Showing posts with label Stella Bass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stella Bass. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Stella Bass - Smoke & Sound

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2010
Time: 57:14
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 132,7 MB
Art: Front

(4:10) 1. A Little Yearning (Live)
(4:08) 2. It's All A Swindle (Live)
(4:29) 3. The Smart Set (Live)
(2:03) 4. Maskulinum-Femininum (Live)
(2:53) 5. Chuck Out The Men (Live)
(5:47) 6. Munchhausen (Live)
(3:21) 7. Die Moritat Von Mackie Messer (Live)
(3:05) 8. Falling In Love Again (Live)
(4:04) 9. Lili Marlene (Live)
(5:40) 10. Surabaya Johnny (Live)
(4:06) 11. Alabama Song (Live)
(4:51) 12. The Saga Of Jenny (Live)
(4:25) 13. Speak Low (Live)
(4:05) 14. Mack The Knife (Live)

Stella studied music from a young age, starting piano accordion lessons at five, followed later by singing and piano, both through the Royal Irish Academy of Music. A degree in Computer Science from University College Dublin followed, and in 2017 she completed a Master’s Degree in Music in Dublin’s Conservatory of Music. She used the unexpected downtime of the pandemic to build on her undergrad IT skills to study Music Production with Berklee College, Boston, and Music Composition & Arranging with Studio Orchestrations, Belfast, which has led her into the fascinating world of writing, arranging and producing sync music for TV, film and gaming; she has already had several albums of her original instrumental music signed exclusively to Warner Chappell Production Music in Nashville.

That said, her heart will always be, first and foremost, as a singer, story-teller and concert performer. Alongside her studies, many years of singing in musicals, concerts and as bandleader at the bandstand helped Stella finely-tune her craft, and her versatile repertoire crosses over jazz, light classical and musical theatre.

Stella’s recent studio album, the 2025 Grammy longlisted “Look for the Silver Lining”, is a collaboration with the acclaimed Johnny Taylor Trio, featuring a mix of jazz standards and some new songs written by Stella. Since releasing her first album in 2014, she has performed at all the major jazz festivals in Ireland – including a headline performance at Cork Jazz Festival 2024, as well as performances in Pizza Express London Pheasantry and jazz venues in Germany, France and Australia. She has devised several concert programmes including, “Stella Sings Ella”, a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, as well an exploration of jazz-inspired interpretations of the music Stephen Sondheim, alongside collaborator Cian Boylan. Both of these shows have toured the island of Ireland with the support of the both Arts Councils on the island, while the Ella show most recently (November 2024) returned to a sold-out lunchtime audience @ NCH.

No stranger to the art of the big band, Stella sings with the Hot House Big Band for their monthly residency in Dublin, has recorded with the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, and she leads her own quartet with whom she tours and performs her own much-loved weekly jazz residency show.

She has also branched out into radio broadcasting, having presented and produced a music show on Dublin City FM for over 3 years, and has also been a presenter on Ireland’s beloved Christmas FM. She has also become an accomplished voiceover artist, recording radio and TV voiceovers for private and corporate clients. https://stellabass.com/about

Smoke & Sound: An Evening Of Berlin Cabaret

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Stella Bass - Look for the Silver Lining

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2024
Time: 42:17
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 97,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:32) 1. Being Alive
(5:41) 2. Blame It on My Youth
(2:23) 3. This Could Be the Start of Something Big
(3:47) 4. All the Colours of My Love
(5:07) 5. Pure Imagination
(3:32) 6. Old Devil Moon
(5:15) 7. Still
(3:11) 8. Look for the Silver Lining
(4:23) 9. I Believe in You
(4:21) 10. Change Partners

It is an enviable trait to always look for the silver lining in troubled times. For Dublin vocalist Stella Bass, when gigs dried up during the Covid pandemic, the silver lining was the gift of time. She did not waste it, studying music production with Berklee College, Boston, and music composition & arranging with Studio Orchestrations, Belfast. The seeds planted, work duly followed, with writing, arranging and syncing music for TV, film and gaming. She also decided that it was time to record again, almost a decade after Too Darn Hot (Self Produced, 2014). For Bass, the title of her second album seemed obvious from the outset.

Bass has led her own quartet for years, playing a weekly residency at Dublin's Café en Seine. She has also sung with the long-running Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, so she can call on the cream of the city's jazz musicians. It is no less than her voice deserves. Just as pianist Phil Ware's arrangements were key to the success of Too Darn Hot, another lauded pianist, Johnny Taylor, leaves an indelible stamp on the standards-heavy Look for the Silver Lining, with arrangements which play to Bass' strengths.

Taylor is a refined pianist, one who values economy and space, qualities that also shape his arrangements. However, when the mood takes him he is also capable of lighting a fire, as he does on "Being Alive," and on the swinging "Old Devil Moon," while his silky touch chimes nicely with Bass' deft delivery on the ever-popular "Pure Imagination." Drummer Dominic Mullan and bassist Barry Donohue, both long-standing collaborators, provide equally sympathetic support.

Telling cameos from flugelhornist Ronan Dooney brighten "Blame It on My Youth" and the leader's own "All The Colours of My Love," while tenor saxophonist Michael Buckley brings his customary panache to the swinging "This Could be the Start of Something Big" and the bossa nova-tinged "Change Partners."

