Lorraine Feather - Math Camp

Size: 120,6 MB
Time: 51:57
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2018
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. I Don't Mean To Make A Big Deal Of It (5:27)
02. Random Activity (6:16)
03. Hadron, Meson, Baryon (4:38)
04. Euphoria (6:55)
05. Math Camp (6:16)
06. I'll See You Yesterday (5:32)
07. It All Adds Up (2:31)
08. The Rules Don't Apply (4:18)
09. In A Hot Minute (5:17)
10. Some Kind Of Einstein (4:43)

Personnel:
Vocals: Lorraine Feather
Piano: Fred Hersch, Shelly Berg, Russell Ferrante
Bass: James Genus, Michael Valerio
Drums: Terri Lyne Carrington, Michael Shapiro
Guitar: Gilad Hekselman, Grant Geissman, Eddie Arkin
Clarinet, alto flute: Dan Higgins

Lorraine Feather, a native of New York City who grew up in Los Angeles, is the daughter of jazz critic Leonard Feather and his wife, Jane (a professional singer), while jazz legend Billie Holiday was her godmother. Exposed to a variety of music in her household, such a career almost seemed to be her destiny, though her parents neither pushed nor discouraged her. After finishing school, Feather returned to Manhattan to pursue acting, doing a bit of singing to pay the bills, including cabaret. She was in the Broadway and touring casts of Jesus Christ Superstar and later sang backup for Grand Funk Railroad and Petula Clark.

Open to many musical interests, Feather began focusing on jazz in the late '70s, making her debut on an album by pianist Joanne Grauer and recording her first jazz LP for Concord (Sweet Lorraine) in 1978. In the 1990s, Feather became a first-rate jazz singer as a member of the vocal group Full Swing, developing her expressive contralto to capture the essence of every song. She began regularly contributing lyrics to their repertoire, but her writing career blossomed when she began recording on her own. Her ability to write lyrics to challenging, often obscure instrumentals by Fats Waller and Duke Ellington, while also collaborating with several excellent, currently active songwriters, has impressed many jazz critics. Humor is especially her strong suit ("Imaginary Guy," "You're Outa Here," "Antarctica," and "Indiana Lana"), though her ballads, swing vehicles, and pop songs also merit strong praise.

Feather has also written extensively for television (she has earned seven Emmy nominations) and movie soundtracks, including The Jungle Book 2 and Julie Andrews' vocal comeback in The Princess Diaries 2. Opera star Jessye Norman performed one of her songs ("Faster, Higher, Stronger") at the opening of the 1996 Olympics. ~by Ken Dryden

Math Camp

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Lorraine Feather - Cafe Society

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:00
Size: 119.1 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2003
Art: Front

[5:25] 1. Café Society
[2:49] 2. We're Rockin' In Rhythm
[3:00] 3. The Speed Of Light
[3:36] 4. Jungle Rhythm
[5:07] 5. Love Call
[4:22] 6. The Right Idea
[3:32] 7. Something Like My Own
[4:52] 8. Big Fun
[4:14] 9. Hot Coffee
[5:20] 10. Days Of Old
[4:26] 11. The Green Flash
[5:11] 12. The Way We Say Goodbye

It's taken nearly two years for prodigious jazz progeny Lorraine Feather to oblige us with a follow up to her terrific Fats Waller tribute, New York City Drag. The wait, it turns out, has been well worthwhile. Last time around, Feather shaped superb lyrics to fit 12 Waller classics. With Cafe Society, she does the same on a broader scale, refitting tunes from an even dozen composers-Charlie Barnet, Duke Ellington and Johnny Mandel among them-with sassy new lyrics. Feather's intent is, it seems, to pay spirited homage to the prebop sophistication of her legendary parents (big band singer Jane and fabled critic Leonard). When, in the title tune, she pines for "those legendary days" and wishes "with all my heart [that] I could be at Cafe Society," it's easy to picture her mother at the microphone in some smoky Manhattan den while her father sits ringside.

