Laura Ainsworth - New Vintage

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:05
Size: 106,3 MB
Art: Front

(2:37)  1. Thats How I Got My Start
(2:24)  2. I'll Take Romance
(4:44)  3. Where Did The Magic Go
(2:50)  4. An Occasional Man
(4:54)  5. Wasting My Love On You
(4:01)  6. Nevertheless
(3:50)  7. A Little Jive Is Good For You
(4:23)  8. The Man I Love Is Gone
(3:13)  9. All About You
(3:00) 10. Nothing Can Replace A Man
(2:55) 11. It's A Nuisance Having You Around
(3:26) 12. Long Ago And Far Away And You Stepped Out Of A Dream
(3:40) 13. I Once Knew A Fella

Satin-voiced retro jazz vocalist Laura Ainsworth & her crew of top Texas jazz musicians' acclaimed breakthrough third CD of standards, lost gems and new songs in elegant midcentury lounge style.

"Sublime...A perfect album..." ~ Alan Mercer, AMProfile.blogspot.com/

“As excellent as her first two albums were, New Vintage looks to be Laura Ainsworth's breakthrough… (She) creates a rich, intoxicating atmosphere that transports the mind to another place and time…Thank you, Laura, for making the Great American Songbook exciting and fun again!" ~ David Gasten, producer, "This Is Vintage Now"

Dallas-based retro jazz chanteuse Laura Ainsworth’s first two albums (Keep It To Yourself and Necessary Evil) earned her worldwide airplay and critical raves, praise from Grammy-winning artists and performance bookings as far away as India and Dubai. Now, August 2017 looks to be her breakthrough, with the release of an audiophile vinyl best-of LP (Top Shelf), a spot alongside the great Sue Raney on the popular compilation series This Is Vintage Now Vol. 2, her solo NYC debut at the famous Metropolitan Room, and best of all, the release of her critically-acclaimed third album, New Vintage. Of course, her crew of top Texas jazz players are back, led by Laura’s amazing pianist/producer/arranger, Brian Piper, of the ‘Nawlins Gumbo Kings and the Brian Piper Trio (90th Floor Records). Fans will find more of what’s made Laura a leader in the growing vintage jazz/lounge/bachelor pad genre: her satiny, sultry, and as one reviewer put it, “impossibly old-fashioned” three-octave voice that’s been called a glorious throwback to the era of Rosemary Clooney, Dinah Shore and Julie London…fresh new spins on standards (“Nevertheless,” “Long Ago and Far Away”)…and overlooked gems (“Where Did The Magic Go,” a nostalgic AC ballad for the TCM generation; “All About You,” which Irving Berlin dubbed “a perfect love song”; the hilariously retro “Nothing Can Replace A Man”; and “That’s How I Got My Start” and “It’s A Nuisance Having You Around,” two sultry seduction ballads by Frank Loesser and Johnny Mercer, respectively, that haven’t been recorded in over half a century). 

But New Vintage brings new twists as well. Like the hip tiki exotica of “An Occasional Man,” complete with surf sounds and tropical bird calls…“The Man I Love Is Gone,” seemingly one of those lost treasures of the ‘40s she loves to unearth, but in fact a brand new ballad in the Great American Songbook style, written by Laura and veteran jazzman George Gagliardi…and “I Once Knew A Fella,” which is both a hilarious female sexual empowerment anthem and a tribute to the raucous lounge-jazz of legendary Vegas wildman Sam Butera of Louis Prima fame. Butera was a one-time bandmate of Laura’s late father, big band sax prodigy Billy Ainsworth, who helped form her unique retro musical tastes. A rare family photo of Butera and her dad performing together adorns the inside CD cover. So sit back and savor this New Vintage of Laura Ainsworth, from its smoky opening to its bold finish. Warning: Contents can be intoxicating…https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/lauraainsworth4

New Vintage

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Laura Ainsworth - Keep It To Yourself

