Showing posts with label Glennis Houston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glennis Houston. Show all posts

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Glennis Houston - Lies Of Handsome Men

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 56:12
Size: 128.7 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[3:58] 1. Bye Bye Blackbird
[3:33] 2. Just Squeeze Me
[4:38] 3. I Want A Sunday Kind Of Love
[4:45] 4. Summertime
[4:04] 5. God Bless The Child
[3:00] 6. The Story's Over
[3:43] 7. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
[3:17] 8. I Love A Piano
[4:43] 9. Cow Cow Boogie
[5:16] 10. Lies Of Handsome Men
[5:50] 11. Twisted
[4:44] 12. Someone Like You
[4:35] 13. Tea For Two

Calgary Jazz singer Glennis Houston grew up listening to jazz and swing as her parents taught ballroom dancing, so she spent many nights listening to the laughter and music emanating from the basement dancing studio. She was always involved in music, in fact, with piano lessons in her childhood and teens, and then studying classical voice culminating with a Masters of Music from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She eventually realized, though, that after throwing her heart and soul into studying classical, her passion lay elsewhere. Thus, her move into jazz, with one of her first forays being the forming of an a cappella women's quartet concentrating on the jazz and swing genres. That group has since disbanded as she pursues work as a jazz vocalist. Glennis has studied with Calgary's Viviane Cardinal and Cheryl Fisher, and has attended the Vocal Jazz camp at the Banff Centre of Fine Arts, where she studied with Jay Clayton and Sheila Jordan. There, she also had the pleasure of working with musicians Randy Halberstadt, Dave Restivo, Mike Lent, and Owen Howard.

Glennis also has a deep love of theatre so upon her move back to Calgary from Colorado in 1995, became involved with Morpheus Theatre as music director for Gilbert & Sullivan shows "The Mikado" and "Pirates of Penzance," Front Row Centre with "Fiddler on the Roof," and Storybook Theatre with their production of "Snoopy." Never one to stay behind the scenes, though, she also pursued theatre work on stage with roles in Storybook's "Charlotte's Web," Gas & Light's "See How They Run" and "Holiday Snap," as well as with Chimaera Productions "Steel Magnolias." She continues to be cast in Pegasus Performances murder mystery/dinner theatre productions throughout Alberta.

Lies Of Handsome Men

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Glennis Houston - I'll Reminisce You

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:22
Size: 116,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:21)  1. Being Green, But Beautiful
(3:42)  2. Beloved
(3:25)  3. Lonely Without You
(4:49)  4. Lullaby for a Boy
(4:54)  5. Since You Walked Out That Door
(3:47)  6. Mockingbird
(4:07)  7. A Slow Blues
(3:42)  8. Oh! Gee!
(5:40)  9. Spare Change
(4:36) 10. Tears of Stone
(2:43) 11. L.O.V.E.
(3:31) 12. I'll Reminisce You

Calgary vocalist Glennis Houston follows up her debut album Lies of Handsome Men (2004, Self-Produced) with a warm session of light contemporary vocal jazz on I'll Reminisce You. Unlike the first disc comprised entirely of standards Houston designs a repertoire of primarily originals with the incorporation of a handful of cover songs touching on bebop, blues and ballads. This second effort actually began in early 2006 but, life got in the way with family, work, education, pursuing a PhD and other such mundane matters preventing her from fulfilling the goal until now. The singer fronts a standard piano trio with Calgary musicians Sheldon Zanboer on piano, Robin Tufts on drums and Simon Fisk on the violin-shaped bass bassetto, recording the album in both a studio as well as in a live setting. Armed with silky vocals, Houston begins this adventure with a ballad medley of a Joe Raposo song and a Burke/Van Heusen standard "Being Green, But Beautiful" where the vocalist delivers a measure of emotion along the way. 

Clifford Brown's up beat classic "Beloved" is in good hands with Houston voicing Meredith d'Ambrosio's lyrics in swinging fashion something this artist does throughout the album. The first of seven original songs on the disc is the lovely "Lonely without You" followed by "Lullaby for a Boy" and "Since You Walked Out That Door," the first another soft ballad and the latter a bluesy number where the singer reaches. One of the livelier songs on the album, "Oh! Gee!" featuring a swinging Houston and handy solo work from Zanboer and Fisk, is clearly a standout tune but, there's more. The singer's interpretation of the standard "L.O.V.E." and the trio's energetic performance, make this track one of the highlights of the recording.  Other moments of notable mention have to be the cover song "Mockingbird" and Houston's own "Tears of Stone" with the love ballad and title finale song voiced from the heart does indeed leave a lasting impression. Though a long time in the works, songbird Glennis Houston's tasteful performance of traditional vocal jazz on I'll Reminisce You, is well worth the wait. Perhaps her next endeavor may not be as long in coming. ~ Edward Blanco   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=46424#.UvonRoW2yNA
 
Personnel: Glennis Houston: vocals; Sheldon Zanboer: piano; Simon Fisk: bassetto; Robin Tufts: drums.