George Evans: From Moment to Moment

From Moment to Moment is the third album for American - Canadian vocalists George Evans. He has pulled together a musical agenda of 12 tunes that are an intelligent mix of the familiar and almost familiar. He has also taken outstanding musicians into the studio with him and they are completely in synch with what Evans is doing with the material, which is presenting it mostly in a swinging manner with excellent imaginative phrasing, unbeatable diction more than a passing acquaintance with the beat and a daub of falsetto now and then for emphasis. However, and this is a matter of taste, there is the matter of dynamics, that some distinction between each line or set of lines in terms of moving from to soft to loud, from tenor to brash. Evans is not a shouter and we should probably thank him for not yelling at us. Moreover, the lack of a full range of dynamics is more than offset by Evans almost physical relationship to the songs he sings, so heavy in his commitment to them such as the lovely "When She Makes Music". Evans also sets each word out there for the listener to taste and savor, like tasting a good wine, as on "All My Tomorrows". Evans also handles the upbeat material quite well, setting his own pace and position, (behind, on top or ahead of the beat) despite where his accompanists are going as on "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die". But it's by no means anarchy. Evans is smart enough to take what his musicians give him and then play with that. This cut also has some fine piano by Dave Restivo and is one of the few places when Evans lets it all go with a dramatic coda.

A good deal of satisfaction and pleasure can be derived from this album as long as no unreasonable expectations are created and leans to the Mark Murphy, Dave Frishberg, Mose Allison, with a nod to Mel Torme, school of the vocal art rather than the Frank Sinatra, Johnny Hartman, Dick Haymes and those from the big baritone school. Special note must be made some fine tenor by Michael Stuart for some excellent tenor. Visit Evans at his web site www.george-evans.net.