New York City Drag was fun and inventive in a mellow, understated way. Here, Feather is decidedly more boisterous, swinging like an Andrews Sister through Ellington and Harry Carney's "Rockin' in Rhythm" and going wildly native on both the deliciously overblown "Big Fun" and the tropically syncopated "Jungle Rhythm" (featured in Disney's latest animated epic, The Jungle Book 2). She also has a whale of a time breezing through Barnet and Skippy Martin's "The Right Idea," a playfully romantic adventure reminiscent of "Let's Get Lost." Her spirited high jinks are, however, gorgeously offset by such velvety additions as Mandel's "Speed of Light" (sort of a gently heated Afro-Cuban version of "You've Got a Friend") and a sultry "Love Call" (from Ellington's "Creole Love Call") that recalls the sexy insouciance of Lee Wiley. Most remarkable, though, is "The Way We Say Goodbye," a soaring salute to torchiness that underscores the melancholic Sturm und Drang of "Black Coffee" with the philosophic mistiness of Cole Porter's "Every Time We Say Goodbye." ~Christopher Loudon

Cafe Society

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Lorraine Feather - Such Sweet Thunder: Music Of The Duke Ellington Orchestra

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:47
Size: 100.3 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2004/2013
Art: Front

[4:42] 1. Rhythm, Go 'way
[3:12] 2. The 101
[4:03] 3. Can I Call You Sugar
[3:22] 4. Imaginary Guy
[5:14] 5. September Rain
[3:07] 6. Tenacity
[3:35] 7. Backwater Town
[3:51] 8. A Peaceful Kingdom
[5:03] 9. Lovely Creatures
[3:28] 10. Antarctica
[4:05] 11. Mighty Like The Blues

It's a shame that Lorraine Feather wasn't able to contribute lyrics to the music of Duke Ellington prior to his death in 1974, as she's a natural storyteller. Ellington composed or co-wrote most of the 11 songs on this CD, though Feather chose lesser-known and especially challenging material to embellish with her gifts. She is also a superb singer who gets the most out of every track, joined by a large cast of talented musicians who sound as if they've played every chart together night after night for years.

It's hard to beat her hilarious "Imaginary Guy" (based upon "Dancers in Love"), a terrific ditty about a girl so fed up with the opposite sex that she dreamed up the ideal man in her mind. The obscure bossa nova "The Ricitic," written by Ellington for his small group session with Coleman Hawkins, is transformed to the sidesplitting "Antarctica" (sample lyrics: "I cried all night/That's half a year"), a song that is guaranteed to tickle the funny bone of the sourest curmudgeon. The dark-tinged "Lovely Creatures" (based upon the second movement to "Night Creature") is not without its humorous moments ("You've got looks and bucks and yet these blues/Seem to stick to you like gum to shoes").

She wrote the words to "September Rain" (adapted from Billy Strayhorn's gorgeous ballad "Chelsea Bridge") a number of years earlier and recorded it with her group In Full Swing. This chart, with the rhythm section arranged by pianist Mike Lang and the vocal group by Morgan Ames, is every bit as lush as the original instrumental, showcasing Feather's upper range and Terry Harrington's mellow tenor sax. "The 101" is a hard-charging reworking of "Suburbanite" that tells of a dash down a highway to catch up with her lover.

The finale, "Mighty Like the Blues," features words and music by the late Leonard Feather, Lorraine's father. Ellington recorded it in 1938 and again in 1960, though her version, jointly arranged by Russell Ferrante and Bill Elliott, will likely eclipse the maestro's own recordings. ~Ken Dryden

Such Sweet Thunder: Music Of The Duke Ellington Orchestra

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Lorraine Feather - Flirting With Disaster

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 60:02
Size: 139,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:33)  1. Flirting with Disaster
(4:46)  2. Feels Like Snow
(5:55)  3. I'd Be Down with That
(6:44)  4. Off-Center
(5:16)  5. Be My Muse
(5:04)  6. Later
(4:01)  7. The Last Wave
(4:27)  8. Disastrous Consequences
(6:26)  9. Big-Time
(5:26) 10. Wait for It
(6:18) 11. The Staircase

The release of a new Lorraine Feather recording consistently brings a sense of excitement and delicious anticipation. What does this gifted singer-lyricist who, like a figure-ground illustration simultaneously brilliant at both, have in store for us? More than likely, if she's true to her own Muse, I'd suppose it's going to be a sublime rendering of relationship-themed, thoughtfully poetic, yet sparkling verbiage that's delivered paired with highly stylized and impeccably-performed music. In the case of Flirting with Disaster the supposition is dead-on. Working once again with ace composers-collaborators Eddie Arkin, Russell Ferrante, Dave Grusin, Shelly Berg and a terrific rhythm section, Feather settles into eleven emotion-stimulating original renderings. There's no falling back on the faux security of GAS material for this high-wire artist. Like a Wallenda (would you believe she actually incorporates that surname in one line?), she works sans net, fearless and supremely confident about what she's offering, risks be damned.

