Maggie Herron - Between the Music and the Moon

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:00
Size: 120,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:22) 1. Wolf
(4:47) 2. I Can't Get to Sleep
(5:09) 3. Between the Music and the Moon
(3:53) 4. Seduction
(3:28) 5. Ritmo Latino
(3:26) 6. Notre amour
(4:26) 7. In a Heartbeat
(4:54) 8. I'll Never Leave Your Side
(3:43) 9. Another Dose of You
(5:10) 10. Let Him Stay
(4:46) 11. After All the Time
(3:51) 12. I Lie Just a Little

While her previous album included a healthy dose of standards, for her new CD Between The Music & The Moon, singer-songwriter Maggie Herron wanted to focus on original material. The results are 12 songs that range between Latin dance to bluesy romps and sultry ballads. Herron's songwriting skills are evident from the start and her deep, rich voice takes the listener on a musical journey.

On the opening number "Wolf," a slinky horn intro gives way to a smoky vocal from Herron with clever lyrics from her daughter Dawn (Who contributed to several tracks). Think "Fever" stylistically, though with more musical accompaniment. "I Can't Get To Sleep" is an ode to insomnia. Sung over an incessant, almost marching band drum pattern from Abe Lagrimas. Lagrimas pulls double duty on the song, delivering a Spanish-inspired solo on ukulele while Herron gives a tasteful piano solo of her own.

The Latin theme continues on "Seduction" and "Ritmo Latino." The former lives up to its name with a sultry vocal from Herron while the latter finds her shifting effortlessly between English and Spanish over a danceable rhythm and strong horns. Grant Geissman channels his inner Carlos Santana from a strong guitar solo on "Seduction."

For the title track, Herron gives a breathy vocal with angelic harmonies courtesy of Denise Donatelli. This pretty ballad showcases a subdued, yet effective flugelhorn solo from Ron Stout. The musicianship, both here and throughout, is top notch, with the players never getting in the way of the songs.

The breezy ballad "Notre Amour" finds Herron singing in French, giving a passionate vocal with pretty trumpet from Ron Stout. The album closes with "I Lie Just A Little." This bluesy track finds Herron accompanied by Dean Taba on bass, who delivers a killer bass line to back Herron's soulful vocals. Between The Music & The Moon showcases Herron's considerable talents as a singer-songwriter. While the songs may all be new to listeners, the potent music and singing definitely makes this album worth a listen. http://blindedbysound.com/reviews/cd-review-maggie-herron-between-the-music-and-the-moon/

Between the Music and the Moon

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Maggie Herron - Your Refrain

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:49
Size: 87,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:57) 1. Whatnot
(3:45) 2. He Can't Even Lay an Egg
(4:17) 3. Your Refrain
(5:19) 4. Watching the Crows
(2:24) 5. In Case of Love
(3:17) 6. I Can't Seem to Find My Man
(5:00) 7. Both Sides Now
(4:04) 8. Touch
(4:43) 9. God Bless the Child

Hawaii’s Award-Winning Vocalist, Pianist, and Songwriter Maggie Herron’s Sixth Album, Your Refrain, is a gorgeous, witty, heart-bearing set of original songs written with her late daughter, Dawn Herron, to whom she dedicates the album.

Recorded during the shelter in place order, the album features a dazzling cast of collaborators, including pianist Larry Goldings, guitarist Larry Koonse, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, and arrangers Geoffrey Keezer, Gillian Margot, and Bill Cunliffe. Pianist, Maggie Herron’s 2019 project, Renditions, won the Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Jazz Album Of The Year. The album revealed the jazz-steeped singer/songwriter as a beguiling interpreter of standards. Her poignantly enthralling new album Your Refrain was released on her Herron Song Records label and captures a creatively charged mother-and-daughter communion cut short by tragedy.

A luminous presence on Hawaii’s jazz scene for more than four decades, Herron has earned national renown as a gifted singer/songwriter. Less known is that she collaborated with her daughter, lyricist Dawn Herron, on many of her songs. They were in the midst of a fruitful patch of writing when a bicycle accident took Dawn’s life on April 5, 2020. She was 49 and left a husband and two teenage sons. Deep in mourning and on pandemic-induced hiatus from her eight-year tenure as a resident musician in the Halekulani Hotel-Waikiki, Herron decided to channel her love and grief into recording her recent collaborations with Dawn.

