Ray Gelato & Kai Hoffman - Hey Boy! Hey Girl!

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:15
Size: 127,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:25)  1. Hey Boy! Hey Girl!
(2:37)  2. I've Got You Under My Skin
(3:25)  3. You're Just in Love
(4:17)  4. Cold Cold Heart
(4:14)  5. Under a Blanket of Blue
(3:17)  6. They All Laughed
(1:59)  7. Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
(2:45)  8. Nothin's Too Good for My Baby
(3:21)  9. The Lady Is a Tramp
(3:24) 10. Don't Worry 'Bout Me/I'm in the Mood for Love
(3:01) 11. Undecided
(3:24) 12. Frim Fram Sauce
(3:54) 13. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
(4:03) 14. I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire
(3:46) 15. If I Didn't Care
(2:36) 16. That Old Black Magic
(1:37) 17. Hey Boy! Hey Girl! (Reprise)

Hey Boy! Hey Girl! is a fabulous show celebrating the magic of the boy/girl duets. Great artists such as Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong helped to bring this concept great popularity. Ray Gelato, (winner Ronnie Scotts best band, Radio 2 best jazz vocalist nominee), and Kai Hoffman (smoky-voiced award-winning US Diva and Ronnie Scott’s regular) have developed a wonderful, fun show, taking tunes from the great American songbook! You will hear such classics as ‘That Old Black Magic’, ‘I’m in the Mood for Love’, ‘Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off’, and many, many more wonderful tunes. All performed with fun, romance and swing! Hey Boy!, Hey Girl! is sure to rock you out of your seats with Ray and Kai’s fun and jumpin’ renditions of some of your favorite classic songs. The golden age of the vocal duet is back!  http://www.kaihoffman.co.uk/index.php/line-ups/hey-boy-hey-girl/

Hey Boy! Hey Girl!

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Kai Hoffman - Luckiest Girl Alive

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:36
Size: 99.8 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz, R&B
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[3:43] 1. Lucky Lips
[2:07] 2. Jump Jack Jump
[1:59] 3. It's Raining Outside
[2:51] 4. The Night Is Never Long Enough
[2:18] 5. Luckiest Girl Alive
[3:10] 6. Tv Is The Thing This Year
[2:43] 7. Star Of Fortune
[5:01] 8. Late Night Joints
[2:20] 9. I Want You To Be My Baby
[4:42] 10. Seat Of Your Pants
[2:37] 11. Lies Lies Lies
[3:52] 12. Hot Rockin' Diva
[2:29] 13. Deep Sea Ball
[3:38] 14. Drown In My Own Tears

Kai Hoffman: vocals; Dan Faulkner: saxophones, backing vocals; Simon Picton: guitar, backing vocals; Liam Dunachie: piano, backing vocals; Dave O'Brien: bass, backing vocals; Mez Clough: drums, backing vocals; Nina Ferro: backing vocals (2, 5, 10).

Kai Hoffman is the self-confessed Luckiest Girl Alive, or so this album would have it. She certainly sounds like a contender for the title across most of the 14 songs, crafting a definite and infectious feel-good atmosphere along with her quintet. Hoffman was raised in Boston but has been based on London for some years, hosting regular club nights at Ronnie Scott's Club since 2008. Her striking visual image is matched by her musical style—which results from her obvious love of '50s and '60s R&B and rock and roll as well as swinging jazz. Luckiest Girl Alive is her second solo album. It follows Do It While You Can (Broad Reach Records, 2013), but with an all-new set of musicians.

