Deborah Shulman - The Shakespeare Project

Styles: Vocal 
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:21
Size: 104,6 MB
Art: Front

(6:46)  1. All the World's a Stage / If Music Be the Food of Love - As You Like It & Twelfth Night
(3:17)  2. Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind - As You Like It
(4:50)  3. Dunsinane Blues - The Story of Macbeth
(4:37)  4. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day - Sonnet 18
(1:55)  5. Who is Sylvia - Two Gentlemen of Verona
(4:01)  6. You Spotted Snakes - A Midsummer Night's Dream
(3:43)  7. When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought - Sonnet 30
(2:49)  8. Sigh No More Ladies - Much Ado About Nothing
(3:13)  9. Oh Mistress Mine - Twelfth Night
(2:41) 10. My Love is as a Fever - Sonnet 147
(3:59) 11. Take All My Loves - Sonnet 40
(3:26) 12. Our Revels Now Are Ended - The Tempest

William Shakespeare's works have generated many musical endeavors. Duke Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder (Columbia Records, 1957) and Leonard Bernstein's score for West Side Story are among those which come to mind. In 1941, British composer Arthur Young recorded Shakespeare in Swing (Decca Records, 1941), which featured his compositions over Shakespeare's words. And, in 1964, celebrated British reed player John Dankworth and his wife, Cleo Laine, recorded Shakespeare and All that Jazz, (Fontana Records, 1964), a collection predominantly of Dankworth's jazz tunes with lyrics taken from Shakespeare. With The Shakespeare Project, vocalist Deborah Shulman not only resurrects and refreshes some of the Young/Dankworth-Lane efforts, but adds some terrific new originals from pianist/co-producer, Jeff Colella. Starting with a track which combines Dankworth's "All the World's a Stage" around the up-tempo "If Music Be the Food of Love," it is obvious that this is not going to be a novelty or an over-intellectualized effort. The upbeat tone continues with the modal and swinging, "Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind," which features tasty guitar work from Larry Koonse. Dankworth's "Dunsinane Blues" is an azure head-tilter with Shulman and pianist Collela soulful. The ballad "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" is a textured, dramatic highlight on which Shulman and all shine bright. A challenge which is met exceptionally well here is Shulman's vocal approach to the 16th century lyric. Her voice is very attractive and swinging. The manner in which she caresses the lyrics is exceptional. Dankworth's "Who Is Sylvia?" is an inquisitive, theatrical Laboriel/Shulman duo. His "You Spotted Snakes" is darker fare with tasty ensemble backing. "When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought," a Colella original, is an introspective piano/vocal duet. Arthur Young's, "Sigh No More Ladies" is a bossa nova swinger with a fine Bob McChesney trombone solo and "Oh, Mistress Mine" is delivered in a lilting swing-groove with Shulman's ace piping and another fine McChesney ride. 

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's "My Love Is a Fever" and the swinging "Take All My Loves" were also recorded by Dankworth and Lane and are given a fine fresh coat here. Although the lingo served here is near a half-millennium old, Shulman and her team make this rendering as delicious as fresh-baked Elizabethan pie. Go ahead and pull out a plum. ~ Nicholas F.Mondello https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-shakespeare-project-deborah-shulman-summit-records-review-by-nicholas-f-mondello.php

Personnel: Deborah Shulman: vocals; Jeff Colella, piano; Larry Koonse: guitar; Abraham Laboriel: bass (1, 3, 5, 10, 11); Chris Colangelo: bass (2-4, 6, 7, 12); Bob Sheppard: flute, clarinet, soprano sax, bass clarinet; Bob McChesney: trombone; Kendall Kay: drums (2, 3 ,6, 9, 12); Joe LaBarbera: drums (1, 8, 10, 11).

