Renee Olstead - Renee Olstead

Styles: Jazz, Vocal

Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:24
Size: 106,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:12)  1. Summertime
(3:31)  2. Taking A Chance On Love
(3:20)  3. Is You Or Is You Ain't My Baby?
(4:26)  4. Someone To Watch Over Me
(4:11)  5. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
(3:32)  6. A Love That Will Last
(2:56)  7. Meet Me, Midnight
(4:34)  8. Sunday Kind Of Love
(3:16)  9. On A Slow Boat To China
(3:27) 10. What A Difference A Day Makes
(3:21) 11. Midnight At The Oasis
(3:32) 12. Sentimental Journey

With a seriously bluesy jazz voice, Olstead wows everyone who hears her, including the renowned David Foster who co-produced this album of classics. Unless someone told you, you might never suspect that Olstead is only in high school! Renee Olstead...hear her...you won't believe your ears. 

No less an expert on pop affairs than Neil Sedaka likens the impossibly mature voice of 14-year-old vocalist/TV star (CBS' Still Standing) Renee Olstead to "Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday all wrapped in one." There's no disputing the sultry vocal talents showcased on this debut that balances familiar chestnuts from the great American songbook ("Summertime," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Sentimental Journey") with more recent fare that veers from R 'n' B sass ("Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby") to 70s chart hits like Sedaka's own "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis." 

A cynical ear might question how much of Olmstead's own life informs these bluesy performances: how trying can eigth grade be for an attractive redhead with a major label contract? Indeed, the tagline for at least one latter-day Ella Fitzgerald project comes frequently to mind here: "Is it real, or it Memorex?" Olmstead is yet another teen protege of hugely successful producer David Foster (who's midwifed the careers of Josh Groban and Michael Buble in recent years), and he provides her with some sturdy jazz arrangements to riff emotively on here even if his production is as slick and bloodless as ever. Still, Foster's penchant for overwrought melodrama is kept mercifully in check on his own composition "I Want a Love to Last," while his shrewd teaming of the young chanteuse with fellow teen pop phenom Peter Cincotti on Sedaka's "Breaking Up.." deftly underscores the promising talents of both. ~ Jerry McCulley - Editorial Reviews  http://www.amazon.com/Renee-Olstead-RENEE-OLSTEAD/dp/B00020HEL6

Personnel: Reneé Olstead (vocals); Carol Weisman (vocals); Dean Parks (guitar, acoustic guitar); Don Shelton (clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone);  Warren Luening (trumpet); Alan Broadbent, Billy Childs, Billy Childs Trio, Gerald Clayton (piano); Brian Bromberg (bass instrument); Jeff Hamilton , David Tull (drums); Neil Devor (programming); Peter Cincotti (vocals, piano); Dennis Budimir (guitar); Chris Botti, Rick Baptist (trumpet); Chris Dawson (piano); Joe La Barbera, Vinnie Colaiuta (drums).

Renee Olstead

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Peter Cincotti - Long Way From Home

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:34
Size: 108.9 MB
Styles: Piano & vocal jazz
Year: 2017
Art: Front

[4:15] 1. Long Way From Home
[3:28] 2. Sexy
[4:01] 3. Made For Me
[4:05] 4. Story For Another Day
[3:24] 5. Palermo
[3:43] 6. Too Soon
[4:18] 7. Roman Skies
[4:48] 8. Half Of You
[3:35] 9. What's Sara Doing
[4:03] 10. Wanna Be
[3:19] 11. Hangover City
[4:29] 12. Sounds Of Summer

A born and bred New Yorker, Cincotti spent much of his childhood going to school during the day and playing clubs at night. Legendary music producer Phil Ramone was there one of those nights, a discovery that led Ramone to produce Peter’s debut album which reached #1 on the Billboard jazz charts, making 18-year old Cincotti the youngest artist ever to do so. Since then, Peter has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious venues from Carnegie Hall to L’Olympia in Paris, collaborated with artists ranging from Andrea Bocelli to David Guetta, has been featured in blockbuster films such as Spiderman 2, represented the global fashion brands Ermenegildo Zegna and Tod’s, and just recently appeared as himself in Season 3 of the hit Netflix series House Of Cards, singing a duet with the president played by Kevin Spacey.

​Along the way, his vibrant and socially-aware songwriting caught the ear of 16-time Grammy winner David Foster, who produced Cincotti’s third album East Of Angel Town yielding the song “Goodbye Philadelphia”, which became a smash hit overseas reaching the Top Ten on Pop Radio charts across Europe. Peter’s experiences have shaped his music through the years, changing the layers of his sound and the dimensions of his style. Because of this, his fans await each new album like they are engrossed readers anxious to reach the next chapter of their favorite book. Cincotti has morphed genres and blended influences in a variety of ways, but his story currently unfolds over uncharted terrain on his new album Long Way From Home. Written, arranged, and produced by Cincotti, this collection of songs is the product of “moving my pianos to a house on the Jersey Shore, building a recording studio, and spending the majority of the last two years alone at the control board,” he explains. “It felt great to work through the night with no NY complaining neighbors and explore every idea in my head. But I’m pretty sure I went partially insane along the way. At one point, whenever I fell asleep, a new song would introduce itself in whatever dream I was having. So I’d wake up and write it down. Several songs on this album were written that way. It got to a point where I felt like I wasn’t even composing, I was just writing down what was already there.”

Long Way From Home

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Peter Cincotti - Peter Cincotti

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:55
Size: 122,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:18)  1. I Changed the Rules
(4:20)  2. Comes Love
(3:58)  3. Are You the One?
(4:14)  4. Sway
(4:18)  5. Miss Brown
(3:47)  6. Lovers, Secrets, Lies
(3:49)  7. The Fool on the Hill/Nature Boy
(3:45)  8. Ain't Misbehavin'
(4:48)  9. Come Live Your Life With Me
(3:12) 10. Spinning Wheel
(3:20) 11. You Stepped Out of a Dream
(4:07) 12. Rainbow Connection
(3:53) 13. Sal's blues

Inevitably, on his debut album, Peter Cincotti is still in the phenomenon stage of his career. The wonder is that a 19-year-old can play jazz piano and sing at such a professional level, and the issue of how distinctively he does it is one largely to be tabled for the present. Even so, the charm of his work lies in its stylistic openness, which might not be expected of a jazz performer who is older. Cincotti makes no distinction between the kind of pop songs adopted for jazz interpretation in the past and more contemporary pop songs that have not been much used for such treatment. In his liner notes, he says he's always wondered what Blood, Sweat & Tears' hit "Spinning Wheel" would sound like as an instrumental played by Erroll Garner, and so he tries to do it that way, and the answer is it doesn't sound bad at all.

Mixing the Beatles' "Fool on the Hill" with Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" may not have been his idea, but it is typical of the eclectic approach he takes to music, and it works. And then there's the closing track, "Rainbow Connection," a Muppets theme that winks good-naturedly at Cincotti's youth. His originals are not particularly impressive, and the acknowledged influence of his mentor, Harry Connick, Jr., is obvious, especially vocally, but Cincotti, supported by a good rhythm section (David Finck, bass, and Kenny Washington, drums) and the tenor saxophone of Scott Kreitzer on three tracks, is a promising pianist with a good feel for ensemble playing, and that may assure him a career even after the crowds attracted by his prodigy status and publicity machine subside. ~ William Ruhlmann  

http://www.allmusic.com/album/peter-cincotti-mw0000021508

Personnel: Peter Cincotti (vocals, arranger, piano);Scott Kreitzer (tenor saxophone); David Finck (bass); Kenny Washington (drums).

Peter Cincotti

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