Chris Standring - Wonderful World

Styles: Guitar Jazz, Jazz Funk
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:05
Size: 117,9 MB
Art: Front

(4:54) 1. How Insensitive
(5:50) 2. Night & Day
(4:49) 3. Autumn in New York
(4:44) 4. Estate
(4:47) 5. What a Wonderful World
(3:54) 6. Green Dolphin Street
(4:16) 7. Alfie
(4:40) 8. Falling in Love with Love
(4:56) 9. Sunrise
(3:40) 10. Maxine
(4:30) 11. My Foolish Heart

Wonderful World, the fourteenth album as leader by British guitarist Chris Standring, was no doubt recorded with the best of intentions. And make no mistake, the music is warm and lovely, furnishing an opulent showcase for Standring's mellow guitar. Aside from that, however, there's not a whole lot to say. Standring's "orchestra" consists of a nineteen-member string section, while Geoff Gascoyne's syrupy arrangements call to mind popular string-laden sessions from the 1950s and '60s, "easy listening" albums for "late-night lovers" designed by Percy Faith, Jackie Gleason, Bobby Hackett and others, except this time there's a guitar leading the way instead of a trumpet, oboe or English horn. It's a step removed from Mantovani or the 101 Strings orchestra.

Besides the strings, Standring is supported on various tracks by bassists Gascoyne, Chuck Berghofer or Darek Oles and drummers Peter Erskine, Harvey Mason or David Karasony, but their primary task is to keep time while the orchestra plays and Standring solos. Berghofer does have one brief solo, on Cole Porter's "Night and Day." Elsewhere, it's basically all Standring all the time, save for a brief guest appearance by flugelhornist Randy Brecker on Standring's slow-breaking "Sunrise." Of the album's eleven tunes, only one "On Green Dolphin Street" pushes forward more rapidly than a ballad.

The others from Jobim's "How Insensitive" to the standards "Autumn in New York," "Falling in Love with Love" and "My Foolish Heart" to "Estate," Burt Bacharach/Hal David's theme from "Alfie" and Donald Fagen's "Maxine" assume the same hushed and reposeful stance, calmly awaiting the entrance of Standring's genteel and melodious manifestos. The atmosphere is so even-tempered that the drummers could have left their sticks at home, as brushes alone even "On Green Dolphin Street" are more than adequate. There is one vocal, by Kathrin Shorr on the title song. As noted, the music is charming, and Standring is a splendid guitarist, but Wonderful World is best suited for those who are happiest living on a diet comprised solely of tender ballads and love songs. By Jack Bowers
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/wonderful-world-chris-standring-ultimate-vibe

Personnel: Chris Standring: guitar; Geoff Gascoyne: bass; Randy Brecker: trumpet; Peter Erskine: drums; Harvey Mason: drums; David Karasony: drums; Chuck Berghofer: bass, acoustic; Darek Oles: bass; Kathrin Shorr: voice / vocals

Wonderful World

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Geoff Gascoyne - Keep It To Yourself

Styles: Contemporary Jazz
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:12
Size: 143,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:37) 1. Raggedy Ann
(4:02) 2. Love Won't Let Me Wait
(2:51) 3. God Only Knows
(4:02) 4. E Flat Triangle
(3:41) 5. Spring Is Here
(4:02) 6. Shapeshifter
(3:35) 7. Tribulation
(2:38) 8. All My Tomorrows
(6:04) 9. Lament
(4:26) 10. Keep It To Yourself
(4:31) 11. I'll Sing You
(3:10) 12. Somebody's Gotta Move
(4:41) 13. Theme From 'The Terminal
(3:29) 14. Scrapple From The Apple
(6:16) 15. Frankie & Johnny (Bonus Track)

Geoff Gascoyne is Jamie Cullum's bassist, and the leader of his regular band. Returning the favour Cullum turns up on two tracks here, and supplies the liner notes. But though the singer gives this set something of his familiar late-night soul-ballad spin (he sings Love Won't Let Me Wait and the Beach Boys' God Only Knows, the latter against a Gascoyne strings arrangement), and there are other guest vocalists in Trudy Kerr and the indestructible Georgie Fame, Keep It to Yourself feels like an open, if orthodox, exercise in instrumental jazzy swing, with some fine playing from pianist Tom Cawley, saxophonist Steve Kaldestad, trumpeter Martin Shaw and Gascoyne himself.

The sound of 1960s Blue Note soul-jazz hovers in the background, and Kaldestad suggests the smoky sound and leisurely pacing of that label's underrated sax master Hank Mobley on the train-rhythm hustle of Raggedy Ann or in Fame's Mose Allison cover Somebody's Gotta Move. Gascoyne's immaculate, full-bodied bass sound drives the music, and Cawley has rarely played better - both in his metallically Monkish solos (check out his playing on the fast, boppish E Flat Triangle) and in his creative prodding behind other improvisers. Fame achieves as much by insinuation as declaration on his two songs, and hangs so engagingly loosely around the beat that he seems about to fall asleep. Perhaps a bit too self-consciously a something-for-everyone set, but plenty of fine jazz for the cognoscenti. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/oct/14/jazz.shopping

Personnel: Geoff Gascoyne (acoustic bass); Gavyn Wright, Jackie Shave (violin); David Daniels (cello); Steve Kaldestad (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Martin Shaw (trumpet, flugelhorn); Tom Cawley (piano). Audio Mixers: Derek Nash; Geoff Gascoyne.; Liner Note Author: Jamie Cullum.

Keep It To Yourself

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