Showing posts with label Rita Coolidge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rita Coolidge. Show all posts

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Rita Coolidge - Safe In The Arms Of Time

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:09
Size: 117.1 MB
Styles: Pop-rock vocals
Year: 2018
Art: Front

[4:19] 1. Satisfied
[4:12] 2. Doing Fine Without You
[3:45] 3. Walking On Water
[4:26] 4. Spirit World
[4:26] 5. The Things We Carry
[5:23] 6. Naked All Night
[4:27] 7. Van Gogh
[3:37] 8. Rainbow
[4:23] 9. Over You
[4:02] 10. We Are Blood
[4:33] 11. You Can Fall In Love
[3:30] 12. Please Grow Old With Me

In many ways, Safe in the Arms of Time is both a reflection and a continuation of Coolidge’s remarkable history, one that took flight during the heyday of the ‘70s L.A. music scene when she sang backup on Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With” and Eric Clapton’s “After Midnight.” (And astute music fans are well aware of how she contributed the classic – and uncredited – piano coda to Derek & the Dominoes’ “Layla.”) “The idea was making an album that had the same appeal of my early records – to make a roots record about my own roots,” Coolidge says.

And so it was only fitting that Coolidge and producer Ross Hogarth, along with an all-star lineup of top musicians – guitarist Dave Grissom, bassist Bob Glaub, keyboardist John “J.T.” Thomas, and drummer Brian MacLeod – assembled at L.A.’s Sunset Sound, the famed recording studio where she recorded her first solo albums on A&M Records 30 years ago. “Going back to Sunset Sound was taking a journey into the past – there was a memory down every hallway,” Coolidge says. Along with nostalgia, there was a hopeful eye toward the future, beautifully rendered on “You Can Fall in Love,” which Coolidge wrote with former Tom Petty drummer Stan Lynch and Joe Hutto. The track explores reconnecting with an old flame, and it embodies one of the album’s paramount themes: It’s never too late. “People need to have an awakening that you can fall in love at any age and it will feel right, like you’re 15,” Coolidge says. “I really wanted to have that message come across on the record.”

Coolidge wrote two of the album’s standout cuts – the sparky blues number “Naked All Night” and the smooth-soul gem “Walking on Water” – with Grammy-winning blues star Keb’ Mo’ and singer-songwriter Jill Colucci in Nashville. Trading vocals with Keb’ Mo’ on “Walking on Water” was a thrill for Coolidge, who enthuses, “I literally have every Keb’ Mo’ CD. I’ve been a fan for decades.”

Safe in the Arms of Time also gave Coolidge the chance to reunite with one of her real-life past flames, one who has remained a cherished friend, Graham Nash. Nash and drumming legend Russ Kunkel had offered Coolidge their smoky blues rocker “Doing Fine Without You” two years before she began recording. “I said to them, ‘I don’t know when I’m doing a record. Can I put this on hold?” When she and Hogarth started the project, it would be one of the first songs they picked. The “Delta Lady” (as she was named by her fellow Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour member Leon Russell) has captivated fans during her astonishing 50-year career, selling millions of copies of signature hits such as “We’re All Alone,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “All Time High”, and “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher.” Her eight-year relationship with former husband Kris Kristofferson yielded three top-selling albums (including the No. 1 hit Full Moon) and multiple Grammy Awards.

Safe in the Arms of Time marks the first new music Coolidge has recorded since the tragic death in 2015 of her beloved sister, Priscilla, a recording artist and member of Walela, the Native American trio she and Coolidge founded with Priscilla’s daughter, Laura Satterfield. The recording of the album also coincided with Coolidge’s relocation from Southern California to a new life in Tallahassee, where in the 1960s, as an art major at Florida State University, she discovered her true calling as a musician – and never looked back.

Safe In The Arms Of Time mc
Safe In The Arms Of Time zippy

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Rita Coolidge - And So Is Love

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:28
Size: 118,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:20)  1. Come Rain Or Come Shine
(5:27)  2. Save Your Love For Me
(6:02)  3. Cry Me A River
(3:22)  4. I Thought About You
(4:50)  5. We're All Alone
(4:41)  6. Estate
(3:54)  7. More Than You Know
(5:11)  8. Sentimental Journey
(3:32)  9. The Masquerade Is Over
(2:59) 10. I Don't Know Enough About You
(2:46) 11. Don't Smoke In Bed
(4:20) 12. Don't Go To Strangers

It seems increasingly common for once-popular artists to resurface years after their heyday. What's so interesting is how they resurface. Who would've imagined Rita Coolidge, like other popular '70s singers, re-emerging 30 years down the line as a singer of jazz classics? But Coolidge, like Debby Boone before her, has done exactly that, releasing a collection of classic songs on Concord Records. Backed by a small jazz combo, And So Is Love has a classy feel to it, but it's Coolidge's resonant vocals that bring the set together. While most of the material is older, and a number of pieces like "Cry Me a River" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" come from the golden age of song, she also includes Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone" and makes it work. In fact, "We're All Alone" is one of the highlights of the album, with Coolidge transforming it into a lovely jazz standard. 

Her performance here also leads one to pause: are there other songs of recent vintage that would like old standards work just as well in a jazz context. Another icon from the past shows up Herb Alpert on "Estate" to lend his trademark trumpet style to the song's Latin mood. For old fans, mainstream jazz fans, and anyone who appreciates classy treatments of classic songs, Coolidge's And So Is Love is an enjoyable listen. ~ Ronnie D.Lankford,Jr.  http://www.allmusic.com/album/and-so-is-love-mw0000656613

Personnel: Rita Coolidge (vocals); Chuck Berghofer, Darek Oles, Dave Carpenter (bass instrument); Larry Koonse, Sandro Albert (guitar); Stefanie Fife (cello); Bob Sheppard (flute, alto flute, soprano saxophone); Ronnie Cuber (baritone saxophone); Herb Alpert (trumpet); Russell Ferrante (piano, synthesizer); Alan Pasqua (piano); Dave Samuels (vibraphone); Ralph Humphrey, Terri Lyne Carrington (drums); Alex Acuña (percussion).

And So Is Love

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Rita Coolidge - Out Of The Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:26
Size: 104.0 MB
Styles: Contemporary Blues vocals
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[2:53] 1. Mean To Me
[4:38] 2. Am I Blue
[3:07] 3. Hallelujah, I Love Him So
[5:01] 4. Stormy Monday
[5:14] 5. For The Good Times
[4:35] 6. Black Coffee
[3:54] 7. Bring It On Home To Me
[3:33] 8. Nobody Wins
[3:58] 9. The Man I Love
[4:02] 10. When The Night Rolls In
[4:26] 11. Out Of The Blues

Even though the duo-tone cover looks new and jazzy, most of this cozy set was recorded over twenty years ago. Primarily working with bass, drum and piano, the smoky-voiced chanteuse delivers these eleven songs with her own inimitably laidback vigor, performing best on moody ballads such as "Am I Blue," "Mean To Me" and "The Man I Love." Some of these tracks have appeared on Rita's albums during her A&M Records tenure in the 1970s, but most of them remained in the vault until now. It's a fine set with simple arrangements of chestnuts such as "Bring It On Home To Me" and the blues staple "Stormy Monday." Rounding the set out are two recent cuts, the Top 40-ish "When The Night Rolls In" and the bluesy "Out of the Blues." ~Bill Carpenter

Out Of The Blues