The Shakespeare Project

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Deborah Shulman - 2 For The Road

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:33
Size: 137,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:01)  1. Two For The Road
(3:36)  2. Haven't We Met
(3:23)  3. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year
(4:59)  4. I'm Through With Love
(3:02)  5. You Don't Know What Love Is
(6:11)  6. Where Do You Start
(5:46)  7. The Meaning Of The Blues
(4:44)  8. Something Cool
(2:41)  9. I Wish I Were In Love Again
(3:07) 10. Boy Next Door
(2:54) 11. I Like You, You're Nice
(5:15) 12. Here I Am In Love Again
(3:36) 13. In the Wee Small Hours
(5:11) 14. Some Other Time

Deborah Shulman, Singer, Recording Artist, Vocal Coach Growing up in Los Angeles, Deborah Shulman had the great fortune to be nurtured by a family with a very deep passion for music. Her late parents, both singers, lived in the back of their little music store at Carnegie Hall as newlyweds; her father had aspirations of joining the Metropolitan Opera before WWII intervened in his plan. Considering the family tree includes vaudevillians, a Broadway actor, and music lovers of all stripes, it’s easy to believe the Shulman family lore which says baby Deborah was singing before she was talking. When Deborah visited her grandfather, the renowned violin collector Nathan Posner, at his home in Beverly Hills, she’d sit surrounded by the magnificent instruments and sing her heart out. He made her feel like the world’s greatest singer, though he quietly hoped she would become a violinist. Today, Deborah Shulman is a successful singer and recording artist with an eclectic, international resume. 

The nurturing Deborah received paid off in a more unexpected way for the music world as well: as a vocal coach, Deborah is in demand by the dozens of professional and aspiring singers who come to her for guidance in overcoming large and small vocal challenges.Deborah developed and refined her coaching skills throughout the history of her own training beginning at age eleven, under the deft tutelage of her father (Irving Shulman). At age thirteen, Deborah Shulman became the youngest student ever accepted to The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California where she studied opera with an esteemed faculty. In the idyllic Central Coast setting, with guitar virtuosos Pepe, Celin and Angel Romero in residence, Deborah grew enamored of the sound of classical guitar, and developed her attraction to song cycles, while enjoying the camaraderie of great artists and students. She also unsuspectingly began to lay the foundation of her own success as a teacher based on her father’s style wherein simple, joyful instruction supplants doubt and apprehension. Deborah jumped into the marketplace while still a student, and sang and auditioned at every opportunity. She hopskotched from operatic soprano and recitalist to pop songstress, musical theater comedienne and back again. She loved Schubert and Judy Garland, Schumann and Barbra Streisand. 

At 15, she attended the Musical Theater Workshop at UCLA with classmates Bonnie Franklin, Judy Kaye and John Rubinstein, and then returned to her roots soon after in the opera program at Cal State Northridge. At the age of 23, when Deborah met the successful actress and singer Ann Jillian at the Civic Light Opera Workshop at the Music Center, she had already been studying professionally for ten years. The two formed a musical partnership that seemed like just what the doctor ordered for a young woman weary from a decade of intense musical study: a way for Deborah to make a living in music, travel the world and blow off a lot of steam that had accumulated. The two singers played clubs for years in London, Sydney, Manila, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco under the name Jillian and Shulman and often opened for stars Johnny Ray, Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence, delivering the wholesome brand of torch that was their specialty. When Jillian left to strike out on her own, Deborah quickly retooled the act as a solo, donned an army issue parka, and took off for the Aleutian Islands on a USO Tour. Later, back in the lower forty eight, Deborah began to pursue more theatrical and musical roles, appearing in many productions with The Actors Alley in Los Angeles. Among her musical theater roles, she portrayed Jellylorum in the second National Company of CATS at the Schubert Theater in Los Angeles. She found success in many other areas of the business as well, including as a librettist for four children’s operas and co-producer of the critically acclaimed L.A. production and National Tour of All Night Strut. 

