Nikki Yanofsky - Nikki By Starlight

Styles: Vocal
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:05
Size: 116,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:42) 1. I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)
(3:42) 2. Comes Love
(2:30) 3. Crazy He Calls Me (Feat. Greg Phillinganes)
(2:41) 4. I Get A Kick Out Of You
(2:18) 5. Comment Allez Vous
(3:12) 6. Stella By Starlight
(3:42) 7. They Say It's Spring
(3:34) 8. It Never Entered My Mind
(2:52) 9. C'est Si Bon
(2:39) 10. West Coast Blues (Feat. Greg Phillinganes)
(3:19) 11. Let Me Love You
(3:04) 12. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado) (Feat. Nathan East)
(4:11) 13. Estate (Feat. Arturo Sandoval)
(4:23) 14. You Stepped Out Of My Dream
(4:09) 15. Some Other Time

A celebration of jazz for purists and new generations alike, ‘Nikki By Starlight’ is comprised of 15 standards from legends Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Billie Holiday and more. Out October 21st, Nikki By Starlight was co-produced with the JUNO-winning producer/composer Paul Shrofel and features contributions from Stevie Wonder’s bandmate Greg Phillinganes, Nathan East (Bobby Womack, Herbie Hancock, Michael Jackson) and the iconic Cuban-American jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.

Today she releases the French song “C’est Si Bon,” originally composed in 1947 by Henri Betti with lyrics by André Hornez. Popularized by Eartha Kitt, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Barbara Streisand, and more, Yanofsky’s poised rendition follows in the footsteps of these classic standard bearers.

Yanofsky describes the process of recording this album as an invigorating and joyful time that allowed her to tap into the purest part of herself again. She reconnected with the classics on her own terms especially as an artist who did her first show at just 12 years old, and sometimes felt like a “party trick” singing songs from a bygone era when she was so young. Even so, jazz was her first love, and this record is a true homecoming.
https://femmusic.com/wp/index.php/2022/09/09/nikki-yanofsky-nikki-by-starlight/

Nikki By Starlight

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Various - Jazz Loves Disney

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:28
Size: 108.7 MB
Styles: Stage & Screen
Year: 2016
Art: Front

[2:55] 1. Jamie Cullum - Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat
[3:40] 2. Melody Gardot - He's A Tramp
[3:11] 3. Stacey Kent - Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
[3:47] 4. Gregory Porter - When You Wish Upon A Star
[4:59] 5. China Moses - Why Don't You Do Right
[3:51] 6. Raphael Gualazzi - I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)
[4:14] 7. The Rob Mounsey Orchestra - A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
[4:03] 8. Hugh Coltman - You've Got A Friend In Me
[3:23] 9. Anne Sila - Let It Go
[3:26] 10. Melody Gardot - The Bare Necessities
[3:28] 11. Laika - Once Upon A Dream
[3:16] 12. Nikki Yanofsky - Un Jour Mon Prince Viendra
[3:08] 13. The Hot Sardines - I Wanna Be Like You

The notion that jazz singers love Disney tunes is hardly new, the relationship stretching from Johnny Mercer’s 1947 rendition of Song of the South’s Oscar-winning “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” to Steve Tyrell’s Disney Standards, from 2006. Never, though, has so ambitious or smartly executed a Disney-themed collection of vocal jazz been assembled as this.

Recorded in 2014 and 2015 across sessions spanning London, Paris, New York and L.A., Jazz Loves Disney is overcrowded with A-listers, all in top form: Gregory Porter’s haunting “When You Wish Upon a Star”; Jamie Cullum’s frisky “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat”; Melody Gardot coyly channeling Peggy Lee on “He’s a Tramp” and teaming with Italian crooner Raphael Gualazzi for a sprightly spin through “The Bare Necessities”; and, in French, Stacey Kent reimagining Cinderella’s “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” as a cozy bossa nova. Reinterpretation en français is a recurring theme, with an impressively mature Nikki Yanofsky serving up a sultry “Un jour mon prince viendra” (“Someday My Prince Will Come”) and Miz Elizabeth’s Hot Sardines revitalizing The Jungle Book’s “I Wanna Be Like You” as what might best be described as Left-Bank Dixieland.

