Sarah McKenzie - Without You

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
Time: 56:13
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 129,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:25) 1. The Gentle Rain
(5:04) 2. Corcovado (Quiet Nights)
(2:59) 3. The Voice of Rio
(2:11) 4. Mean What You Say
(3:53) 5. Fotografia
(3:38) 6. Quoi, Quoi, Quoi
(4:22) 7. Once I loved
(4:20) 8. Without You
(5:03) 9. Wave
(4:32) 10. Dindi
(4:29) 11. The Girl From Ipanema
(4:27) 12. Chega de Saudade
(4:08) 13. Bonita
(2:33) 14. Modinha

Jazz pianist, composer and singer, Sarah McKenzie's sixth album, Without You, is a Brazilian jazz project that conveys her love for Brazilian music and culture. It includes a generous amount of Antonio Carlos Jobim songs along with four of McKenzie's originals and a few other selections, all played tastefully, and in her own inventive way.

"I've always loved the music of Brazil, Tom Jobim, Elis Regina, and of course Astrud Gilberto," says Sarah McKenzie. "What I especially love about Jobim is the simplicity and clarity of his melodies, songs that one can remember and sing." Rather than simply recording a typical Brazilian heritage album, she reinvigorates the timeless music with fresh ideas and subtle surprises, adding to it's legacy. By Editorial Reviews https://www.amazon.com/Without-You-Sarah-McKenzie/dp/B0CHJZVC34

Without You

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Sarah McKenzie - Secrets of My Heart

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:57
Size: 133,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:39)  1. You Only Live Twice
(6:09)  2. You and the Music
(3:16)  3. De Nada
(4:17)  4. Secrets of My Heart
(3:34)  5. It's All About Love
(5:17)  6. Till the End of Time
(4:40)  7. You Must Believe in Spring
(4:44)  8. A Beautiful Friendship
(3:58)  9. I Fell in Love with You
(5:28) 10. Come on Home
(3:12) 11. My True Love Is You
(8:38) 12. The Gershwin Medley

Australian pianist, singer, composer Sarah McKenzie became well established globally with her Impulse! 2017 Paris in the Rain and now returns on an independent label with the half originals/half covers Secrets of My Heart. She reunites with noted Australian composer, arranger, and events music director Chong Lim who produced her first two projects. This was recorded in New York City with a core quartet of French bassist Pierre Boussaguet, guitarist Dan Wilson and drummer Donald Edwards. Tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, cellist Judy Redhage, flutist Danilo Caymmi and percussionists James Mack and Brazilian percussionist Rogerio Bocatto also support McKenzie on select tunes. Both Wilson and Roberts are from Joey DeFrancesco’s band. There are plenty of gems in her originals, but we’ll take the covers first. She opens with John Barry and Leslie Bricusse’s “You Only Live Twice” ( a theme from the James Bond film of the same name) that showcases both her vocal talents and sprightly piano touch. She delivers her interpretation of the Stanley Styne/Donald Kahn classic “A Beautiful Friendship” and shows her bluesy side, with scintillating guitar from Wilson, on Dinah Washington’s “Come on Home.” The closing track is a dazzling piano medley of her Gershwin favorites, snippets of “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Summertime,” “The Man I Love,” and “I Got Rhythm.” McKenzie is grateful for the opportunity to travel globally to play her music and nods to the iconic composer with whom she spent time in France, Michel Legrand, as she covers “You Must Believe in Spring.” McKenzie hails from Melbourne, studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and began her career in Europe, first in Paris and then in London. 