The title track, “Your Refrain,” is a powerful song about loss, but the album is brimming with life, wit, and humor. The opening track, “WhatNot,” is a bluesy ode to melancholy, featuring the brilliant pianist Larry Goldings and the superb, well-traveled tandem of bassist David Enos and drummer John Ferraro. The trio accompanies Herron on the hilarious “He Can’t Even Lay An Egg,” a sly piece of funk on which Dawn puts a fowl spin on the war of the sexes, and “I Can’t Seem to Find My Man,” a playfully wry piece that combines Frishbergian detail with Lennon and McCartney tunefulness.

The great Los Angeles saxophonist Bob Sheppard contributes exquisite soprano sax work on “Watching the Crows,” an uncommonly poetic affirmation about attaining insight into oneself. On first hearing of that song earlier this year, with Maggie backing herself on piano, Dawn told her, “mom, it’s my favorite collaboration to date”. Maggie had spent years coaxing her daughter to work on songs together. “Dawn had been writing short stories and poems most of her life and I kept asking her to write lyrics for me. I knew she would be great at it. With this newest release we now have 19 songs recorded as co-writers,” Herron says. The first two songs they wrote together were the romantic love song “Je T’aimerais”, arranged by Geoffrey Keezer, and “Le Printemps est Arrivé” where Dawn drew on her fluency in French. It is a graceful piece Maggie recorded with trumpet star Rick Braun, who also joined her on vocals. Both songs are on her 2014 album Good Thing.More......... https://bigislandmusic.net/award-winning-vocalist-maggie-herron-releases-sixth-album-your-refrain/

Your Refrain

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Maggie Herron - Renditions

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:48
Size: 118,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:34)  1. Centerpiece
(4:05)  2. Ain't Misbehavin'
(4:53)  3. All of Me
(2:42)  4. Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps
(3:58)  5. I'm Beginning to See the Light
(4:19)  6. I Will
(4:16)  7. Just One of Those Things
(2:58)  8. Come Away with Me
(3:56)  9. I'll Be Seeing You
(4:24) 10. Don't Wait Too Long
(5:35) 11. I Thought About You
(4:03) 12. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You

Jazz vocalist and pianist Maggie Herron takes a bit of a departure on her latest platter titled Renditions. Her previous four albums featured original compositions but with her latest she has chosen to go the standard route, reinterpreting some classics of the genre with a few surprises along the way. She is the core of her Pacific Rim band which also includes Darek Oles on bass and Ray Brinker on drums. Featured guests include Larry Koonse (guitar), Rocky Holmes (alto sax), Dean Taba (bass), Bob Sheppard (flute) and Noel Okimoto (drums).

The album opens with “Centerpiece” featuring the core trio at its expressive best. Herron’s piano and vocals are a nice match, both endearing with her husky jazz voice, excellent scatting and melodic piano tones. The song locks into an understated groove before piano, bass and drum solos are revealed. With the classic “Ain’t Misbehavin” it’s just Herron and Oles reinterpreting the familiar melody and soaking it in some fabulous piano and bass interaction. One of the prettiest tracks has to be “All Of Me” featuring Koonse’s crystalline leads and infectious rhythmic strums and Holmes’ tuneful alto sax. Just an all-around great track. 

Another heartwarming rendition is of The Beatles’ “I Will” which sounds great in the trio format. Herron’s vocals and piano are particularly convincing and the bass solo fits in like a glove. This is another one of those jazz albums that exudes warmth and thoughtfulness with great care taken, treating these classics with the respect they deserve. A four star release to these ears. https://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=22053

Renditions

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Maggie Herron - A Ton of Trouble

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:50
Size: 111,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:50)  1. A Ton of Trouble
(4:12)  2. Perfect Specimen
(4:48)  3. Scheherazade
(3:04)  4. Salty Wine
(4:18)  5. Dance Me to the End of Love
(3:19)  6. Red Hot Jazz
(3:34)  7. Small Stuff
(4:17)  8. There Is Love
(4:57)  9. Changing Winds
(3:17) 10. Monkishness
(4:12) 11. The Dove & the Bourbon
(3:55) 12. In My Life