Less-familiar names add equally fine performances, among them a Connick-esque “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” by Hugh Coltman and a delicate handling of Frozen’s “Let It Go” by Anne Sila, a victor on the French version of The Voice. If there’s a sour note it’s the sole instrumental track, an overly lush “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from the Rob Mounsey Orchestra that feels entirely out of place. ~Christopher Loudon

Jazz Loves Disney mc
Jazz Loves Disney zippy

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Nikki Yanofsky - Nikki

Styles: Jazz, Vocal

Year: 2010

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 46:46

Size: 108,5 MB

Art: Front

(3:33)  1. Take The "A" Train

(2:28)  2. Never Make It On Time

(3:45)  3. I Got Rhythm

(2:52)  4. For Another Day

(5:05)  5. God Bless The Child

(3:23)  6. Cool My Heels

(4:18)  7. You'll Have To Swing It (Mr. Paganini)

(3:50)  8. Bienvenue Dans Ma Vie

(3:06)  9. First Lady

(2:40) 10. On The Sunny Side Of The Street/Fool In The Rain

(3:22) 11. Grey Skies

(3:11) 12. Try Try Try

(5:08) 13. Over The Rainbow

With Norah Jones choosing to pursue a career as a Bohemian singer/songwriter (and Nellie McKay revealing herself to be too artfully camp to even consider the mainstream), the door was wide open for a singer like Nikki Yanofsky: a bright, cheerful jazz-pop traditionalist happy to sing those old songs once again. And so she does on here 2010 debut, Nikki, produced in tandem by the legendary Phil Ramone and Jesse Harris, the guitarist/songwriter who came to prominence via his work on Jones’ debut Come Away with Me, where he penned her breakthrough hit “Don’t Know Why.” Harris performs a similar function on Yanofsky’s debut, co-writing the bulk of the non-classics here with the assistance of Ron Sexsmith and Yanofsky herself, crafting smooth, assured soft rock that’s of a piece with the sultriness of Come Away with Me (with the notable exception of the cabaret swing of “Bienvenue Dans Ma Vie”). But Nikki Yanofsky is clearly not Norah Jones: she possesses a puppy-dog eagerness that jibes with her 16 years, happy to perform and please. Her status as a show biz kid can occasionally grate whenever she succumbs to scatting, or does a too-cute mashup of “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain,” she gives the impression of that too-talented, over-coached kid who dominates drama club but there’s also an innate brightness to her persona that is beguiling, particularly when she’s singing those numbers written with Harris and Sexsmith, songs that feel timeless and contemporary and take full advantage of her sunny nature. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine http://www.allmusic.com/album/nikki-mw0001977293

Nikki

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Nikki Yanofsky - Little Secret

Styles: Pop, Vocal
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:05
Size: 90,1 MB
Art: Front

(2:52)  1. Something New
(3:24)  2. Blessed With Your Curse
(3:55)  3. Waiting On The Sun
(3:45)  4. Necessary Evil
(3:19)  5. Little Secret
(3:00)  6. Jeepers Creepers 2.0
(3:36)  7. Out Of Nowhere
(2:28)  8. You Mean The World To Me
(3:00)  9. Knock Knock
(3:12) 10. Enough Of You
(3:10) 11. Bang
(3:20) 12. Kaboom Pow

Yanofsky is trying to find herself on Little Secret, but she’s doing it with the help of none other than Quincy Jones, so maybe the search is, uh, less personal than professional. Yanofsky has the pipes and maybe the look of a pop star. But what is undeniably strange about this recording is the way in which it nominally tries to be a “jazz” record as well as a pop record. Q and his young ward are trying to retain (somewhat) the things that make Yanofsky unique while, simultaneously, putting her over as a soul singer, a pop star, a raucous hit-maker. It’s a tricky needle to thread. The temptation is to spread your bets around the table a bit, try a few different things. And that is the case here. The dominant sound on Little Secret is an enjoyable neo-soul sound that was copped, maybe more than just a little bit, from Amy Winehouse’s fun and joyous Back to Black. The opening track, “Something New”,...isn’t. There’s nothing new about the quick pick-ups to certain bars of the verse played by a honking R&B baritone sax, the horn blasts, and even the tune’s structure/melody/chords, which sound a whole lot like Herbie Hancock’s classic “Watermelon Man”. But that’s cool  novelty is not the most important thing in pop music. And, even though Yanofsky claims in her booklet notes that Quincy thinks she “can give jazz new life”, this is pop music, purely as anything can be.

