Lannie Garrett - Comes Love

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:01
Size: 126,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:12)  1. Easy Street
(2:34)  2. You're A Sweetheart
(5:13)  3. Detour Ahead
(3:53)  4. I Don't Know Enough About You
(4:06)  5. Invitation To The Blues
(3:41)  6. You're Lookin' At Me
(4:54)  7. I Wonder
(3:15)  8. You Can Be Replaced
(4:56)  9. Easy Living
(4:14) 10. Comes Love
(3:42) 11. Pickin' Up After You
(4:19) 12. Falling Back In Love With You
(4:15) 13. Time After Time
(1:42) 14. Go Slow

With a play list featuring, but not limited to, torch songs, Lannie Garrett's third album zeros in on her versatility in delivering a set of 14 tunes cutting across different styles of music. Garrett's home base is Denver, CO, where she was named "Favorite Female Vocalist" six years in a row by the Denver Post. Along the way, she has appeared with such luminaries as Bob Hope and Bill Cosby and opened for her idol Ray Charles. On this album, Garrett is joined by a cluster of very good musicians with the trio of Eric Gunnison, Mike Marlier, and Kenny Walker augmented by other musicians on various tracks. Prominent jazz-pop sax player Nelson Rangell shows up on several as saxophonist, flutist, and whistler! He whistles well, but he is no Elmo Tanner. Rangell's soulful tenor saxophone on "I Didn't Know Enough About You" helps to create a depressing mood that seems to be proper for this not-so-happy tune. Rangell turns whistler on "I Wonder," which Garrett leans on to construct a chilling picture of a dark, rainy street scene as she works through this tune. His tenor returns taking on a funky tone as Garrett goes vamp on the not oft recorded "You Can Be Replaced." Things get a bit brighter on "Comes Love" as Kevin Bollinger's muted trumpet figures beneath Garrett's voice and around Eric Gunnison's piano. Mitch Chmara's electric guitar makes significant contributions on this track. One of the highlights of the album is a vocal duet rendition of "Pickin' Up After You" as Garrett is joined by Tommy Malone from the the Subdudes. Together they fashion a colorful blend of Motown and country, with Kevin Bollinger's trumpet providing the bulk of the instrumental support. Contrast this with the other vocal duet on the set where Garrett and Chris Daniels of the Kings blend for a medium tempo, bouncy straightforward interpretation of Bobby Troup's "You're Lookin' at Me."This album amply demonstrates that Garrett is comfortable with any number of vocal styles, straight-ahead singing, R&B, country, and the blues. Although her vocal skills are not extraordinary, she certainly puts everything she has into each song she delivers, making her effort very credible as well as entertaining. This album is a set of good performances from a well-rounded entertainer and is recommended. ~ Dave Nathan https://www.allmusic.com/album/comes-love-mw0000238877  

?Personnel: Lannie Garrett (vocals); Chris Daniels (vocals, acoustic guitar); Tommy Malone (vocals); Kip Kuepper (strings); Nelson Rangell (saxophone, flute, whistle); Kevin Bollinger (trumpet); Eric Gunnison (piano); Mitch Chmara (guitar); Kenny Walker (bass); Mike Marler (drums).             

Comes Love

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Nelson Rangell - Soul To Souls

Styles: Saxophone Jazz

Year: 2006

File: MP3@320K/s 

Time: 52:43

Size: 121,3 MB 

Art: Front

(5:57)  1. Free As The Wind

(5:31)  2. City Lights

(4:21)  3. When I Saw You

(4:58)  4. Vonetta

(3:36)  5. Instrumental Theme, Pt. 2

(4:58)  6. Mean Business

(6:42)  7. A Night In Tunisia

(6:27)  8. A New Avenger

(4:19)  9. Send One Your Love

(5:51) 10. The World View

If you've never heard saxophonist Nelson Rangell, you may find Soul To Souls a pleasant step beyond typical smooth radio fodder. Listeners familiar with his work will find it, for better or worse, a return to safety. Rangell put out unpolished fusion albums with scattered moments of innovation during his early years, hit a brief peak during mid-'90s, and has since lapsed into lukewarm territory. He took a detour for the better on My American Songbook Vol. 1 (Koch, 2005), which featured chestnuts like "Billy Boy" with novel arrangements and honest-to-goodness straight-ahead soloing. But that relative daring is missing on Soul to Souls, replaced by steady beats, familiar licks, and highlighting of guest players like guitarists Chuck Loeb and Earl Klugh. 