She began her coaching career with the help of her friend, voice coach Seth Riggs. Her reputation as a generous, skilled teacher became well known and her vocal clientele has grown to include Bette Midler, Linda Ronstadt, Jennifer Warnes; Deborah received a platinum album for her work with David Lee Roth on his recording SKYSCRAPER. Recently, Deborah Shulman found herself to be a startled divorcée and a grieving orphan within the span of a few years. After the unexpected end of her first marriage Deborah comforted herself by listening to standards; the lyrics spoke to her and she was drawn by their truth and tenderness. For Deborah, it was the beginning of a journey forward by calling on the past for strength. In 2004 she teamed up with pianist Terry Trotter, in a collaboration which has produced two sophisticated, elegant recordings: 2004’s 2 for the road, and the brand new My Heart’s In The Wind. Trotter, the jazz pianist known for his interpretation of Sondheim scores, gently coaxed Deborah to use her considerable musical knowledge in a new way. They began to record piano vocal tracks, and Deborah’s mother and father were able to enjoy the beginning of her reinvention before they passed on within six months to the day of each other. Deborah’s liner notes described her inspiration for 2 for the road : “This is my story, my journey, a divorce I never thought would happen;grief, the kind I had only read about; a strength I never knew I had, and a new love, a new beginning and a new marriage.”

Trotter and Shulman recorded 2 for the road in Los Angeles in the highly regarded company of guitarist Larry Koonse, bassist Tom Warrington, and drummer Joe LaBarbara. On 2007’s My Heart’s In The Wind, the same personnel appear, with the exception of the bassist; instead we are treated to the talent of Kenny Wild. Deborah’s affinity for song cycles is celebrated throughout the pacing of the repertoire on both recordings. Rob Lester described Deborah’s debut online at Talkin’Broadway.com: “Silky, subtle, sophisticated and shimmering, Deborah Shulman is pure pleasure to hear if you love a love song sung with an adult been-there, done-that sensibility. She can explore a sad lyric without over-doing the sorrow or skimping on the pure musicality. 2 for the road is a thoroughly classy affair….beginning with the album’s rich, romantic embrace of its Mancini/Mercer title song, to its closer “Some Other Time” from On The Town, this is an album with so many impressive, detailed moments.” On My Heart’s In The Wind, Deborah continued her embrace of classic American Songbook, with selections like “A Sleepin’ Bee,” and “My One And Only Love.” Yet she skillfully expanded her repertoire to include under sung jewels like Mandel’s “The Shining Sea,” Dave Frishberg’s “You are There, ” and “Shiver Me Timbers” by Tom Waits. 

In support of her recordings, Deborah has been performing in a variety of California clubs, including Spazio’s Restaurant in Sherman Oaks, Holly Street Bar & Grill in Pasadena, Club 10/20 at the Bel Age Hotel in Los Angeles, Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, The Hollywood Studio Bar and Grill, and Peter’s in Palm Springs. She recently made her New York debut at Barnes and Nobles Lincoln Center Location, featured in their Any Wednesday series of live performances by emerging and established artists. Deborah is enjoying her twelfth year on the faculty of Joe Malone’s Performing Arts Center, where she designed and teaches voice classes for professional dancers. Her successful curriculum utilizes the basic tenets organic to her style: simplicity and joy in learning. As in her private lessons, she uses her technique to build on an individual’s knowledge and gifts.  http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=16785#.U0HMZldSvro

2 For The Road

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Deborah Shulman & The Ted Howe Trio - Get Your Kicks: The Music & Lyrics Of Bobby Troup

Size: 114,9 MB
Time: 49:06
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Jazz: Vocals
Art: Front

01. You're Looking At Me (5:11)
02. Route 66 (3:34)
03. Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast (3:08)
04. Daddy (3:43)
05. Baby All The Time (5:09)
06. Girl Talk (5:19)
07. Lemon Twist (4:15)
08. February Brings The Rain (3:06)
09. The Three Bears (4:58)
10. It Happened Once Before (5:41)
11. Meaning Of The Blues (4:56)

Songwriter Bobby Troup was a master at composing conversational lyrics, and vocalist Deborah Shulman is a master at interpreting such lyrics. That the two come together on Get Your Kicks: The Music and Lyrics of Bobby Troup should be no surprise; also, it is about time that Troup received an homage treatment like this. His lyrics were always 1950s chic, written in a day before political correctness ended the evolution and expansion of the Great American Songbook. What Shulman does is bring an honest understanding of both a music and its period of popularity.