Yanofsky’s last record, Nikki, came out in 2010, and it packaged her as a different kind of pop star. She was collaborating with Jesse Harris on songwriting Harris being the composer of Norah Jones’s mega-hit “Don’t Know Why”, a guy with a genuine feel for smart, easy-to-love-but-still-hip, jazz-inflected singer-songwriter pop. Little Secret not only abandons those kinds of arrangments, but it finds our young singer using a vocal approach that is infused with the embellishments, vocal tics, and even lyric pronunciations of a standard-issue 2014 soul diva. It’s a vocal style both calculated to sell and probably one that makes lots of sense to a 20 year-old in the year 2014. Still, Little Secret makes this game but often awkward attempt to still be a jazz record. To my ears the feints toward jazz are superficial and odd.  Most plainly, there is the positively peculiar “Jeepers Creepers 2.0”, a funked-out version of the old-timey tune associated with Ella, adorned with both period-styled piano and booming synth bass, both ‘30s-sounding horn bits and electronic precussion. Maybe there’s an audience that wants to hear a corny old novelty song given a dancehall interpretation…maybe? Unlikely.

“You Mean the World to Me”, as written, is an old-fashioned 32-par Tin Pan Alley type song, and for the first 12 bars of the arrangement, the production is that of a jazz record. On the next bar, however, Panofsky’s vocals are suddenly drenched in pop effects and the drums go into a funk backbeat. It’s kind of a big band arrangement and kind of a dance track. And, thus, neither, really. Elsewhere, amidst songs otherwise straight down the middle of the soul/R&B road, Yanofsky is asked to do a whole bunch of scat singing. “Blessed with Your Curse” actually opens with a bit of this, setting it up as the tune’s hook, doubled by horns. For the most part, the tune is drenched in reverb, electronic/groove percussion, and a big, hooky chorus, but it starts with scatting. (Panofsky’s booklet notes refer to this song as being written from a scat line.) Scat singing appears again in the closing seconds of “Waiting on the Sun”, which is a more middle-of-the-road soul ballad, and doo-doot-be-bwee-doooop there it is again in the last 30 seconds of “Necessary Evil”. On “Knock Knock”, a slow funk thing with a punchy horn-based arrangement also laced with some string parts, there it is again.

Then there is the album’s title track, which starts with a bass line and brushes-on-snare groove that clearly sets out to remind listeners of the Peggy Lee classic “Fever”, even stealing a bit of that old song’s melody on the verse. The song quickly revs into a shoutable chorus, with Yanofsky’s soul cry rising up above things. But through to the end, it uses little bits and pieces of nostalgia to evoke the past: quick bits of overdubbed vocal harmony that sound slightly Andrews Sisters-esque, for example. Mostly, though, you can read this recording’s intent even just in the song titles alone: “Knock Knock”, “Kaboom Pow” and “Bang” are pretty clear in this regard. Yanofsky and Mr. Quincy Jones are trying to get your attention. (One irresistible bit from the recording’s booklet: Yanofsky recalls the first time she met “Q”—as he met her in his living room wearing a bathrobe and slippers…and carrying a smoothie. Yes, this is exactly how I want to see Quincy Jones in my mind!) “Enough of You” is a great pop song, pretty much the standard kiss-off of a misbehaving boyfriend, but grooving like mad in that retro way, some vibes clanging amidest the funky beat, a hip horn break right before Yanofsky gives her version of a James Brown cry, then back to the chorus. Tasty, zesty, danceable! “Kaboom” is even better, uptempo groove music you’d want to hear at a party, a wall of sound coming at you rich in pop syncopation, mechanical I suppose but as 2014 pop music goes pretty sincere in just wanting to be fun. (Is there some scat singing in there too? Yes. But the stacked soul vocals on the breakdown chorus toward the end sounds nothing like Ella, and happily so.) “Tonight we’re going 24 hours / So turn it up a little bit louder” a good lyric for a 20 year-old.

