Frank Mantooth - Ladies Sing For Lovers

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:23
Size: 142.8 MB
Styles: Swing, Jazz vocals
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[5:14] 1. If You Could See Me Now (With Karrin Allyson)
[4:48] 2. When Did You Leave Heaven (With Kristen Gustafson)
[5:14] 3. You'll See (With Paula West)
[4:50] 4. You Don't Know What Love Is (With Sunny Wilkinson)
[4:59] 5. It Never Entered My Mind (With Jay Clayton)
[4:50] 6. Good Morning Heartache (With Margaret Carlson)
[4:28] 7. My Heart Won't Lie (With Oleta Adams)
[5:59] 8. Imagination (With Rebecca Parris)
[5:22] 9. Why Stars Come Out At Night (With Stacy Rowles)
[4:52] 10. Ballad Of The Sad Young Men (With Sheila Jordan)
[5:41] 11. The Nearness Of You You're Nearer (With Anne Hampton Callaway)
[5:59] 12. I Got It Bad And That Aint' Good (With Diane Schuur)

The late Frank Mantooth was best known for his swinging big-band arrangements. For what would be his final major project, Mantooth arranged a dozen love songs for a string orchestra, featuring 12 talented female jazz singers on a tune apiece. The results are rather light on jazz with just occasional brief solos, usually from saxophonist Kim Park, and not much improvising from the singers. The vocalists generally stick close to the melodies while the strings and horns play unadventurous parts. Due to the quality of the singers, some of the performances are touching, particularly Karrin Allyson on "If You Could See Me Now," Margaret Carlson on "Good Morning Heartache," and Rebecca Parris during "Imagination," while Diane Schuur's wide range and powerful voice rather overwhelm "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)." But overall, this ambitious outing is much safer than expected and a slight disappointment. Considering the singers, Mantooth's abilities, and the excellent musicians, one would expect more surprises and adventure. ~Scott Yanow

Ladies Sing For Lovers

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Oleta Adams - Evolution

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 1993
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:14
Size: 131,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:42)  1. My Heart Won't Lie
(5:11)  2. Hold Me for a While
(4:45)  3. Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
(5:16)  4. When Love Comes to the Rescue
(3:38)  5. I Just Had to Hear Your Voice
(4:14)  6. Come When You Call
(6:33)  7. Easier to Say (Goodbye)
(4:10)  8. Lover's Holiday
(5:04)  9. The Day I Stop Loving You
(5:33) 10. New York State of Mind
(3:42) 11. Evolution
(4:23) 12. Window of Hope

After the success of her debut, Adams doesn't change the formula for her second album. Which isn't a bad thing the stylish love ballads she sings are some of the best adult contemporary pop of the early '90s. 

~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine http://www.allmusic.com/album/evolution-mw0000101891

Personnel: Oleta Adams (vocals, piano, electric piano, synthesizer, background vocals); Valerie Pinkston-Mayo, Fred White , Rick Nelson, Paulette Brown (vocals, background vocals); Arnold McCuller, Bunny Hull (vocals); Michael Landau, Ray Fuller (guitar, piano, synthesizer); Aaron Zigman (strings, keyboards, synthesizer, programming); David Sanborn (alto saxophone); Tom Scott (tenor saxophone); Chuck Findley (trumpet, flugelhorn); Fred Washington (fretless bass); Gota Yashiki, Richard Stevens (drums, programming); Richie Steves (drums); Lenny Castro (percussion); Carolyn Perry, Bunny Hill, Arnold McCutler, Jerry Knight, Lori Perry, Darlene Perry, Sharon Perry (background vocals).

Evolution

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Oleta Adams - Third Set

Size: 140,4 MB
Time: 60:31
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2017
Styles: Jazz/Soul Vocals
Art: Front

01. It's Alright With Me (8:58)
02. Only The Lonely (7:20)
03. Don't Interrupt The Sorrow (4:58)
04. River (6:35)
05. Do I Move You (6:04)
06. Evolution (Acoustic) (5:57)
07. Rhythm Of Life (Acoustic) (3:41)
08. Blowin' In The Wind (6:16)
09. Wilted Roses (6:54)
10. His Loving Eyes (3:44)

Still singing her song...Oleta Adams releases “Third Set” ...Her first new album in eight years
“At this point in my life it’s kind of cool that I don’t have to ask anybody’s permission anymore about what I want to sing.” – Oleta Adams

Iconic, Grammy-award nominated vocalist Oleta Adams celebrates her 45th year in the music industry with a new collection of classic songs entitled Third Set. Inspired by the early days of her career, when she played multiple shows nightly in lounges and piano bars across the globe, Third Set highlights the music that Adams and her band always loved to play during that halcyon hour when the evening’s final set arrived.

“Before my break, I was playing in the clubs for 17 years,” Adams recalls. “I played a lot of hotel gigs where we would have to cater to all kinds of people. In the first two sets of the night, we didn’t know who we were catering to, so we had to do the songs that were the most familiar. But then, after a while, the third set became the one I designated as my set or the musician’s set. It was when we played what we wanted to play. I grew very fond of that set because it was in that third set that the greatest amount of creativity happened – when the crowds were smaller and we were under less pressure to do what the crowd wanted.”