Nominated for the 2018 Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Single of the Year, Maggie Herron's rendition of “In My Life” (Lennon/McCartney) features Larry Koonse-Guitar and Dean Taba-Bass with Maggie On vocals. Maggie Herron’s CD, ‘Between the Music and the Moon’ is the winner of the 2017 Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Jazz Album of the Year. Nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, the CD features 12 original songs with engineering and mastering by Paul Tavenner. The title track features guitarist, Grant Geissman. With 10 original and 2 cover songs, Maggie delivers her rich,contralto vocals over horn driven, guitar laden original bluesy and New Orleans style songs. Contemplative and storytelling songs feature Maggie at piano along with 2 guest jazz piano greats on several tracks: Bill Cunliffe and Geoffrey Keezer. The making of A Ton Of Trouble “was born during a year of flu, a broken arm and the natural lowering of my vocal range,” Herron explains. However, Herron has successfully managed to turn her troubles into lyrical creative fodder, including elements of humor, fun, contemplation and storytelling. Herron relied on some longtime collaborators to help with the album’s eleven other jazz pieces. Bill Cunliffe arranged six of the albums songs as well as accompanies Herron on piano for those tracks. Bassist,Dean Taba, who also regularly performs live with Herron at Lewer’s Lounge in Waikiki, plays on all but one of the album’s tracks. Her daughter, Dawn Herron, co-wrote lyrics for five of the albums original songs. The album was engineered by Paul Tavenner at Big City Recording Studios. Maggie can be seen weekly, performing at Honolulu's premier jazz club, Lewers Lounge.  https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/maggieherron7

A Ton of Trouble

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Joel Evans & Friends - Cozy Cool

Size: 195,5 MB
Time: 82:45
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2017
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. I Never Say No (Feat. Maggie Herron) (2:50)
02. There You Go (Feat. Jackie Ryan) (4:19)
03. Open Road (Feat. Carla Helmbrecht) (4:37)
04. The Dreamin' Kind (Feat. Roberta Donnay) (3:12)
05. Just The Right Amount Of Wrong (Feat. Tami Damiano) (3:57)
06. Don't Tell Me (Feat. Jackie Ryan) (3:40)
07. I Got Nothin' (To Worry About) [Feat. Roberta Donnay] (3:01)
08. What Have You Done (Feat. Carla Helmbrecht) (3:16)
09. Leaning Into Love (Feat. Jennifer Lee) (4:42)
10. Happy Lovin' You (Feat. Roberta Donnay) (3:09)
11. Christmas Time For Two (Feat. Carla Helmbrecht) (4:41)
12. I Never Say No (Vocal Muted) (2:50)
13. There You Go (Vocal Muted) (4:13)
14. Open Road (Vocal Muted) (4:32)
15. The Dreamin' Kind (Vocal Muted) (3:12)
16. Just The Right Amount Of Wrong (Vocal Muted) (3:52)
17. Don't Tell Me (Vocal Muted) (3:40)
18. I Got Nothin' (To Worry About) (Vocal Muted) (3:01)
19. What Have You Done (Vocal Muted) (3:16)
20. Leaning Into Love (Vocal Muted) (4:42)
21. Happy Lovin' You (Vocal Muted) (3:08)
22. Christmas Time For Two (Vocal Muted) (4:41)

Composer/Songwriter Joel Evans has songs & cues in more than 85 movies and 400 TV episodes; major Hollywood films, hip indie flicks, network and daytime dramas; ranging from Wedding Crashers to Passengers; and from Friends to Stranger Things. The 2014 Daytime Emmy winning special Young & Restless Tribute to Jeanne Cooper features as its main theme, “That’s When I’ll Stop Loving You”, co-written with Byron Walls (Starman, New Christy Minstrels). Ciroq Vodka TV and radio ads highlight his Big Band number, "Fly Away." Grammy-winning vocalist Carmen Bradford sings his song, "No Easy Way To Say Goodbye” on tour with the Count Basie Orchestra. Joel's songs have been recorded by diverse artists, including Spencer Day, Dave Samuels, Shaun Murphy, Roberta Donnay, The Yellowjackets and Peter Tork. (the former Monkee has a great blues band!)

After earning his BA on flute at Cal State University East Bay he performed with a series of groups, and quickly realized the fortunes of a jazz flautist were capricious at best. “We did one gig where our earnings didn't even pay off our bar tab,” he notes wryly. Later, a stint on piano backing Bobby Freeman (“Do You Wanna Dance”) took Evans to Tahoe and Reno, where watching the rock godfather reiterate the same patter night after night further inspired him to improvise. Life imitates art: in the film Rumor Has It, Kevin Costner and Jennifer Aniston share a conversation while the Joel Evans Combo paints the aural backdrop in the same San Francisco hotel bar where he once worked a steady piano gig. Evans’ Hollywood-sophisticated melodies are often used on screen to evoke sumptuous surroundings like hotel lobbies and upscale restaurants, so it’s no coincidence that he spent years performing in just these types of venues. Swing, big band and jazz: he occupies a decided stylistic niche. “I can’t do everything. I don’t write stuff that sounds like the 'Top 10'. I decided early on to hell with it, I’m going to do what I love.”