The luckiest girl alive must, almost by definition, have the luckiest lips. Hoffman opens proceedings with a swinging version of Leiber and Stoller's "Lucky Lips"—complete with Dan Faulkner's gritty R&B tenor solo. It's a great track, even if listeners of a certain age might associate it more closely with UK pop's legendary Cliff Richard. "Jump Jack Jump" leaps along in fine vintage rock and roll style—guitarist Simon Picton adds a brief but authentic-sounding solo and Nina Ferro's backing vocal is a fine match for Hoffman. The band's own backing vocals are enthusiastic and fun—at their best on the call-and-response chorus of "I Want You To Be My Baby" and the jolly if silly "Deep Sea Ball." Hoffman's voice—clear, precise, diction coupled with a sassy edge—suits the upbeat material which forms the bulk of the album's tracks. On the slow, downbeat "Late Night Joints," written by Hoffman and bassist Dave O'Brien , she's less convincing in the role of a world-weary habitué of early- hours bars despite atmospheric backing from the band. On "The Night Is Never Long Enough" and the slinky "Seat Of Your Pants," both slow numbers but with a seductive and romantic tone, she's back on form. It's not all plain sailing for Hoffman. "TV Is The Thing This Year," she declares, even though her own television appears to need an inordinate amount of attention from the local repairman. Yet she sounds incredibly pleased even when it's obvious that the repairman needs to visit every night. Well, she is the Luckiest Girl Alive. ~Bruce Lindsay

Luckiest Girl Alive

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Kai Hoffman - Do It While You Can

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:50
Size: 100.3 MB
Styles: Swing
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:22] 1. Some Boys
[3:22] 2. History Repeating
[3:58] 3. Pure Imagination
[5:00] 4. Do It While You Can
[4:30] 5. Long Daddy Green
[2:57] 6. I've Never Met A Guy Who's Perfect
[3:24] 7. Make Someone Happy
[2:32] 8. Sweet Georgia Brown
[3:53] 9. People Will Say We're In Love
[3:37] 10. Time In A Bottle
[3:09] 11. What A Little Moonlight Can Do
[4:00] 12. The Masquerade Is Over

Kai Hoffman: vocals, French horn (3, 4, 9); Gunther Kurmayr: piano; Geoff Gascoyne: double bass; Sebastiaan De Krom: drums; Gavin Broom: trumpet (4); Derek Nash: saxophone (4).

The visual image, the cover design and the positivity of the album title—Do It While You Can—all point in the general direction of a Good Time about to be had. Singer (and French horn player) Kai Hoffman ensures that a good time is exactly what's on offer, crafting a set of songs that makes the most of her personality, her slightly tongue-in-cheek naughtiness and her effortless joie-de-vivre.

Hoffman, an American now resident in the UK, has previously recorded with Ray Gelato's Giants and the well-established Kai's Cats but this is her debut album with her quartet, which she formed in 2012. Hoffman's fellow musicians are top notch—pianist Gunther Kurmayr (Gelato's Giants), double bassist Geoff Gascoyne (Jamie Cullum, Gregory Porter) and drummer Sebastiaan De Krom (Kurt Elling, Cullum) know exactly how to groove and precisely how to bring out the best in a vocalist. The Giants and the Cats concentrate on swing, Louis Jordan being an obvious reference point: Hoffman's quartet takes a wider view of the scene, drawing American Songbook classics and '70s soft rock into its repertoire. The accent is still very much on upbeat, danceable, songs, though there's also space for ballads and romance.

The rolling, New Orleans opening bars of Fran Landesman and Simon Wallace's "Some Boys" seem to herald a vocal from Dr John, but it's Hoffman who enters, singing one of Landesman's more risqué lyrics with a knowing wink. Alex Gifford's "History Repeating" was originally sung, with the Propellerheads, by diva par excellence Dame Shirley Bassey: the band lays down a driving groove akin to Charles Mingus' "Boogie Stop Shuffle" as Hoffman matches Bassey's punchiness and over-the-top glamor. "Do It While You Can," written by Hoffman and Simon Whiteside, gets added sparkle courtesy of trumpeter Gavin Broom, saxophonist Derek Nash and Hoffman's own French horn. Hoffman can also deliver a ballad, as she proves on a seductive version of "Pure Imagination" that seems to promise a different kind of pleasure from the one Willy Wonka was offering. Hoffman adds French horn to this song as well, the instrument's soft tone contrasting well with Kurmayr's bright piano flourishes. Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle" isn't so suited to Hoffman's style—without Croce's own earthy vocal his soft rock hit becomes a little bland, although Gascoyne's bass solo is beautifully judged. Jazz forgets, all too often, the virtues of the entertaining and the joyful. Hoffman doesn't. Do It While You Can is a joyful 45 minutes, an album on which Hoffman and her band combine swing and soul, set out to entertain, and succeed admirably. ~Bruce Lindsay

Do It While You Can

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