Steeped with strong knowledge of the Great American Songbook, she says that this album reveals her time spent in Europe from a harmonic standpoint, pointing, as one example to Legrand’s style being influenced by Debussy and Ravel. Now to her originals, or as McKenzie says, “Ultimately this album is about me embracing the unknown and going with love.”  The title track, with its supple bossa nova rhythm and large backing cast is about reticence while being pulled in multiple directions. Using rather dark imagery, here is a sample of her lyrics  “Kept in a box/Locked in a darken room/Buried beneath the places where roses bloom/Sinking so slowly/Drifting apart/Just like the secrets of my heart.” She alternates between this type of dark imagery and more hopeful messages, the latter not coming quite as naturally to her. She does render her “I Fell in Love with You” in upbeat fashion with glistening piano and wonderful guitar from Wilson. Wilson and McKenzie shine again on the guitar/vocal duet “My True Love Is You,” a pensive ballad, showcasing her sultry side. Her other ballad, also an original is “You and the Music” which she cites as the album’s anthem. While that one channels Cole Porter, she challenges herself with putting lyrics to a fast tempo bebop tune in the bluesy “It’s All About Love.” Her favorite track is the Brazilian tinged “’Till the End of Time,” written in Rio de Janeiro where she collaborated with musicians who has played with Jobim. It features some stirring tenor from Roberts. She also wrote “DeNada” in Brazil and it has one of her strongest piano solos. McKenzie is exploring with a fearless eclectic approach. With her gift for composing, her sparking piano work and elegant vocal delivery, she seems right at home with these accompanists. ~ Jim Hynes https://www.makingascene.org/sarah-mckenzie-secrets-of-my-heart/

Secrets of My Heart

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Sarah McKenzie - Paris In The Rain

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:35
Size: 121,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:06)  1. Tea For Two
(3:47)  2. Paris In The Rain
(4:15)  3. One Jealous Moon
(3:51)  4. Little Girl Blue
(4:44)  5. I'm Old Fashioned
(3:15)  6. When In Rome
(3:55)  7. Triste
(4:35)  8. Embraceable You
(4:17)  9. In The Name Of Love
(3:59) 10. Don't Be A Fool
(3:27) 11. Onwards And Upwards
(4:21) 12. Day In Day Out
(3:56) 13. Road Chops

After enchanting jazz fans with her 2015 Impulse! Records debut, We Could Be Lovers, Sarah McKenzie returns with the sensational follow-up, Paris in the Rain. Like before, the 28-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-born singer, pianist, composer and arranger teams with the acclaimed Brian Bacchus who has produced classics for such stars as Norah Jones, Lizz Wright, and Gregory Porter to deliver a gripping program of jazz classics and originals all of which present McKenzie’s incredible musicality in glamorous glory. McKenzie moved to Paris last year after graduating from Boston’s Berklee College of Music. The album’s snazzy title track is her love letter to the City of Light. The fanciful lyrics find her alternating effortlessly between French and English as she rejoices in the city’s opulent offerings. “I’m really in love with Paris. It’s a really amazing city. It’s so beautiful with so much to offer in terms of culture, food and style. I wanted to write a song that captures all of Paris’ beauty, magic and spirit.” Overall, the album’s theme centers on McKenzie’s journey from Australia to America and her trips throughout Europe as a performing artist. She exemplifies the loose theme with the telling choices of songs such as Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh’s “When in Rome,” (her visit to Italy) Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Triste” (for her time in Portugal),” Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar’s “Tea for Two” (for London).” The travelogue theme rings the loudest on album’s closer, “Road Chops,” an ebullient original that evokes the brisling giddiness of exploring the globe; the instrumental also showcases McKenzie command at the piano.

McKenzie praises Paris in the Rain as a more “stylish” album. “It shows greater depth of my arrangements,” she says before explaining that she’s fashioning her own vision within the jazz tradition. For this album, that meant exploring more textures with which she does gorgeously by expanding the sonic palette. The album boasts a superlative lineup that includes vibraphonist Warren Wolf (who played on We Could Be Lovers), guitarist Mark Whitfield, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Gregory Hutchinson, trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, flutist Jamie Baum, alto saxophonist Scott Robinson, tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore, and guitarist Romero Lubambo. Sophisticated originals steeped in the Great American Songbook tradition energize much of Paris in the Rain. In addition to the title track and “Road Chops,” she penned three other superb originals. The bluesy “One Jealous Moon” demonstrates her meticulous word play as she sublimely uses the numbers: 1,2,3,4 throughout in the song’s poetic lyrics; the song also features a stellar tenor saxophone solo from Moore. McKenzie’s haunting ballad “Don’t Be a Fool” conveys a melancholic allure as she slowly sings of treacherous romance and seduction; Warren Wolf’s striking vibraphone chords in unison with the piano accentuate the composition’s suspense. Later in the song, he delivers a rueful solo.