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:18
Size: 92,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:55)  1. Keep It To Yourself
(3:07)  2. While The Music Plays On
(1:53)  3. April Fooled Me
(3:29)  4. Dream A Little Dream Of Me
(3:12)  5. He's So Unusual
(4:40)  6. Midnight Sun
(2:53)  7. La Vie En Rose
(2:48)  8. That's The Kind Of Guy I Dream Of
(4:26)  9. Love For Sale
(3:25) 10. Personality
(2:14) 11. Skylark
(4:12) 12. Fantastic Planet Of Love

Dallas, Texas-based Laura Ainsworth, though performing last-century throwback cocktail jazz, may have stumbled into a zeitgeist defining moment with the album-opening title track from Keep It To Yourself.  Whether she knew it or not back in the recording studio, this delicious tale of revenge exacted on a serial philanderer is perfectly of the moment in this period of celebrity male misdeed from the likes of Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Anthony Weiner. Singing in a satiny, impossibly old-fashioned, nearly three-octave voice, Ainsworth is the very portrait of West Coast cool.  Credit the able assist provided by keyboardist Brian Piper, who also works as a producer on the project and lent his regular working trio to provide the crisp, understated musical setting. Unfortunately, “While the Music Plays On,” the more conventional sax-driven second track on Keep It To Yourself, can’t match that kind of ripped-from-the-headlines immediacy.  And the album mostly continues along that vein, often settling for a comfy nostalgia that never quite reaches the same fizzy melding of old and new. That’s not to say it all isn’t very charming, or to take anything away from Ainsworth’s facility as an urbane chanteuse.  No, she sings the heck out of these songs – from the Liza-ish “April Fooled Me,” to her plucky pirouette around a clarinet on “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and “He’s So Unusual,” to the sassy Rosemary Clooney-influenced “That’s the Kind of Guy I Dream of.” And it’s not even that these are simply tried-and-trues, the kind of all-but-worn-out standards that have become part and parcel of the dog-eared so-called American songbook. Instead, “That’s the Kind of Guy” is actually an unreleased Nat “King” Cole side that was last widely heard as a Betty Hutton b-side back in 1952. Helen Kane’s “He’s So Unusual” goes even further back, to 1928. There’s just a different fun explorative kick, however, to tracks like “La Vie En Rose,” where Ainsworth stomps on the gas after a pillowy French ballad-style opening, skipping into a fun 1930s-era Parisian jazz rhythm complete with an imaginative turn by violinist Milo Deering of the jazz/bluegrass fusion group Beatlegras.  

Piper and Co. also bring an interesting Pat Metheny-esque modernity to “Fantastic Planet of Love,” offering an album-closing glimpse of what Ainsworth would sound like outside the arid confines of post-war cliches. Elsewhere, though, Ainsworth plays it straight on “Love For Sale,” and the results are sensual, appropriately done, but nowhere near as intriguing.  “Personality” has a winking sensibility, but its broad cabaret style doesn’t give her talent enough credit.  It’s too cute by half.  And, of course, Ainsworth has no trouble with the Ella Fitzgerald gem “Midnight Sun.” After all, she grew up around this smoothly ingratiating style of music; her father was renowned big band performer/arranger Billy Ainsworth, who accompanied legends like Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett.  Still, the younger Ainsworth should know better than most how difficult it is to match not just Ella’s dizzying talent but her memorable gumption.  This one, again, feels too safe. That said, Ainsworth goes on to pull off perhaps the biggest surprise of all on Keep It To Yourself, an update that emerges as the transcendent moment every singer hopes for when they dig out one of those dusty, decades-old favorites.  It arrives in the form of “Skylark,” a been-there, done-that warhorse from Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer.  Working in much the same way as her musical heroes once did, Ainsworth recorded the tune live in a single take. Perhaps just as importantly, though, she did so in a fresh new format alongside jazz guitarist Chris Derose, a regular accompanist for Willie Nelson and Michael Feinstein.  The results are devastatingly beautiful, nakedly honest, and a powerful argument for the ageless compositions that Ainsworth so clearly treasures.  She’s not wrong to love them.  She’s just got to remember to keep goosing them into a new age. ~ Nick DeRiso  http://www.reviewyou.com/laura-ainsworth-keep-it-to-yourself-2/.

