Lisa Kirchner - Charleston for You

Styles: Vocal
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:44
Size: 114,9 MB
Art: Front

(2:17) 1. Dying to Confess
(6:13) 2. The Man I Love - Live
(4:21) 3. Riverside
(3:39) 4. Marie Laveau
(4:10) 5. Blue by the River
(4:08) 6. Jessie
(3:58) 7. L’accordéoniste
(3:41) 8. Charleston for You
(3:23) 9. Lights of L.A.
(4:48) 10. Red Wine and White Lies
(3:49) 11. Phat Hat
(5:11) 12. Coracão Vagabundo / Berimbau

Lisa Kirchner comes from the Toni Tenille / Olivia Newton-John / Paul Williams / Rita Coolidge / Judy Collins segment of the music world, encanting with a studied sonorous voice in Charleston for You, a collection of standard, self-penned, and other tracks cohered through their readings, the most affecting of which is a take on Janis Ian's Jesse. Aiding her is a rather impressive collection of well-known names: Tommy Mandel, Lonnie Plexixo, John Miller, Sue Evans, and quite a few others. Her handling of French, as in L'accordeoniste, may in fact be her strongest card, so much does she cut into a truly perfect reading of the language. Think Piaf.

There are quite a few mainstream tracks here, many of which would go well on radio, Lights of L.A. the strongest candidate either for soft jazz, adult contemporary, or The Wave type dial positions. Interestingly, no production credits are given for this disc, but whoever helmed the effort didn't steer the recording process as well as might have been desired nor quite push Kirchner to her limits (listen to the tail end of Lights if you want an illustration of just where her ace card lies beautiful!). Thus, I suspect Lisa herself produced the CD…and shouldn't have, as musicians aren't often the best judges of their own strengths and weaknesses. That she has all the attributes necessary for a really solid outing is obvious, but that's not met here despite any number of very good passages. While certain parts are great, the sum of the whole is median, requiring either more woodshedding or better discretion on the technical end, probably both. https://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p08074.htm

Charleston for You

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Lisa Kirchner - Something To Sing About

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:02
Size: 163,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:12)  1. In Autumn
(4:20)  2. Prince Of The City
(1:48)  3. Fort Tryon Park
(2:30)  4. Sigh No More Ladies
(5:11)  5. Suicide In C Monor
(3:47)  6. Early In The Morning
(4:15)  7. Leila's Song
(5:26)  8. Crazy Love, Crazy Heart
(2:35)  9. The Little Horses
(4:26) 10. Acrostic Song
(3:50) 11. Barefoot
(3:05) 12. Lily
(6:35) 13. Strange
(3:45) 14. Photograph Song
(3:21) 15. Night Make My Day
(4:07) 16. Sophie Rose-Rosalee
(2:56) 17. Under The Willow Tree
(4:45) 18. Long Time Ago

Lisa Kirchner's album Something to Sing About on first (and even second) glance has all the look of a straightforward collection of songs by American composers, including Ives, Corigliano, Adams, Rorem, Del Tredici, Harbison, Bolcom, Barber, and Leon Kirchner (the singer's father, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, but in fact, all the composers in that list also won the prize), as well as some from more of a pop tradition like Robert Telson and Wynton Marsalis. Closer inspection of the credits, though, offers a clue that something is up; the accompanying instruments include piano, alto sax, accordion, bass, guitar, and drums. But you really have to hear the songs to get a handle on the album's uniqueness. Kirchner is a jazz singer whose voice has the character of a cabaret chanteuse, so her style is not at all like that of the kind of bel canto-trained singer for whom most of these songs were written. Although her vocal quality is jazz-inflected, she sings the songs basically straight-on (except for some improvised riffs thrown in during transitions and sometimes adding repeats), just as they were originally written. 

Her accompanying ensemble, however, may or may not reflect composers' original version, so the overall effect is definitively more jazz than classical. In these performances, the songs sound not like crossover  classical music dressed up as jazz but like they were written as jazzy pop tunes, even though, paradoxically the tunes are presented essentially unaltered, just as the composers wrote them. It's initially disconcerting, particularly in familiar songs like Barber's "Under the Willow Tree," where Barber has one truly weird modulation in the transition but this version has a dizzying string of truly weird modulations before settling down. But, it works. As odd as the premise sounds and as surprising as the initial impressions are, these performances sound like persuasive, frequently beguiling, renditions of jazz standards. Kirchner's dusky voice is seductive and wears well, and she sings with easy spontaneity and intuitive musicality. Much credit goes to the band for the inventiveness of its accompaniment. The sound is clear, immediate, and very clean. The voice is foregrounded in a style more characteristic of pop than classical. The album should interest fans of cabaret singing and crossover, as well as adventurous fans of classical vocal music. ~ Stephen Eddins  http://www.allmusic.com/album/something-to-sing-about-mw0002143047

Personnel: Lisa Kirchner: vocals; William Schimmel: accordion; Xavier Davis: piano; Vicente Archer: bass; Ron Jackson: guitar; Willie Jones,III: drums; Sherman Irby: alto saxophone.

