelo Leonardi https://www.allaboutjazz.com/cities-between-us-allegra-levy-steeplechase-records-review-by-angelo-leonardi.php

Personnel: Allegra Levy: vocals; Kirk Knuffke: cornet; Stephen Riley: tenor saxophone; Carmen Staaf: piano; Jay Anderson: bass; Billy Drummond: drums.

Cities Between Us

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Allegra Levy - Looking At The Moon

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:58
Size: 133,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:16)  1. Moon River
(4:09)  2. I Got the Sun in the Morning
(7:34)  3. Harvest Moon
(3:58)  4. Blue Moon
(4:15)  5. Moon Ray
(4:28)  6. Moonlight in Vermont
(4:20)  7. Moonshadow
(4:07)  8. Moonglow
(5:08)  9. Polkadots and Moonbeams
(3:59) 10. No Moon at All
(3:09) 11. It's Only a Paper Moon
(3:47) 12. Pink Moon
(3:43) 13. I'll Be Seeing You

The polar opposite of an ingénue, vocalist Allegra Levy drew more than one ace from the deck on her Steeplechase debut. Both tenorist Stephen Riley and cornetist Kirk Knuffke graced her ensemble for that date and an eclectic folio of songs supplied welcome fodder for everyone’s talents and interpretation. Looking at the Moon scales back and dials in focus both in terms of content and crew. Pianist Carmen Staaf, guitarist Alex Goodman and bassist Tim Norton converge as a rhythm section that’s both responsive to and anticipatory of Levy’s needs as songstress and the warm studio sound enriches a program with a very distinct thematic focus. Johnny Mercer’s “Moon River” is the first of thirteen tunes that relish in an abiding lunar leitmotif. Levy initiates the piece with wordless vocalese followed by a thrumming bass line and chiming accents from Goodman’s high-tuned strings. It’s a clever arrangement coupled to a cleanly-realized conceit and the first of what admirably amounts to a collection of many. 

Relaxed in phrasing and pacing , her voice caresses the lyrics without coddling them and the rendition of the antediluvian ballad takes on the resonance of a lullaby without attendant soporific side-effects. Levy’s attentions aren’t constrained to the dust-dappled pages of the Great American Songbook either as she draws cogently on other genres in observance of the truism that worthy songs exist when and where one finds them. “Harvest Moon” earns the longest interpretation of the set and the braid between Staaf and Goodman is especially incandescent with Norton holding down a buoyant bottom. Levy nearly oversteps in her quiet ornamentations in places, but the foursome pulls it off with plenty of room accorded for Norton to indulge in a calm, callus-kissing solo on his strings.  “Moonshadow” and “Pink Moon” are the other non-jazz entries and Levy has her harmonious way with each, rendering the first in a guise almost unrecognizable to the Cat Stevens original and bearing more resemblance to something Betty Carter might come up with in its measured radicalism. Nick Drake gets a similar revisionist salute as the penultimate piece of the set. 

Norton is once again instrumental (pun-intended) in framing the trajectory, shadowing Levy’s staggered sing-song locution with bulbous punctuations. Staff and Goodman are back for the serene closer “I’ll Be Seeing You,” itself an affable promise that Levy no doubt intends to make good on. ~ Derek Taylor http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/175746192550/allegra-levy-looking-at-the-moon-steeplechase

Looking At The Moon

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Allegra Levy - Lonely City

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2014
File: MP3@256K/s
Time: 53:01
Size: 98,5 MB
Art: Front

(5:10)  1. Anxiety
(3:57)  2. I Don't Want to Be in Love
(5:34)  3. Everything Green
(4:52)  4. A New Face
(5:19)  5. Why Do I
(4:57)  6. A Better Day
(5:16)  7. I'm Not Okay
(4:02)  8. Clear-eyed Tango
(4:26)  9. Lonely City
(4:13) 10. Our Lullabye
(5:10) 11. The Duet

Steep in the traditions of classic jazz interludes, Lonely City from vocalist Allegra Levy resonates with authentic American swing trimmings and smooth blues grooves. If audiences didn’t know any better they’d think Levy’s tunes are all jazz standards, but in fact, the songs are all originals penned by Levy as she brings the jazz of yesteryear into a modern age. The New York City-based singer creates an amalgamation of blues, jazz and soul clad with the sensual vocal stylizing of Nancy Wilson as she synthesizes an intimate atmosphere with nostalgic beauty. Earthy sensations mingle with ethereal dreams in the lyrical content making for a recording that expresses the multiple dimensions of the human soul.  Levy embraces the classic jazz spectrum in “Anxiety” illustrating an American swing palette that is reminiscent of vintage tunes composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer. “I Don’t Want to Be in Love” is an upbeat romp with springy rhythmic grooves and horns that flare with sheer elation. The pop-fringed ballad “Everything Green” is helmed by gentle vocal strokes shrouded in a light sprinkle of keys and strings. The sunny tone of the horns in “A New Face” have an airy vibrancy carried along the wings of gliding keys while the smooth jazz ballad “Why Do I” conveys an introspective mood.

The sparse instrumentation of “A Better Day” is chiseled in flouncy horns and trickling keys which flex a bluesy tone in “I’m Not Okay” as Levy’s vocals progress in waves of suavely driven struts which bring out the woeful state expressed in the lyrical content. An acceptance of fate is conveyed as Levy nurses a deep sadness, “I’m not okay and I never will be / I’m not okay and that’s okay with me / Don’t be a fool and try to save me / I’d rather sit and live the blues God gave me.” Levy sings as though the sorrow is being drowned in gallons of libation. The slow rhythm of “Clear-Eyed Tango” transitions into an Argentine tango preening a gypsy-like shimmy in the zigzagging notes of the strings. The romantic ambiance of the title track is sparked by atmospheric guitar chords and dripping keys as Levy’s vocals purvey a soft simmer reflective of Sara Barielles traveling into the smooth winding ballad of “Our Lullaby.” The pop ballad “The Duet” closes the album looming soft bass notes around Levy’s vocals as gently twinkling keys are entwined in violin swirls creating delicate silhouettes along the track. The frolicking cantor of Levy’s vocals is expressive sharing the impulsive nature of Regina Spektor to improvise along the vocal melody. The songs, though exemplary of classic jazz standards, are modern anthems sharing thoughts of personal conflicts and introspective feelings. Her connection with blues, jazz, swing, and soul creates an intimacy with audiences that is genuine and bridges classic jazz with a modern age. ~  Susan Frances  https://www.axs.com/album-review-lonely-city-from-allegra-levy-27671

Personnel:  Allegra Levy – vocals, Richie Barshay – drums, Jorge Roeder – bass, Adam Kolker – tenor saxophone, Steve Cardenes – guitar, John Bailey – trumpet, Carmen Staaf – piano, Mark Feldman – violin

Lonely City

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