Although there's an adequate mix, the fare is predominantly slower, thoughtful, and for the most part, artful and Impressionistic ("Feels Like Snow," "The Last Wave," "Wait for It"). The compositional elements are melodically unique and provide Feather ample opportunity to demo her extraordinary ability to color her lyrics. She has superior vocal chops, impeccable diction, and an innate poetic sense of phrasing. Even the hip-hoppity "I'd Be Down with That" demos her versatility. Her overdubbing is exact ("Be My Muse") and is incorporated judiciously. As lyricist, Feather is pure emotion and wit, splattering tons of "touches," "hands," "hearts" and more across her offerings. She can milk a phrase with a sly glee that tickles interest and provides a tease of what might be coming next. Her lines never disappoint. The team supporting this Feather are heavyweights indeed and in deed. Their playing is complementary perfection. Flirting with Disaster is no surprise in the most positive sense. It's Lorraine Feather at her best. I think that even Mr. Wallenda would even relish the fact that his surname might eventually become a noun as a result of this grand flirtation. ~ Nicholas F.Mondello  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/flirting-with-disaster-lorraine-feather-jazzed-media-review-by-nicholas-f-mondello.php
 

Personnel: Russell Ferrante: piano (1,2,3,4,6,7,8), arranger (2,3,8); Shelly Berg: piano (5,11), arranger (5,11); Dave Grusin: piano (9,10), arranger (9,10); Michael Valerio: bass (1,3,4,5,6,9,10); Grant Geissman: (1,9,10); Eddie Arkin: guitar (4,6), arranger (1,4,6,7); Michael Shapiro: drums/percussion (1,2,6,9,10); Gregg Field: drums (4,5); Carlos Del Rosario: percussion (10); Charles Bisharat: violin (1,4,5,8,11); Yutaka Yokokura: additional vocals (2).

Flirting With Disaster

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Lorraine Feather - Language

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 44:25
Size: 101.7 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[4:12] 1. Traffic And Weather
[3:40] 2. We Appreciate Your Patience
[4:29] 3. Very Unbecoming
[3:56] 4. I Love New York At Christmas
[5:02] 5. Home Alone
[2:24] 6. Hit The Ground Runnin'
[4:12] 7. Where Are My Keys
[3:52] 8. In Flower
[4:02] 9. Waiting Tables
[4:34] 10. A Household Name
[3:58] 11. Making It Up As We Go Along

Over her mere seven-album discography, Lorraine Feather has carved out a fulfilling career as a jazz singer far outdistancing many one-shots, far less talented but successful pop-jazz vocalists, and wannabes. Her talent as a lyricist of wit, sarcasm, and keen observations of the American human condition is her true strength, and not always as acknowledged as her verbal chops and inventiveness. Her language goes beyond the nomenclatures of swing, bop, and contemporary improvisation, as Feather exploits many literary references and well-worn phraseology from various acumens, and keeps the proceedings upbeat and interactive between her words and the musical notes offered by her excellent confreres. Pianist Shelly Berg is closest to Feather as a collaborator, writing the music for Feather's cleverest lyrics. The quick, lithe, bouncy, and brisk "Traffic and Weather" relates to Bay Area commuter congestion, climatological issues, or references to inseparable pairings, and "We Appreciate Your Patience," with a cynical, animated take on annoying automated answering services, teams Feather and Berg in multilevel harmonic and whimsical refrains. Feather is fond of stringing worn-out clichés together, as on "Patience," but is in an especially sharp mood about trite multiple sports adages on the bopper "Hit the Ground Runnin'," featuring a furious Russell Ferrante on piano, and tells the all too familiar thoughts-racing, mouse-on-a-treadmill tale of "Where Are My Keys?," turning a dilemma into fun. Also skillful, aside from their lyric content, are her instrumental ideas, like using a horn section and a drummer only on the sassy tale of a career dilemma "Waiting Tables," or the slinky, bluesy Duke Ellington-like "A Household Name," debunking stardom and alerting you to the pitfalls of the celebrity trap. Feather can also be sentimental, as on her romanticized Billy Strayhorn waltz tribute "In Flower," the melancholy "I Love New York at Christmas," and her most languid, evocative tune, "Making It Up as We Go Along." She is rarely self-conscious or insular, but Ferrante's modal two-chord piano prop-up during "Home Alone" keeps Feather's possible dour mood in check, although she can't help being doting on "Very Unbecoming." On occasion, vocalists Tierney Sutton, Janis Siegel, and Cheryl Bentyne enter in supportive vocal cameos. This may very well be Lorraine Feather's best effort, certainly the one where collaboration is the key, and statements on our disposable, technology-driven, time-consuming society had to be made. Bravo Lorraine, and hang in there! ~ Michael G. Nastos

Recording information: Entourage; Visual Rhythm.