Ted Howe joins Shulman again after their collaboration with trombonist Larry Zalkind on Lost In The Stars: The Music Of Bernstein, Weill & Sondheim (Summit, 2012). Here, leading his trio, Howe's approach to arrangement is striking and illustrated in the rather dark "Route 66" and pathologically forlorn "Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast." In Shulman's hands these are ballads of experience—too much, in fact, rather than a blushing socialite after an evening tryst.

One of Troup's most striking and controversial songs, "Girl Talk" is give a golden treatment, with Shulman navigating the period's sexism and making the song more ironic than a 1950s vision of women in the Eisenhower era. Get Your Kicks: The Music and Lyrics of Bobby Troup is a wholly conceived project by two masters at the top of their respective games. ~Review by C. Michael Bailey

Personnel: Deborah Shulman: vocals; Ted Howe: piano; Kevin Axt: bass; Dave Tull: drums.

Get Your Kicks

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Deborah Shulman & Larry Zalkind - Lost In The Stars: The Music Of Bernstein, Weill & Sondheim

Size: 159,1 MB
Time: 67:54
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2012
Styles: Jazz: Vocals
Art: Front

01. Something's Coming (3:53)
02. Lucky To Be Me (6:03)
03. Mack The Knife (5:44)
04. The Ladies Who Lunch (3:29)
05. Children Will Listen (5:17)
06. It's Love (4:21)
07. I Feel Pretty (5:35)
08. Losing My Mind (5:34)
09. September Song (4:34)
10. Ain't Got No Tears Left (4:42)
11. My Ship (2:28)
12. Leave You (4:42)
13. Lost In The Stars (5:08)
14. Medley No One Is Alone - Not While I'm Around (6:18)

The respective output from compositional icons Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Weill and, to a lesser extent, Stephen Sondheim has frequently been putty in jazz musicians' and arrangers' hands, proving that malleability is a sine qua non for long-range success in writing; genius-level composing skills, of course, also tend to help.

While the actual act of interpreting the work of these three men is hardly original at this point, the fashion by which vocalist Deborah Shulman, trombonist Larry Zalkind and their talented compatriots dig into their music is wholly unique. They look at each of these fourteen selections as individual opportunities to honor each composer's original intention, while painting their own innovative brushstrokes atop these masterworks. While it would be easy to commit to a single strategy for a project like this, be it art song haughtiness, classical stringency or out-and-out nightclub jazz, Shulman and Zalkind take the high road, touching on everything but committing to no single avenue or approach. Zalkind's tone, honed through his work as the principal trombonist with the Utah Symphony, and Shulman's theatrical delivery hide no secrets about their respective stylistic comfort zones, but both artists prove to be just as malleable as the songs they interpret.

Four different arrangers were tapped for this project and each man brings something different to the table. Jeff Colella gives "Something's Coming" a terrific odd-metered makeover and brings a light-handed approach to "I Feel Pretty," while Terry Trotter moves "It's Love" from easy-does-it swing to Brazilian shores. Brad Warnaar turns "My Ship" into a rich and rewarding piece for a Zalkind overdubbed trombone choir, and Ted Howe removes the happy-go-lucky-swing shackles that often keep "Mack The Knife" from reaching its full potential. Here, it's reborn with chamber grace, riding atop a flowing 12/8 feel with graceful strings, accordion and, of course, trombone, helping to resurface its well-worn exterior.

Studio aces like guitarist Larry Koonse and drummer Joe LaBarbera deserve some credit for helping to shape and mold these songs into their final state, but this is really the Shulman and Zalkind show. Shulman's clear diction and artful interpretations of these songs, and Zalkind's fine and focused trombone work make for a winning combination. ~Review by Dan Bilawsky

Personnel: Deborah Shulman: vocals; Larry Zalkind: trombone; Jeff Colella: piano; Chris Colangelo: bass; Joe LaBarbera: drums; Larry Koonse: guitar; Roberta Zalkind: viola; Matthew Zalkind: cello; Frank Marocco: accordion; Steve Schaeffer: drums; Terry Trotter: piano.

Lost In The Stars

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