Unlike many instrumental composers, Evans usually co-writes complete songs. “Until it Happens to You” from Mini’s First Time provided an improbable soundtrack to a fight scene with stars Jeff Goldblum and Alec Baldwin “trying to kill one another, with my Sinatra style swing thing in the background,” laughs Evans. He notes that one of his most unexpected inclusions was in the gritty rock and roll noir film, Sugartown, where his sweet song, “Moody” played behind, as he delicately phrases it, “The depiction of an act of love. But it fit the scene.” A self-professed team player, Evans enlists first call musicians who can deliver the requisite tones; veterans like Dame Cleo Laine's favorite pianist, Larry Dunlap and David Rokeach from the Ray Charles band; seasoned authorities who helped define the genres his compositions reference. Talented Co-writers like Nashville-based Lisa Aschmann and pop/theatrical writer Adryan Russ contribute their magic to the sterling credibility of the songs. ~Bio by Dan Kimpel

Cozy Cool

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Maggie Herron - Good Thing

Size: 127,5 MB
Time: 54:54
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. Things Could Be Better (3:41)
02. The Very Thought Of You (4:22)
03. Je T'aimerais (3:52)
04. Straighten' Up And Fly Right (3:42)
05. Cake (3:41)
06. Woodstock (6:27)
07. You Call It Madness I Call It Love (4:21)
08. Good Thing (2:57)
09. Baby Baby All The Time (3:57)
10. The More I See You (3:41)
11. Moon River (4:57)
12. Le Printemps Est Arrive' (4:28)
13. Body And Soul (4:41)

Wow! Has Maggie Herron ever got a voice on her! Good Thing starts out with one of her own compositions, Things Could be Better, a very cool swingin' song that could easily fit into a balmy summer's hit movie or the Billboard charts…and I mean verrrry easily fit. Her ability to climb from husky reminiscence to vibrant exultancy is rather remarkable. Great lyrics too, capturing that Everyman/woman ethos informing a good deal of the best of Tin Pan Alley in its prime. Then her selection of producer Brian Bromberg, who of course also sits in on bass, was choice because there's a smoothness and sheen satinizing the entirety of the release.

I'm not kidding; Herron possesses a highly trained and superbly honed vocal instrument, never for a second within a continent's distance of a wrong choice, hesitation, or inconfidence. Peggy Lee would sit rapt at one of her Hawaii recitals (Maggie's a permanently transplanted islander). Herron also plays a very respectable piano but never lets it get in the way of her singing. When it comes to the matrixing the lyrics, however, she's her own accompanist along with the rest of a highly adept crew plying the staves and measures, Dave Tull—no relation to Jethro, so far as I know—a versatile drummer beneath it all. She does, however, take solos here and there, and when they arise, each and every one is clean, light, and scintillating.

Maggie's take on Joni Mitchell's Woodstock will have Steve Stills and Graham Nash, not to mention Gracie Slick, taking notice. Joni won't be at all surprised, though, as this is exactly what she'd do with it were she to tackle it again in Don Juan's Reckless Daughter fashion, with Mancini's Moon River a companion, here taken down a notch or two even from Andy Williams' famed mellifluous take. My favorite cut, though, is one Maggie wrote with Dawn Herron (sister?), Le Printemps est Arrive'. The melodics are just sooooo right. Bacharach will be loving it, and the late A.C. Jobim will be right behind him from somewhere in the clouds. Piaf herself would have wanted to sing the cut, it's that good. ~by Mark S. Tucker

Good Thing

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Maggie Herron - In The Wings

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 42:21
Size: 97.0 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz, Piano jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[3:24] 1. I Could Sooner
[4:05] 2. J'attends
[3:58] 3. I'm The Answer To Your Problems
[3:52] 4. Stepping Out
[3:57] 5. Dans Le Vide De La Nuit
[6:40] 6. Up Early
[4:01] 7. Don't Ask Me To Stop
[4:05] 8. Powerful Dreams
[3:39] 9. It Could Happen To You
[4:36] 10. In The Wings

Forget what you may hear otherwise, Maggie Herron's In the Wings is Tin Pan Alley melded with nightclub jazz and Broadway—the serious side of the Alley, the Parisian jazz life, and Broadway with a musically literate bite, not the glitz and tinsel glamor too damn prevalent nowadays. Pianist and singer Herron has been hooked up with saxist Paul Lindbergh for four years, and the gent has woven himself tightly into his partner's musk and leashed free-spiritedness, and is probably not unused to feasting with a panther or two, a little Gato here, a little Dewey there, and plenty of trad foundations. The two do much to energize one another.