If you’re looking for modern jazz singers who happen to be from Canada, there’s always Diana Krall, though she’s currently mired in a David Foster-produced mess on Verve that is also a bid for pop stardom of a much more boring kind. Better, you can check out Elizabeth Shepherd, a jazz-trained pianist and singer whose new The Signal funky and insinuating but smart and sophisticated too an original voice who is organically fusing jazz and pop, not trying to graft them together with gimmicks or Crazy Glue. Nikki, you are released from having to “somehow fuse jazz and pop” or from Quincy’s hope that you will “give jazz new life”. Just make some more grooving pop music a surface pleasure perhaps, but no sin. It’ll sound better with the scat singing and the odd jabs at bigbandiness. Get your young groove on with the retro-guilt. But do have a smoothie with Q for the rest of us. ~ Will Layman  http://www.popmatters.com/review/188285-nikki-yanofsky-little-secret/

Little Secret

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Various Artists - Disney Jazz: Everybody Wants To Be A Cat, Vol. 1

Styles: Straight-Ahead Jazz,Jazz-Pop 
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:18
Size: 155,5 MB
Art: Front

(5:01)  1. Roy Hargrove - Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat
(3:51)  2. Esperanza Spalding - Chim Chim Cher-ee
(4:02)  3. Dave Brubeck - Some Day My Prince Will Come
(5:16)  4. Regina Carter - Find Yourself
(3:56)  5. Joshua Redman - You've Got A Friend In Me
(4:52)  6. Dianne Reeves - He's A Tramp
(5:39)  7. Kurt Rosenwinkel - Feed The Birds (Tuppence A Bag)
(4:28)  8. The Bad Plus - Gaston
(5:59)  9. Roberta Gambarini - Alice In Wonderland (With The Dave Brubeck Trio)
(7:13) 10. Alfredo Rodriguez - The Bare Necessities
(3:12) 11. Nikki Yanofsky - It's A Small World
(6:24) 12. Gilad Hekselman - Belle
(5:18) 13. Mark Rapp - Circle Of Life

What a discovery; what a great idea. Producer Jason Olaine has taken songs from a number of Disney movies some rarely recorded by jazz musicians and made fresh new versions, utilizing some of today's most well-known jazz artists. The performers range from 90 year-old piano legend Dave Brubeck to 17 year-old Canadian vocalist Nikki Yanofsky; established horn players such as trumpeter Roy Hargrove and saxophonist Joshua Redman; and international performers including Israeli-born/US-based guitarist Gilad Hekselman and avant-garde Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez. Olaine has given these diverse artists full control, and they have mined 13 gems from the Disney catalog.  Hargrove delivers a sprightly, hard bop rendition of the sparkling "Everybody Wants to Be A Cat," from 1970's The AristoCats, while accordionist Gil Goldstein provides the haunting opening to Esperanza Spalding's creative arrangement of "Chim Chim Cher-ee," from Mary Poppins (1964), the bassist later vocalizing along with her bowed lines to underscore the song's evocative mood Brubeck gets two selections: first, a swinging version of "Someday My Prince Will Come," from 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, where the pianist breezes through the lilting melody, before coming on strong with his trademark chordal fury; later, he gives fine accompaniment to singer Roberta Gambarini on the theme song to Alice in Wonderland (1951).

Regina Carter's exotic violin merges with accordionist Gary Versace and kora master Yacouba Sissoko in the captivating and ear-opening "Find Yourself," from Cars (2006), while Redman adds depth to the innocuous "You've Got A Friend in Me, " from Toy Story (1995), the tenor saxophonist's creative energy unleashed in a trio with bassist Matt Penman and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. The irrepressible The Bad Plus is mind-blowing on a rousing version of "Gaston," from Beauty and the Beast (1991), taking this French-flavored tune through creative hijinks to a stirring climax, delivered with the brio of an Edith Piaf ballad. On the many strengths of Olaine's Everybody Wants To Be A Cat: Disney Jazz Volume 1, hopefully Volume 2 won't be far behind. ~ Larry Taylor  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/everybody-wants-to-be-a-cat-disney-jazz-volume-1-various-artists-disney-records-review-by-larry-taylor.php
 