Something To Sing About

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Lisa Kirchner - Umbrellas In Mint

Size: 130,4 MB
Time: 55:48
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Jazz: Vocals
Art: Front & Back

01. Salty And Blue (I Don't Believe In Romance) (4:32)
02. A Billion Stars Ago (In The Shadow Of A Cow) (4:28)
03. What About You (3:48)
04. The Hudson Bay Inn (5:20)
05. Umbrellas In Mint (4:22)
06. Tim (5:00)
07. Let Us Go Then (5:31)
08. Under The Paris Moon (Manhattan Under The Paris Moon) (4:19)
09. At The Closing Of The Fair (5:06)
10. Old Shoes (4:13)
11. Southern Starlight (Charleston For You) (5:57)
12. Quarters And Dimes (3:07)

When Lisa Kirchner last appeared in these pages, I commented that though production credits went missing, it appeared she was the top dawg in the process and that this element appeared to endow the outing with its several defects among many strengths. This time, out, she is indeed the producer, and the difference, in just one year, is highly discernable. Recruiting an intriguing new backing band loaded with notables who were unafraid to mess around with the traditional aspects of the fare, the entirety of Umbrellas in Mint is everything that Charleston for You pointed towards. This is shown very early in A Billion Stars Ago (In the Shadow of a Crow), the second cut and an excellently blended mélange of cabaret, stage, and jazz, upbeat and reflective simultaneously, with even a short injection of delightfully contrasty bump and grind just before the number fades.

Every song here was in fact written by the wild-maned Kirchner and, for me, brings back tangs of the underlauded Robert Kraft, among others, as the Carmichaelish What About You? (LOVE that "A ceiling at midnight, where stars shine on cue" line!) demonstrates. A wide palette of world influences invade the entire cycle here, subordinated beautifully to the dominantly Broadway ambiance. Don't know what happened in the past year, but Kirchner got waaaaay the hell serious, not only maturing miles beyond expectations, but immersive in the literacy of her chosen milieu. Part of the credit goes to the immaculate choice of musicians (I could've done with a bit more of guitarist Ron Jackson, whose offbeat tempo play is intriguing for its colorations, but, hey, the emphasis is rightly on Kirchner's vocals, lyrical narrative, and cinematic textures), but then it also must be noted that they're rightly operating within her parameters, which have cinched up the aesthete factor rather breathtakingly.

Expect generous doses of Rogers & Hart, Brel, Hammerstein, and a bunch of others in the Songbook milieu, but there are also a number of surprisingly Brechtian tinges, as Kirchner's unafraid of the shadows populating boulevards and hearts. She knows those darksome dimensions are just wellsprings, and saxist Sherman Irby leans into 'em more than once, often with a suppressed grin, lighting up the corners. In sum, Umbrellas is an exhilarating escapade, a collection of songs wrought for a stage musical yet to be put beneath the lights, but, now having heard the disc, I'm not so sure that's even necessary, as the CD does quite well on its own, needing no further explication…though it'd be intriguing as hell to see what could be done with them visually. ~by Mark S. Tucker

Umbrellas In Mint

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Lisa Kirchner - In The Shadow Of A Crow

Styles: Jazz Vocals
Label: Albany Music Distribution
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:50
Size: 135,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:07)  1. The Very Thought Of You
(4:32)  2. When The Dream Is Over
(3:28)  3. Baby Take A Chance With Me
(3:11)  4. Parapluis De Cherbourg
(3:55)  5. More Than You Know
(3:25)  6. Blue By The River
(3:09)  7. Shut Down The Moon
(4:10)  8. Que Reste-t-il?
(3:48)  9. I Don't Believe In Romance
(3:39) 10. Monday Morning
(3:55) 11. In The Shadow Of A Crow
(3:56) 12. Don't Misunderstand
(4:29) 13. Manhattan Under The Paris Moon
(2:53) 14. Please Be Kind
(3:03) 15. La Javanaise
(3:02) 16. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

"In the Shadow of a Crow" featuring vocalist Lisa Kirchner and her marvelous musicians is a collection of standards and original songs that I can highly recommend. It's a musical revelation to hear what Lisa does with her voice. A sound imbued with sophistication, beauty, and style so rare to hear from any singer these days. I look forward to the next effort from this multitalented lady who has brought her wonderful artistry to theatre, Broadway, radio, and television." ~Ron Della Chiesa WGBH Radio Boston/ WPLM Radio Plymouth

“Three French titles and excellently interpreted by Lisa Kirchner…the delicate attention of a connaisseuse, who has chosen the crème de la crème of musicians… Not one error in taste, musicians who swing : this singer has a lot of talent” ~Michel Bedin/Jazz Hot

"We've really enjoyed sharing cuts from IN THE SHADOW OF A CROW with our listeners. All in all…I give the album two thumbs up” ~Eric Cohen/WAER Radio

“Loved your CD- especially-You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To and The Very Thought Of You. Still playing so keep ‘em coming. ~on Wolff/I Love Jazz

“You have a very unique, recognizable voice, and your backup musicians sound wonderful. I look forward to your new cd next year.” ~David May WHFC-FM

“LISA KIRCHNER offers a beautiful interpretation of “Please Be Kind”, written by Cahn and Chaplin.”~Bruno Pollacci/Anima Jazz(http://www.lisakirchner.com/reviews.html).

In The Shadow Of A Crow

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