Lisa Lindsley / La Belle Epoque - Wouldn't It Be Loverly?

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 32:42
Size: 76,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:38) 1. Everybody Want to Be a Cat
(3:51) 2. I Could Have Danced All Night
(3:36) 3. Jeepers Creepers
(4:55) 4. The Heather on the Hill
(3:49) 5. Wouldn't It Be Loverly
(3:58) 6. Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do
(4:36) 7. Isn't It a Lovely Day
(3:15) 8. That's Entertainment

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly is a new and noteworthy CD by chanteuse Lisa Lindsley. She performs on two continents, usually around the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. and, when in France, with her group La Belle Époque. This recording was made with her French group which includes Lauren Marode, piano; Jeff Chambers, bass; Mourad Benhammou, drums; and multi-instrumentalist Esaie Cid on tenor sax, flute, and clarinet.

Ms. Lindsley has a mellow voice with clear diction. Her group just plays the pretty notes and gives her lots of space in which to operate. Permit me to ramble a bit on my observations about the function of supporting musicians. I had opportunity to see late pianist Paul Smith perform at a number of Dick Gibson jazz parties, the so-called Super Bowl of jazz parties. He was versatile with great chops. When necessary, he could improvise with appropriate musical quotations providing humor to the ensemble’s music. However, when he came to Pensacola in 1985 as accompanist to Ella Fitzgerald, he just played the right notes to make the singer sound wonderful. This illustration, I hope, gets the point across when I said Ms. Lindsley’s ensemble performs to enhance the vocalist. https://syncopatedtimes.com/wouldnt-it-be-loverly-lisa-lindsley-and-la-belle-epoque/

Wouldn't It Be Loverly?

---

Lisa Lindsley - Long After Midnight

Size: 113,1 MB
Time: 48:01
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals
Art: Front

01. Long After Midnight (4:26)
02. Star Eyes (2:22)
03. The House Is Haunted (6:11)
04. Heat Wave (2:54)
05. Skylark's Song (4:39)
06. I Walk A Little Faster - Manhattan (4:02)
07. My Favorite Things (4:34)
08. Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend (5:35)
09. Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me (4:04)
10. Mellow Yellow (4:04)
11. The Surry With The Fringe On Top (2:58)
12. When You're Smiling / Pennies From Heaven (2:07)

Lindsley's newest album, Long After Midnight, was born from the inspiration of nights on the Seine and coffee in Parisian cafes. Recorded over the course of 2 days, Long After Midnight invites the listener to walk through the French countryside with a glass of wine, and relax into the music.

The joyful rhythm of Star Eyes, and the heartbreaking ballad of Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me, compliment two new tracks from French composer James Wilson; Skylark's Song, and Long After Midnight, the title song.

Featuring the Mourad Benhammou Quartet, Lindsley's voice flows seamlessly with the Quartet who have played with greats like Alain Jean-Marie and Fabien Mary and Steve Potts. Lindsley's first CD with Grammy Nominated George Mesterhazy, was a work of love and passion, and this CD is no different. Growing quickly as a jazz singer has given her a distinctive voice and a unique and playful approach to interpreting standards, which rings through each track on Long After Midnight.

MC
Ziddu

---

Lisa Lindsley - Everytime We Say Goodbye

Styles: Jazz Vocals
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:25
Size: 110,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:58)  1. Nearness of You
(4:24)  2. Don't Explain
(3:48)  3. Alice in Wonderland
(4:55)  4. Inside a Silent Tear
(6:35)  5. The Very Thought of You
(3:08)  6. It's Only a Paper Moon
(8:30)  7. Everytime We Say Goodbye
(3:35)  8. Why Don't You Do Right
(7:29)  9. Girl from Ipanema

The jazz vocals standard repertoire is a durable one because it is populated with well-conceived and finely-crafted songs from the Great American Songbook. Of equal importance are the song's lyrics, cleverly constructed, and the melody, hook-filled. This song collection exists as a mountain to be climbed by any singer who believes him- or herself capable, willing and worthy. It is an assemblage of songs that has flooded the vocals market so that it is hard to separate the truly exceptional from the merely okay because of an unfavorable signal-to-noise ratio.

One way to separate jazz singing wheat from chaff is the presence of elegant simplicity. It is this quality that Lisa Lindsley's debut, Every Time We Say Goodbye, has in copious amounts, due to the fortunate intersection of a music savvy/recording naive singer in Lindsley; the availability of empathetic support in pianist George Mesterhazy and bassist Fred Randolf; and the presence of emotional challenge in the singer's life. The result is a sonic alchemy that is simple and pure a quicksilver and equally elusive.

Lindsley comes to singing later in life than most of her peers. This benefits her in that she has a lifetime of experiences through which to sing these familiar tunes, revealing new elements in the songs. She sings them simply, presenting the melodies in a relaxed and listener-friendly way. Her exquisitely balanced voice is what gives Lindsley license for such straight and compelling interpretation, interpretation that would be banal and boring in less talented voices. Lindsley's take on Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness of You" is so perfect, and Mesterhazy's arrangement and support so certain and nuanced, that it is hard to believe that such a performance level can be sustained for an entire disc.

But Lindsley manages to do exactly that. "The Very Thought of You," "It's Only A Paper Moon" and the title song all are delivered as in "Nearness," evenly measured, cool with a slight finish of melancholy. Mesterhazy and Randolf fit hand-in-glove in their accompaniment and encouragement. Mesterhazy's experience with another noted singer, the late Shirley Horn, is very evident as he sprinkles all of his playing with the blues; but it is only a distilled whiff that never overpowers the direction of the pieces.  There is always room for more standards recordings, specifically when they are as finely forged as Every Time We Say Goodbye. ~C.Michael Bailey  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=38833#.UjSpFT8kI5c

Personnel: Lisa Lindsley: vocals; George Mesterhazy: piano, melodica, keyboards; Fred Randolf: bass.

Everytime We Say Goodbye

---