Personnel: Roy Hargrove: trumpet (1); Justin Robinson: alto saxophone (1); Ameen Saleem: bass (1); Thaddeus Dixon: drums (1) Esperanza Spalding: bass, vocal (2); Gil Goldstein: piano, accordion (2); Dave Brubeck: piano (3, 9); Michael Moore: bass (3, 9); Randy Jones: drums (3, 9); Regina Carter: violin (4); Gary Versace: accordion (4); Yacoba Sissoko: kora (4); Chris Lightcap: bass(4); Alvester Garnett: drums, percussion (4); Joshua Redman: tenor saxophone (5); Matt Penman: bass (5); Gregory Hutchinson: drums (5); Dianne Reeves: vocal (6); Peter Martin: piano (6); James Genus: bass (6); Alvester Garnett: drums (6); Kurt Rosenwinkel: guitar and piano (7); Joshua Thurston-Milgrom: bass (7); Tobias Backhaus: drums (7); Ethan Iverson: piano (8); Reid Anderson: bass (8); Dave King: drums (8); Roberta Gambarini: vocal (9); Alfredo Rodriguez: piano and percussion (10); Nikki Yanofsky: vocal (11); Paul Shrofel: piano (11); Rob Fahle: bass (11); Geoffrey Lang: drums (11); Rod DiLauro: trumpet (11); Pat Vetter: alto saxophone (11); Christopher Smith: trombone (11); Jean Frechette: baritone saxophone (11); Gilad Hekselman: guitar (12); Joe Martin: bass (12); Obed Calvaire: drums, percussion (12); Mark Rapp: trumpet (13); Jamie Reynolds: piano, keyboards (13); Rene Hart: bass (13); Greg Gonzales: drums (13).

Disney Jazz: Everybody Wants To Be A Cat, Vol. 1

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Nikki Yanofsky - Ella... Of Thee I Swing

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 60:02
Size: 138,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:24)  1. Lullaby Of Birdland
(4:41)  2. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
(3:24)  3. Swingin' On The Moon
(3:46)  4. You've Changed
(2:28)  5. Flyin' Home
(2:55)  6. Relax Max
(2:15)  7. Old Macdonald
(3:59)  8. Hear Me Talkin' To Ya
(4:41)  9. Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues
(2:56) 10. At Last
(3:35) 11. The Way You Look Tonight
(2:17) 12. A Tisket, A Tasket
(4:57) 13. Over The Rainbow
(3:02) 14. 'deed I Do
(2:22) 15. Vote For Mr. Rhythm
(2:45) 16. Evil Gal Blues
(6:29) 17. With A Little Help From My Friends

In a post-millennium music market, most teen pop personalities are compared to Miley Cyrus before they are compared to Celine Dion. However, Montreal's Nikki Yanofsky's mastered range and voice certainly liken her more to the latter: not to say that she is classic or irrelevant, simply that she has a wicked talent with a mature charisma well beyond her years. This is proven triumphantly on Ella...Of Thee I Swing, a debut that doesn't try to dominate pop radio waves with bubblegum mush, rather one that pays tribute to the classic jazz numbers which have ultimately inspired the cultured teen. Ella is more than just a standard tribute album: it's an 18-track piece of musical magic. The album stands out because of Yanofsky's covers of more mainstream numbers. Few can ever cover original tracks like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "The Way You Look Tonight," or "At Last" with such awe-inspiring vocals. However, Yanofsky proves that at 15 years old, she can tackle these great numbers effortlessly. Ella...Of Thee I Swing wont have you bopping your head in your car like 95-percent of teen pop stars' music does, but it will make you feel like you are listening to a genuinely fantastic collection of brilliant pop and jazz music, sung through the body of an impressive young talent who, bar none, stands as the best pop voice under 20 in the post-millennium music scene to date. ~ Matthew Chisling   

http://www.allmusic.com/album/ellaof-thee-i-swing-mw0001689340.

Personnel: Howard Forman, Richard White (guitar); Nathalie Bonin, Valérie Belzile (violin); Ligia Paquin (viola); Christine Giguère (cello); Sean Craig, François d'Amours, Richard Beaudet (saxophone); Jocelyn Lapointe, Andy King, Oscar Martinez (trumpet); Serge Arsenault, André Verreault , Bob Ellis (trombone); Paul Shrofel, Josh Rager (piano); Bob Goldfarb (Hammond b-3 organ); Geoff Lang (drums); Aldo Mazza (percussion).

Recording information: Les Studios Piccolo, Montreal, Quebec (02/2007); Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place Des Arts, Montreal, Quebec (02/2007); Les Studios Piccolo, Montreal, Quebec (10/11/2007); Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place Des Arts, Montreal, Quebec (10/11/2007).

Ella... Of Thee I Swing

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