With “Onward and Upward,” McKenzie pays tribute to Nat King Cole with a spry original teeming with optimistic lyrics about embarking on new adventures; she also tickles a spiffy blues-laden piano solo while Baum and Farinacci too yield effervescent asides. As an arranger, McKenzie cites George Shearing as one her most significant lodestars. She’s particularly fond of his usage of piano block chords against guitars. “I want things to sound quirky and a little rough but still very charming and elegant,” she says. McKenzie employs the same ambitions of being a distinguishable stylist in her piano playing too. “Being an incredibly virtuosic pianist is cool if that that’s what you do. But I really identify with coming up with a style and really trying the make the songs speak with my own unique sound.” Sarah McKenzie hails from Melbourne, Australia; she earned a bachelor’s degree in jazz at Perth’s West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. With two critically acclaimed discs underneath her belt Don’t Tempt Me and Close Your Eyes (2012 Best Jazz Album ARIA Winner)– she began attracting the attention of many international jazz stars visiting Melbourne. With her eyes set on attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, she participated in one of the college’s off-site jazz camps at the Umbria Jazz Festival in 2012, where she won both a full scholarship at the prestigious music school and an opportunity to perform at the festival. She graduated from Berklee in May 2015 with a degree in jazz performance. Sarah McKenzie has performed at jazz´s iconic places, the festivals in Monterey, Juan-les-Pins, Marciac and Perugia, Dizzy´s and Minton´s in New York, as well as the top clubs in Paris, London, Vienna, Munich and Sydney. Together with the Boston Pops Orchestra she premiered one of her compositions at Boston´s Symphony Hall. Last but not least, the Australian version of “We Could Be Lovers” won the Bell Award for Best Australian Vocal Album. Impulse! Label has released “We Could Be Lovers” worldwide in Spring 2015. http://www.sarahmckenzie.info/#story

Paris In The Rain

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Sarah McKenzie - Close Your Eyes

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:51
Size: 135,1 MB
Art: Front

(2:28)  1. Close Your Eyes
(5:44)  2. Too Young
(5:44)  3. The Way You Look Tonight
(5:04)  4. The Lovers Tune
(6:46)  5. Big Yellow Taxi
(5:14)  6. Got To Be This Way
(5:55)  7. I Remember You
(4:14)  8. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
(6:08)  9. At Last
(5:24) 10. Blue Skies
(6:03) 11. I Should Care

In her mid-20s, pianist, vocalist, and composer Sarah McKenzie is one of Australia up-and coming jazz musicians.

Since graduating from WAAPA after completing a Bachelor of Jazz (Composition), Sarah has won the Jack Bendat Scholarship, the Hawaiian Award for Most Outstanding Jazz Graduate, and the Perth Jazz Society s Award for Most Outstanding Group of the Year 2008. 

Sarah made her television debut performing with David Campbell at the L Oreal Paris AFI Awards, and sang backing vocals for Michael Bublé on the multi-platinum artist s Call Me Irresponsible tour. ~ Editorial Reviews  http://www.amazon.com/Close-Your-Eyes-Sarah-Mckenzie/dp/B008Q8M1A0

Personnel: Sarah McKenzie (vocals, piano); Hugh Stuckey (guitar); Julien Wilson (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Lachlan Davidson (tenor saxophone); Shane Gillard, Eamon McNelis (trumpet); Ian Bell (trombone); Craig Simon (drums); Javier Fredes (percussion).