Lorraine Feather (vocals); Janis Siegel (vocals, background vocals); Grant Geissman (guitar); Greg "Frosty" Smith (saxophone); Willie Murillo, Gary Grant (trumpet); Andy Martin (trombone); Michael Lang , Russell Ferrante, Shelly Berg (piano); Michael Valerio (bass guitar); Gregg Field, Michael Shapiro (drums, percussion); Cheryl Bentyne, Tierney Sutton (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Carlos Del Rosario.

Language

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Lorraine Feather & Stephanie Trick - Fourteen

Styles: Vocal, Piano Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:34
Size: 102,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:18)  1. Pour On The Heat
(4:06)  2. Bat Boogie
(3:42)  3. New York City Drag
(2:43)  4. Rules Of The Park
(3:58)  5. Vive Le Boogie Woogie
(4:08)  6. Dreamily
(2:50)  7. Let's Do This
(3:04)  8. Pretzel Man (The Contortionist)
(3:23)  9. Imaginary Guy
(3:25) 10. Carolina Shout
(2:27) 11. The Tango Lesson
(3:55) 12. Timeless Rag
(3:30) 13. California Street

Composing lyrics to established jazz standards those jazz instrumental compositions that have become established in the canon, Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" is the most famous example is an artform all it own. Classic composers/interpreters include Eddie Jefferson, Babs Gonzales, King Pleasure (Clarence Beeks) and Jon Hendricks. There have been recent vocalese contributions made by a new generation that includes most recently Dorian Devins on The Procrastinator (Self Produced, 2013)

Nouveau Stride is vocalist/lyricist Lorraine Feather and pianist Stephanie Trick. Feather, well known for her clever and inventive lyrics for Tales of the Unusual (Jazzed Media, 2012), plies her special trades here with the rich tradition of stride piano playing. That is where Trick comes in, being a precocious young virtuoso of such a piano style. And all of the great Harlem stride players are represented: James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington (yes, Duke Ellington) and Willie "The Lion" Smith. The project is studiously ambitious, with Trick practiced to a high shine and Feather having done her homework on the book. ~ C.Michael Bailey   

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44360#.UwO-SoVQE9c

Personnel: Lorraine Feather: vocals and lyricist; Stephanie Trick: piano.

Fourteen

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Lorraine Feather - Ages

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 52:21
Size: 119.8 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[3:16] 1. A Lot To Remember
[5:17] 2. Peculiar Universe
[4:32] 3. I Forgot To Have Children
[5:46] 4. Old At 18 / Dog Bowl
[3:48] 5. Perugia
[4:14] 6. Things I Learned In High School
[6:51] 7. Two Desperate Women In Their Late 30s
[7:00] 8. The Girl With The Lazy Eye
[4:39] 9. How Did We End Up Here
[2:37] 10. Scrabble
[4:17] 11. I Always Had A Thing For You

Lorraine Feather, unlike any jazz singer on the scene, is pushing her formidable abilities to their maximum, dining and dancing on a bed of life stories that modern men and women can relate to. Essentially sophisticated metropolitan tales, Feather expands her novel-length treatises far beyond mere chapter and verse of love and loss, into an arena so compelling and emotionally involved, one feels as if they were songs with every listener in mind. She's also blessed with a keen ear for extraordinary accompanists who also co-write the music aside her lyric content, including pianists Russell Ferrante or Shelly Berg, guitarist Eddie Arkin, bassist Michael Valerio, and several fine guest soloists. The thing about these songs that truly sets them apart is they are based on pure inspiration, far removed from being based on any preconception of any jazz standards -- a true (if you'll please excuse the pun) feather in her cap. She's also using an exceptional range from high sailing to deepest low, but not obsidian levels, leaping octaves only when the mood fits, but not for simple pyrotechnical effect. As playful and lithe as she is clever, her voice suits the mood and intent of the humorous song "A Lot to Remember" as she references things happening in threes and going from "zero to sixty" in her long listings. The hip funk of "Old at 18/Dog Bowl" also runs down a veritable database of reasons why, in a mosaic that displays her more legato voicings. There are three duets, including a waltz alongside Ferrante -- "The Girl with the Lazy Eye," the story where the young person's grades are mediocre, raising more questions than answers -- while with pianist Dick Hyman, "Scrabble" is a scrambling parlor scat, jumpy and quick, whipping through words. "Peculiar Universe" is atypically melancholy for the upbeat Feather, as she operates in a Kurt Weill/Bertold Brecht world with Béla Fleck on banjo, as is Felix Mendelssohn's "Perugia," arranged by Ferrante, another waltz dripping with regret over lost love and soul. But Feather ups the emotional quotient even higher during "How Did We End Up Here?," as she, Ferrante, and vibraphonist Bob Leatherbarrow work a samba to a tick-tock beat with drummer and percussionist Michael Shapiro. Starting off light, but delving into a heavy emotional introspection as a married couple enjoy a tropical get-away, Feather creates something so powerfully intimate, pondering life, fate, and circumstance -- it's her crowning achievement on this disc, and maybe of her entire career. To say Lorraine Feather has created a triptych of experiences from adolescence to adulthood on this overview of the human condition through various ages is simplistic.