Personnel: Laura Ainsworth (vocals); Noel Johnston (guitar); Milo Deering (violin); Chris McGuire (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Brian Piper (keyboards); Mike Drake (drums).

Keep It To Yourself

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Laura Ainsworth - Necessary Evil

Styles: Jazz, Cabaret
Label: Eclectus Records
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:56
Size: 111,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:08)  1. Necessary Evil
(3:22)  2. One More Time
(4:19)  3. The Gentleman Is a Dope
(3:20)  4. Just Give Me a Man
(3:25)  5. Love Is a Dangerous Thing
(4:37)  6. My Foolish Heart
(4:39)  7. The Lies of Handsome Men
(3:24)  8. Get Out and Get Under the Moon
(5:24)  9. Out of This World
(3:20) 10. Hooray for Love
(3:30) 11. I'd Give a Dollar for a Dime
(4:24) 12. Last Train to Mercerville

“Singing in a satiny, impossibly old-fashioned, nearly three-octave voice, Ainsworth is the very portrait of West Coast cool…"~Nick DeRiso, SomethingElseReviews.com

As the daughter of renowned saxophonist Billy Ainsworth, Laura Ainsworth grew up watching her dad accompany such legends as Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald. Her first album, "Keep It To Yourself," announced to the world that the sophisticated vocal style of the 1940s and '50s was still alive and well. Now, her second album, "Necessary Evil," extends that legacy of great music even further, and in new and exciting directions. On the film noir-themed "Necessary Evil," Laura and her partner/producer/pianist Brian Piper (2011 Dallas Jazz Musician of the Year and leader of the Newport Jazz Beach Party spotlight group, the Brian Piper Trio) offer a collection of terrific songs from the 1920s to today, all about love. 

Not love as a happily-ever-after fairy tale, but love with a twist: songs of heartache, lust, infatuation, fantasy, self-delusion and all the other aspects that sometimes make it feel less like a beautiful dream than a "necessary evil." Love is presented in all its forms, from heartbreaking (Laura's gorgeous new rendition of "My Foolish Heart") to hilarious ("Just Give Me A Man"). Opening with a blast of cool, Vegas-style big band brass from a 13-piece horn section on the title cut, "Necessary Evil" runs the stylistic gamut. Snap your fingers to the irresistibly bopping "The Gentleman Is A Dope"...be enchanted by the lush, exotic world jazz reinvention of "Out Of This World"...be transported back in time with the lilting "Get Out And Get Under The Moon"...and raise a martini to the cynical AC-style anthem to female empowerment, "The Lies Of Handsome Men." In the end, we realize that the only place you can always turn to for true, pure, eternal love is in the great old songs on the jukebox ("I'd Give A Dollar For A Dime). 

And so the album concludes with the brilliant new tribute to the king of romantic standards, "Last Train To Mercerville." Accompanied by a swinging big band and Piper's genius arrangement, this track cleverly weaves together lyrical and musical references to dozens of timeless Johnny Mercer songs. It's a brand new Big Band classic for the 21st century, and a song that Laura believes her late dad would've loved. So hop on the train back to a time when men donned fedoras to take dames with dangerous curves and long, satin gloves to swank gin joints, to hear great music by a stunning flame-haired chanteuse who's earning worldwide airplay and gushing reviews. But don't take our word for it. Download a FREE SONG at lauraainsworth.com, join her on Facebook and Twitter, or just check out what the critics had to say...More (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lauraainsworth3).

Necessary Evil

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