Take Herron's cover of Mitchell's Woodstock and you'll see a centrifugal blend of all the foregoing as well as a great close-out duet between Lindbergh and trumpeter Eldred Ahlo. If I call Herron's compositions 'muscular', it's only because she manages to anchor them so solidly in tradition while dancing atop everything, especially when letting go in melismatic larksong soaring above the melodies. Rain-muffled echoes of Piaf step in any number of times, not least because Herron likes to encant in le langue francaise every so often but also because there's a strong essence of Parisian cobblestone in her method, not to mention that side hint of grit lurking just at the perimeter—not always, not frequently, but there when needed in Herron's timbre. More than once, I was struck by the fact that this was what I wanted out of Chi Coltrane but never got. I was likewise struck by images of Deitrich and others in that middle-range of hers.

Singing, however, is far from Maggie's only card in the deck. A keyboardist since before fourth grade, she knows her way around the ebonies and ivories, showing this well over and over, playing above, amidst, and just below the rest of the ensemble as occasion and arrangement dictate. Numerous jam sections crop up—in the jazz tongue: improvs—and what at first may seem to be a collection of chart hopefuls is actually a melding of two worlds, just enough mellow rock in the lighter jazz mode to make both comfortable while meaty. ~Mark S. Tucker

In The Wings

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Maggie Herron - Listen

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:50
Size: 82,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:19)  1. I'll Be There for You Baby
(3:40)  2. There Is Love
(2:48)  3. Give It What You Can
(4:23)  4. If I Had You Beside Me
(3:43)  5. Thinking Of You
(3:37)  6. Listen
(4:09)  7. Who Becomes The Stranger?
(3:53)  8. When It's Dark And Light?
(3:18)  9. Why Did You Leave Me?
(2:55) 10. Where Does It Go?

Maggie is the 9th of 12 children. Her parents, Martha and Ed Herron raised their children in Muskegon, Mi. where they owned and operated a grocery store. All of the kids worked shifts at the store stocking shelves, cleaning and running the cash register. Home was filled with siblings practicing on musical instruments, listening to Sinatra, pop and rock of the 50's and 60's while Maggie immersed herself in classical music. Her mother and oldest sister Mary mentored her in study that started with private lessons when she was 6 years old. By the age of 10 she was the church organist and vocalist. As a teenager she won first place honors to perform Beethoven's 2nd piano concerto with the Muskegon symphony orchestra and soon after won a scholarship to the summer music program at Interlochen. Maggie was in the top five finalists there for the piano concerto competition. Throughout High shcool she acted in school dramas and musicals and performed semi annual recitals from a classical piano and voice repertoire. 

She performed in Seattle from 72‘-76‘ at the Camlin hotel, The Sorrento Hotel, University Towers and other local venues. She was a soloist during that time playing the piano and singing a wide repertoire of music. While there, she met and became the featured guest in concerts by George Winston and Scot Cossu of the Windham Hill label. In 1976 she moved to the Big Island from Seattle and was offered a steady performing engagement. Over the next decade she won the Hawaii Homegrown contest for best song and performance out of 300 entries. She opened concerts for Dave Brubeck, Richie Havens, Taj Mahal, Olomana, and The Jazz Crusaders, and produced 2 albums of her music and countless demos while performing locally several nights a week. As a keyboardist and vocalist with both Cecelio and Kapono in club and concert venues she worked with 4 and 5 piece groups as lead singer for 3 years in Honolulu at Shelby’s and Nick’s Fishmarket. 

Maggie left for California in 1987 where she was active as a song writer and recording artist for 3 years, opening concerts for Phoebe Snow and Michael Franks, she was also the president of the Santa Barbara Song Writer’s Guild for 2 years. She performed in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Westlake, as well as a long engagement in L.A. at the Hyatt on Sunset Blvd. with special engagements at At My Place and was hired by MGM to write and perform songs for the film, Spellbinder. Being a lover of nature and quiet surroundings she returned home to Hawaii in 1990, chosing to live on Lanai where she was the principle musician for 12 years at Manele Bay Hotel. For 3 years she hosted a jazz show as "Radio Maggie" for a local Hawaii station which featured jazz of all eras with commentary from Maggie. Maggie now lives in Honolulu and performs in the Lewers Lounge every Tues.-Sat. nights. ~ Bio   http://www.maggieherron.com/new/index.html

Listen

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