What she has done is dig deep into the psyche of all of us through herself, creating a stunning recording that once again trumps the other excellent albums she has made. Asking "how did we end up here?," the listener has to pose this question in retort -- "is the sky the limit?," and "how high is that sky?". ~Michael G. Nastos

Ages

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Lorraine Feather - Attachments

Styles: Vocal
Label: Jazzed Media
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:16
Size: 147,1 MB
Art: Front

(6:07)  1. A Little Like This
(6:58)  2. Attachments
(3:35)  3. I Thought You Did
(6:17)  4. Anna Lee
(3:46)  5. 159
(5:07)  6. We Have the Stars
(3:28)  7. I Love You Guys
(4:53)  8. I Hope I Never Leave This Place
(5:55)  9. Hearing Things
(8:25) 10. The Veil
(4:02) 11. Smitten with You
(5:38) 12. True

As expertly-crafted and enjoyable as all of her other recordings, Lorraine Feather's Attachments is her most raw and intimate CD to date. Here, she applies her famously incisive perception, sweet voice, and stunning lyrical gifts to a frank exploration of life's major emotional ties, describing how they can soothe, stretch, and break as they wind through our days on earth. Naturally these include romantic connections whether missed, fulfilled, or simply imagined but as usual, Feather vaults over the tired moon/June/spoon territory to offer her unique and thought-provoking view of ordinary things. For instance, in the sinuous title track, Feather evokes the "silver string of your attachments," a cord which wanders through a familiar series of crushes and lovers, but also embraces the weird guy in the building that everyone looks after. There are songs about love's mysterious glories ("A Little Like This," "We Have the Stars") as well as its gleeful discovery "I Thought You Did" rocks on Dave Grusin's exuberant "Memphis Stomp," first heard in the 1993 movie, The Firm. A lesser talent and one content to splash around in shallower waters would probably restrict the attachment consideration to romance. But Feather ranges much wider, providing a splendid appreciation of jazz musicians in general ("I Love You Guys") with sympathy for such indignities as "being made to wear matching vests/being told, 'the nuts are for the guests.'" There's a haunting song about a dear old friend who ended badly ("Anna Lee"), a gorgeous ode to Feather's home ("I Hope I Never Leave This Place"), and a tribute to a tempo ("159") as well as a rascally dog ("Smitten with You"). The most poignant and personal songs come at the end, where Feather shares the lasting heartbreak around the parent you love but can't reach ("The Veil"), and the endless,"ragged" pain over the one you most adored ("True"), which is fittingly set to one of the most soulful and beloved melodies of Bach. All of Feather's projects are witty. But humor is less central here than it was on songs like "Traffic and Weather," "Where Are My Keys?" and "I Forgot to Have Children," or in her lyrics to the songs of Fats Waller and other famous stridemeisters. For delightful examples of the latter, see New York City Drag (Rhombus Records, 2000) and Fourteen (Relarion, Ink., 2012), where Feather is half of Nouveau Stride with the astonishing young pianist Stephanie Trick. What links all of Feather's disparate projects is her signature honesty, insight, grace, and intelligence. This is all found in abundance on "Attachments," where the booklet adds to the enjoyment by providing every lyric. But this is more to appreciate Feather's poetry than to decipher her words as others have noted, her diction is perfect,as is her pitch. And, as always, her brilliant lyrics are delivered on wonderful melodies, with superb playing all around.~Dr Judith Schlesinger http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=45043#.UipF_D-wVw8

Personnel: Lorraine Feather: vocals; Russell Ferrante: piano (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11); Shelly Berg: piano (6, 7, 10); Dave Grusin: piano (3, 12); Michael Valerio: bass (1, 2, 4, 5, 7-9, 11), vocals: (5); Grant Geissman: guitar (1, 5, 9); Eddie Arkin: guitar (2, 5); Michael Shapiro: drums and percussion (1, 2, 5, 9, 11); Tony Morales: percussion (1) Gregg Field: drums (7); Charles Bisharat: violin (1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12); Bob Mintzer: bass clarinet (11).

Attachments

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