Jane Stuart - Beginning To See The Light

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 42:33
Size: 97.4 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[2:32] 1. I'm Beginning To See The Light
[5:12] 2. Out Of This World
[2:02] 3. Four
[3:56] 4. For All We Know
[2:38] 5. Getting To Know You
[4:31] 6. Visions
[3:03] 7. Moanin'
[4:32] 8. Through A Long And Sleepless Night
[0:24] 9. Studio Talk
[2:49] 10. I Thought About You
[4:16] 11. It Might As Well Be Spring
[2:45] 12. Angel Eyes
[3:48] 13. Centerpiece

Jane Stuart has been awarded the Blue Chip Award for "Best Jazz Vocalist" IAJE/Jazz Journal. Jane sings with effortless style,natural warmth and phrasing that is subtle and right on target. She's the real deal. "Beginning To See The Light", produced and arranged by Jane Stuart and Rave Tesar, is a wonderfully mixed selection of jazz standards by Jon Hendricks, Duke Ellington, Bobbie Timmons, Stevie Wonder, Mack Gordon, Rodgers & Hammerstein II and Harold Arlen. Choice of material and pacing of this CD put it in a class above the rest. Jane Stuart is a wonderful find and this CD long overdue. The rhythm section is tight driven by Rick De Kovessey's fine drum work. The excellent musicianship is sensitive and very tasty. It's obvious that they have a strong musical history together. Horn section with Frank Elmo, Vinnie Cutro, Conrad Zulauf and Dan Nigro, is solid on the one tune, "Moanin'". Soloists are all unique and wonderful with a special one on the exhuberent samba "It Might As Well Be Spring", by Lenny Argese. Jane works with her trio, mostly in the NY/NJ area. She also sings with "Reflections", a 19-piece jazz swing band.

Beginning To See The Light

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Jane Stuart - Don't Look Back

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:12
Size: 118,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:54)  1. I Just Found Out About Love
(3:35)  2. Experiment
(4:58)  3. Eleanor Rigby
(4:37)  4. Don't Look Back
(5:44)  5. Bird Of Beauty
(4:02)  6. Let It Come To You
(3:58)  7. Who Will Buy
(4:08)  8. Wheelers And Dealers
(2:48)  9. You Are there
(5:37) 10. Summertime
(4:43) 11. I'll Follow The Sun
(3:02) 12. I Didn't Know What Time It Was

From the opening bars of "I Just Found Out About Love," Jane Stuart takes control of this sophisticated collection of tunes with a voice that oozes style, confidence and emotional strength. Don't Look Back brings Stuart together with an empathic group of musicians, the arrangements are always interesting and at times inspired, and the conclusion is clear: this is a great vocal jazz album. Stuart has a long history as a dancer, actor and singer she was performing on TV at the age of five but her first album, the self-produced Beginning to See The Light, didn't appear until 2007. Her style is mainstream, informed by pop and by Broadway, and characterized by a clarity and control that ensures she invests each lyric with honest emotion. She sings with subtle but effective shifts in tone, emphasis or volume that immediately communicate the story there's no need for vocal acrobatics or showboating, and Stuart indulges in neither of them. 

Her performance of Johnny Mandel's "Don't Look Back" is absolutely beautiful. Sad but hopeful, her voice is superbly engaging: the restrained, gentle backing from drummer Rick De Kovessey, percussionist Emedin Rivera, bassist Kermit Driscoll and pianist Rave Tesar is the perfect accompaniment. The song selection takes from the Great American Songbook, musical theatre and pop classics. Stuart's own "Let It Come To You" is a ballad of regret that shares a lineage with Gene de Paul's "You Don't Know What Love Is." She removes Lionel Bart's "Who Will Buy" from its stage musical origins, gives it a slinky arrangement and brings in tenor saxophonist Frank Elmo to add a rasping, high-energy solo. Stuart's reworking of two songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney is intriguing. Her arrangement of "Eleanor Rigby" slows it down, builds in delicate and spacious guitar from Dave Stryker and invests it with more glamour than this sad tale of loneliness usually receives, while her treatment of the lesser-known "I'll Follow The Sun" is genuinely fresh. 

The original is pretty, light and optimistic; here, Stuart turns it into a torch ballad, delivering a vocal performance of such emotional intensity that it seems as if she is telling of her own personal heartbreak. ~ Bruce Lindsay  

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39075#.UkA7GxAkI5c

Personnel: Jane Stuart: vocals; Rave Tesar: keyboards, background vocals; Dick Oatts: alto saxophone, flute; Frank Elmo: tenor saxophone; Dave Stryker: guitar; Emedin Rivera: percussion, whistles; Rick De Kovessey: drums, background vocals; Sue Williams: bass (1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 12); Kermit Driscoll: bass (3-6, 11); Orlando Quinones: background vocals; Paige Sandusky: background vocals.

Don't Look Back

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