Close Your Eyes

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Sarah McKenzie - We Could Be Lovers

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:30
Size: 100,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:20)  1. I Was Doing Alright
(3:34)  2. That's It, I Quit!
(4:16)  3. We Could Be Lovers
(3:04)  4. Tight
(5:19)  5. At Long Last Love
(3:36)  6. I Won't Dance
(3:04)  7. Love You Madly
(3:29)  8. Quoi, Quoi, Quoi
(4:35)  9. The Music Is The Magic
(5:03) 10. Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)
(4:05) 11. Moon River

Sarah McKenzie, pianist-singer-composer and winner of the 2012 ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album, returns with a stunning new recording: We Could Be Lovers. One of Australia’s most consummate performers, in 2013 Sarah moved from Melbourne to New York to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music and to perform with the established greats of the US jazz scene. The result is We Could Be Lovers, a brilliant new album which signals a new chapter in Sarah’s rise to international fame. Combining Sarah’s own compositions with her fresh new arrangements of favourite standards by among others Cole Porter, Gershwin and Henry Mancini, the album was produced by Grammy-Award-winner Brian Bacchus and recorded with an international line-up of musicians. Sarah will return to her native Australia in November 2014 to launch We Could Be Lovers, including a performance at the prestigious Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival. We Could Be Lovers boasts some of the finest music to come out of the international jazz scene in recent years. That’s It, I Quit, one of Sarah’s most appealing new compositions, combines catchy rhythms and tight groove in an irresistible combination; in Moon River, recorded here with an intimate accompaniment of just guitar and piano, Sarah’s magical vocals are at their most seductive.

“Sarah McKenzie is a musical marvel. She sings with the kind of phrasing that only a true jazz player can come up with, while her groove on the piano is that stuff that makes people want to play jazz” ~ James Morrison

Sarah McKenzie has been described as an Australian national treasure. She has performed throughout Australia and Europe, and has toured with Michael Bublé, Chris Botti, John Patitucci, and Enrico Rava. Now based in Boston, Sarah had the honor of being invited to perform her own material with The Boston Pops at Symphony Hall. After her highly praised performances at Melbourne International Jazz Festival, the Umbria Jazz Festival, The Boston Arts Festival, and Stonnington Jazz Festival, she has been invited to play the Monterey and Wangaratta Jazz Festivals in 2014. http://www.ovationchannel.com.au/we-could-be-lovers-sarah-mckenzie-cd

We Could Be Lovers

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Sarah McKenzie - Don't Tempt Me

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:35
Size: 117,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:11)  1. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to
(6:10)  2. Love Me or Leave Me
(4:53)  3. I Won't Dance
(4:51)  4. Love Me Tender
(5:00)  5. Bye Bye Blackbird
(3:45)  6. Don't Tempt Me
(7:16)  7. Dindi
(5:04)  8. I've Got the Blues Tonight
(5:11)  9. Summertime
(4:09) 10. St James Infirmary Blues

"Sarah McKenzie is a musical marvel. She sings with the kind of phrasing that only a true jazz singer can come up with while her groove of the piano is the stuff that makes people want to play jazz. Don't miss a chance to hear this lady perform live!"~ James Morrison

At 23 years of age, pianist, vocalist and composer Sarah McKenzie is one of Australia's up-and-coming jazz musicians. Since graduating from WAAPA completing a Bachelor of Jazz (Composition), Sarah has won the Jack Bendat Scholarship, the Hawaiian Award for “Most Outstanding Jazz Graduate” and the Perth Jazz Societies Award for the “Most Outstanding Group of the Year for 2008”. A recipient of the National Songwriters Competition (ACMF 2002) Sarah also won the prestigious James Morrison Scholarship (Vocal) this year, with a prize valued at $5000. Sarah had been a finalist in the scholarship for the last 6 years and was the only finalist to be nominated in both vocal and instrumental sections. Sarah has performed at some of Australia’s highest profile jazz festivals and events including the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Stonnington Jazz festival, Riverboats food and wine festival and the Melbourne Women in Jazz Festival. Such opportunities have put Sarah alongside greats such as James Morrison, Graeme Lyall, Joe Chindamo, Mat Jodrell and Jamie Oehlers. Sarah made her television debut performing with David Campbell at the L’Oreal Paris AFI awards and sang backing vocals for Michael Buble on the multi-platinum artist’s “Call Me Irresponsible” tour. In 2010 Sarah was signed onto the ABC Music Label. Her first Album ‘Don’t Tempt Me’ will be released in May 2011.  http://abcmusic.com.au/sarah-mckenzie

Don't Tempt Me

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