But Bass is the real star of the show, her pure-toned voice, lightly spiced by vibrato, bossing the swingers, and imbuing the ballads with the requisite emotional nuance. In essence an interpretive jazz singer, albeit one who also sings Kurt Weil, Marlene Dietrich, Amy Winehouse and Ella Fitzgerald, Bass contributes two original compositions.

The swaying "All the Colours of My Heart" and the pretty ballad "Still," co-penned with Yann O'Brien and Neville Lloyd respectively, nestle comfortably among the standards. So comfortably, in fact, that for one not overly familiar with the standards presented here, it would be hard to pick out Bass' originals from those by Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin et al. She should not wait for the next pandemic before reaching for pen and blank paper.

Excellent production values give these strong performances the added luster they demand. Recommended for lovers of vocal jazz standards sultry, swinging, playful and tender. By Ian Patterson https://www.allaboutjazz.com/look-for-the-silver-lining-stella-bass-self-produced

Personnel: Stella Vass: Vocal; Johnny Taylor: piano; Dominic Mullan: drums; Barry Donohue: bass; Michael Buckley: tenor saxophone; Ronan Dooney: flugelhorn

Look for the Silver Lining

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Stella Bass - Too Darn Hot

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2014
Time: 53:42
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 123,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:02) 1. All The Things You Are
(4:40) 2. I Keep Going Back To Joe's
(2:10) 3. Too Darn Hot
(5:29) 4. Aeroplane
(6:03) 5. A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
(5:03) 6. Back To Black
(3:12) 7. The Frim Fram Sauce
(5:22) 8. The Nearness Of You
(3:47) 9. Why Don't You Do Right
(4:42) 10. Estate
(3:37) 11. A Wink And A Smile
(5:28) 12. Black Coffee

Singer Stella Bass is a stalwart of Dublin's live music scene, leading small jazz ensembles and collaborating with the HotHouse Big Band and the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra. Bass's debut jazz recording follows Smoke and Sound (Self Produced 2010), her cabaret tribute to Kurt Weil, Bertold Brech, Marlene Dietrich et al. In the main, Too Darn Hot sees Bass mine the jazz standards of the 1930s and 1940s, repertoire she's polished every Sunday for years in Dublin's chic Cafe en Seine. To stand out in a market awash with standards recordings requires something special and Bass, with her beguiling voice, comes fairly close. Whilst this set is unlikely to generate excitement amongst fans of more contemporary jazz there's no denying Bass's qualities as a singer and interpreter.

Classically trained, Bass's technical chops are evident from the first notes of Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein's "All The Things You Are"; more importantly, her voice possesses soul, swing and pizzazz. Noteworthy too, are the arrangements of pianist Phil Ware, whose deft use of space and dynamics frame Bass's performances beautifully while enabling the excellent supporting cast to shine.

Bass has assembled some of Dublin's finest jazz musicians and they do her proud; guitarist Hugh Buckley impresses at slow tempos as on the Kern/Hammerstein tune and equally, when the band is swinging, as on Cole Porter's "Too Darn Hot." Trumpeter Danny Healy uncorks a gem of a solo on Jack Segal/Marvin Fischer's "I Keep Going Back to Joe's," providing sympathetic support to Bass's gently bluesy delivery. On Manning Sherwin/Eric Mascwitz's ballad "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," tenor saxophonist Robert Geraghty and Buckley's understated lyricism underscores Bass's nuanced delivery.

The leader injects a little fun with "Frim Fram Sauce," Redd Evans/Joe Ricardel novelty song popularized by the Nat King Cole Trio. Despite the frivolous lyrics, this old-fashioned swinger has endured, from Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong to Diana Krall half a century later. Ware's arrangement for trumpet, saxophones and Karl Ronan's trombone adds little-big band luster to Joseph 'Kansas Joe' McCoy's blues tune "Why Don't You Do Right?" Bass would probably settle for a fraction of the million copies that Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman's version shifted in 1942.

Bass also convinces on contemporary fare. On Robert Palmer's "Aeroplane" her poignant delivery and Buckley's emotive intervention combine to eclipse the original. Amy Winehouse's perfect retro-pop tune "Back to Black" is slowed down and artfully rearranged for horns; the rhythm section of Ware, bassist Nev Lloyd and drummer Dominic Mullan bring a subtle jazz sensibility to both tracks. Bass provides another highlight with Bruno Martino/Bruno Brighetti's "Estate," typically sung as a bossa nova since Joao Gilberto popularized the song; Bass instead sticks convincingly to the original Italian version in a compelling duet with Ware.

Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington's 'The Nearness of You," Ramsey McLean/Marc Shaiman's breezy "A Wink and a Smile" and Sonny Burke/Paul Francis Webster's sultry, late-night blues "Black Coffee" round out an enjoyable set. Too Darn Hot just confirms what jazz aficionados in Dublin already know Bass is a class act.By Ian Patterson https://www.allaboutjazz.com/too-darn-hot-stella-bass-self-produced-review-by-ian-patterson

Personnel: Stella Bass: vocals; Phil Ware: piano, Rhodes piano, arrangements; Hugh Buckley: guitar; Dominic Mullan: drums; Nev Lloyd: double bass; Danny Healy: trumpet, flugelhorn; Michael Buckley: alto saxophone; Robert Geraghty: tenor saxophone; Karl Ronan: trombone.

Too Darn Hot