"Doing a pop recording in this day and age has a lot of challenges," he writes. "The marketplace and the mechanisms within it can be complicated and often cynical." But Soul to Souls doesn't achieve his stated goal of overcoming those challenges with an album emulating a "direct experience of playing for people." Like many improvisers, his live performances can take things to a serious next level, but the glossiness of this album mostly leaves a nagging feeling that he's playing below his potential.Rangell's rapid-phrase solos go beyond mere lyricism, blending his classical flute training with harmonically challenging post bop, which is why they may catch the ears of first-time listeners. But those familiar with previous albums will almost certainly find themselves thinking they've heard these exact phrases before. Rangell's range of instrumentation isn't as diverse as it was on some albums; he doesn't spent much time dong the extreme upper-register alto sax exercises of years past, and there's no novelties like his strikingly clear and precise whistling.

Soul to Souls is basically a ten-song, radio-friendly album with an even mix of covers and originals co-written by Rangell. With such a lineup, a nearly seven-minute long version of Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night In Tunisia" all but demands extra attention. The first three minutes are a mood music prelude and feature a chorus somewhat diluted by smooth synths. Rangell fingers his way competently through a minute-long solo of those rapid notes without much direction or development. In a more lyrical and deliberate way, pianist Vlad Girshevich massages a pleasant but unmemorable passage against a backdrop of more synths.The beat-driven, high-register chorus of "A New Avenger" catches the ear enough to see if anything memorable will result, but the result from Loeb and Rangell is a lot more notes that are compatible with the composition without enhancing it. Klugh's impact is similarly minimal on "Vonetta," although it's as good a piece as any to hear Rangell on flute, where he often does his most accomplished work. ~ Mark Sabbatini  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/soul-to-souls-nelson-rangell-koch-records-review-by-mark-sabbatini.php

Personnel: Nelson Rangell: saxophones, flute, piccolo, vocals; Alex Nekrasov: keyboards, vocals; Christian Teele: drums, percussion; Chuck Loeb: guitar (1,8); Herb Lowe: bass (1,4,10); Joe Gamble: guitar (2,6,8); Ross Martin: guitar (3-5); Earl Klugh: guitar (4); Bill Cooper: guitar (9); Chris Engleman: bass (5); Vernon Barbary: bass (6); Vlad Girshevich: piano (7).

 

Soul To Souls

Nelson Rangell - Blue

Styles: Flute Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:58
Size: 152,7 MB
Art: Front

(6:36)  1. Little Face
(6:42)  2. Dizzy
(6:23)  3. Le Tombeau De Couperin
(6:28)  4. Children's Games
(5:54)  5. Peter and the Wolf
(6:42)  6. Sweetest Somebody I Know
(2:29)  7. I Loved You
(6:15)  8. Pavane
(7:09)  9. Free as a Bird
(5:16) 10. Ao Mar
(6:00) 11. The Magician (El Mago)

Nelson Rangell has primarily played pop-jazz throughout his career, although he did a credible job playing some soulful alto with the straight-ahead GRP All-Star Big Band. The records he cut for GRP in the early '90s made him into a popular contemporary jazz attraction in the David Sanborn tradition. A native of Denver, CO, Rangell learned how to play flute at the age of 15, and within six months, he was studying music at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Shortly afterward, he learned the saxophone, and in 1979 he won Down Beat's Best High School Jazz Soloist competition. Following his graduation from high school, he attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston; this time, he won the Down Beat contest on the college level. In 1984, Rangell moved to New York. He spent three years in New York playing clubs and working as a sideman, not only on jazz sessions, but also on jingles and pop records. Rangell finally began his solo career in 1987, releasing To Begin Again on the Gaia label. 

Two years later, he moved to GRP, where he released Playing for Keeps. His second album became a major contemporary jazz hit, and with each subsequent release, his popularity grew. His next four albums Nelson Rangell (1990), In Every Moment (1992), Truest Heart (1993), Yes Then Yes (1994) were all popular on the contemporary jazz charts. In addition to recording his solo albums, Rangell was involved in the GRP All-Star Big Band, playing both in the studio and on the road. Destiny, an album that found Rangell incorporating hip-hop rhythms into his sound, was released in 1994. It was followed in 1997 by Turning Night into Day; Far Away Day appeared three years later. In 2003, Rangell released his 12th album, the typically smooth and eclectic Look Again, followed by a collection of Christmas essentials (All I Hope for Christmas) and the instrumental pop tribute album My American Songbook, Vol. 1. Soul to Souls was released in 2006. ~ Scott Yanow & Stephen Thomas Erlewine  https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/nelson-rangell/id75477#fullText

Blue

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