Though Third Set may be comprised of the music that Adams and her band revel in playing for themselves, it is likewise filled with stunning arrangements of all-time favorite songs that music lovers will also no doubt stand up and applaud in much the same way that audiences have done as the velvety-voiced songstress has worked out the songs on the road over the last year.

Included on Third Set are “Oleta-fied’ versions of everything from jazz standards like Frank Sinatra’s, “Only The Lonely”, a haunting and desolate meditation on the despair of loneliness, and Cole Porter’s “It’s Alright With Me”, which Adams refreshingly interprets with sassy, sultry resolve, to an anthemic new take on Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and a soul-stirring reimagining of Joni Mitchell’s folk rock masterpiece “Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow”, which becomes a soaring musical deliberation on the eternal war between the sexes in Adams’ capable hands.

Of her song choices, Adams explains that, “These are not necessarily songs that people would have thought I would choose but I chose songs that have meaning.”

“At this point in my life, it’s kind of cool that I don’t have to ask anybody’s permission anymore about what I want to sing,” she continues.

An elegant remake of Joni Mitchell’s “River’, a bluesy revision of Nina Simone’s “Do I Move You”, acoustic revisitations of her own recordings, “Evolution” and “Rhythm of Life”, as well as two new uplifting contemporary gospel tracks “Wilted Roses” and “His Loving Eyes”, round out Adams’ latest offering.

“It needs to have a great lyric and I have to relate to it in some way,” the songbird says of the songs that attract her. “I’ve found that pain is pain, it doesn’t matter who’s feeling it. When people are lonely and hurt or even when they’re happy I can’t imagine that it is any different for one than it is for another. Whether it’s me or somebody I know and I’m speaking for them, there has to be something in a song that I feel enough people can relate to. “

And relate they undoubtedly shall.

Third Set

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The Crown Project - Modern Mancini

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:48
Size: 120.9 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz, Vocals
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[4:05] 1. Moon River
[4:41] 2. Charade
[3:42] 3. Peter Gunn Theme
[4:12] 4. The Pink Panther
[4:06] 5. Days Of Wine And Roses
[4:34] 6. Dreamsville
[4:06] 7. Baby Elephant Walk
[4:48] 8. The Molly Maguires
[4:02] 9. Song For Cat
[4:18] 10. Holly
[4:54] 11. Two For The Road
[5:15] 12. Soldier In the Rain (with Mark Gasbarro)

Janis Siegel, Oleta Adams, Fred White, Lamont van Hook - Vocals; Alto Saxophone – Gerald Albright; Tenor Saxophone – Doug Norwine; Percussion – Walter Rodriguez, Piano – Fred Hersch, Programmed By – Mark Gasbarro; Flugelhorn – Dmitri Matheny; Flute, Soprano Saxophone – Dan Higgins; Guitar – Carl Verheyen, Dwight Sills, Russell Malone; Harmonica – Tommy Morgan; Drums – Cliff Almond, Jack Kelly; Bass – Abraham Laboriel, Larry Kimpel.

Tribute albums are all the rage these days, so Monarch Records has release Modern Mancini – Tribute to a Music Master under the mysterious moniker “The Crown Project.” Henry Mancini was undoubtedly one of the foremost film and TV scorers, with nearly 80 film scores, four Oscars, and twenty Grammies to his credit, yet one doesn’t have to look too far into his compositions to see his jazz sensibilities at work. Had Mancini not focused so much of his time and talent on scoring and devoted more energies to composing and recording jazz, we can only wonder what he might have contributed to this genre. But given that his musical legacy is what it is, this effort to present some of his most familiar works (and some lesser-known gems as well) in a contemporary jazz context yields only mixed results. For example, “Charade” is re-worked from a waltz into a 4/4 smooth jazz arrangement complete with rhythm loops. Gerald Albright’s sax ably conveys some of the song’s angst with his soulful musings, but it can’t save this musical mismatch. Keyboardist Mark Gasbarro, who plays on many of the selections, tries to update “Baby Elephant Walk” with some new synth samples, but it comes across as hokey. The “Pink Panther” theme fares better, with some great harmonized vocals. Oleta Adams lends some soulful expressiveness to “Moon River,” but I think this song might still be dead from overexposure.

The arrangements that stay away from the contemporary trappings work best. The French horns and strings on “The Days of Wine and Roses” provide a lush, beautiful setting in which Albright’s alto truly shines. Janis Siegel’s duet with guitarist Russell Malone says more with a voice and guitar than many full-production blowouts could ever hope to accomplish. Same goes for Siegel’s duet with frequent collaborator, pianist Fred Hersch. Gasbarro’s acoustic piano pairing with Dan Higgins’ flute and soprano on “The Molly Maguires” is elegant, simple beauty.

For this recording, a never-before-recorded Mancini gem “Song for Cat” was uncovered, and given lyrics and Transferesque vocal arrangement by Janis Siegel. Andy Martin’s trombone and Doug Norwine’s flute make nice contributions as well. This same trombone and flute combination also works well on the next tune, “Holly.” Bottom line: the lesser-known tunes with the more traditional arrangements or elegant duet pairings work well; the overly-familiar tunes with the contemporary reworks don’t. Still, there are lots of exquisite musical moments here, and Mancini lovers should be pleased. (Monarch 1025) ~Dave Hughes

Modern Mancini

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