Quantcast
NEWS |   Sign In   |   I'm New Here
Return to home page





First Steps
Min Rager
Go and Find
Leanne Weatherly
Moods
Michaela Rabitsch & Robert Pawlik Quartet
Shambhala
Susan Wylde
In Between Moods
Tony Foster
This Heart of Mine
Pamela Hines








Pete McCann
Info | Enter
Gretchen Parlato
Info | Enter
Henry Threadgill
Info | Enter
Keith Jarrett
Info | Enter

Dark Divas
Ranee Lee


By Dave Nathan
Comments        

Ranee Lee, a Brooklyn native transplanted in Canada, has written a show honoring the divas who have influenced her the most in her career as a jazz diva herself. Her seventh album for the Justin Time label is a capsulized version of this review and features songs that were sung by Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Pearl Bailey, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Lee in no way apes the renditions by these great singers. She puts her own special stamp on each song on the play list. Given her long and distinguished membership in the jazz/pop vocal community, how could it be otherwise. Her position as one of the preeminent jazz vocal song stylists is solidified by the way she does such classics as "J'ai Deux Amours" that helped make Josephine Baker the toast of Europe. One also hears a nod to the pathos in Edith Piaf's here. Billie Holiday's "Fine and Mellow" is not only distinguished by Lee's singing, but by the wailing trombone of Muhammad Abdul Al-Khabyyr. Perdido captures the one of a kind swing scatting of Sarah Vaughan. Pearl Bailey's ability to mix stand up comedy with a song is recalled with "What Happened to the Hair on the Head of the Man I Love?". "Yesterday When I Was Young" often a paean to regretful sentimentality for past sins of omission and commission, in Lee's hands is "in your face I did it my way" pride. A telling coda to an album saying "thanks" to those she listened to over the years as she went down her own road. After listening to this album one wishes that Ranee Lee's one woman show were playing down the street. Highly recommended.


Track listing: Honeysuckle Rose; J'ai Deux Amours; Riffin' the Scotch; Fine and Mellow; It Was Just one of Those Things; One for My Baby; What Happened to the Hair on the Head of the Man I Love?; It Takes Two to Tango; Surprise Party; Makin' Whoopee; Perdido; If You Could See Me Now; A Tisket, A Tasket; Oh Lady, Be Good; Yesterday When I Was Young

Personnel: Ranee Lee - Vocal; Richard Ring - Guitar; Tilden Webb - Piano; Mike Downes - Bass; Dave Laing - Drums; Richard Beaudet - Sax/Clarinet; Muhammad Abdul Al-Khabyyr - Trombone; Ron DiLauro - Trumpet

Style: Vocal
Published: October 01, 2001


Be the first to post a comment on:
Ranee Lee's Dark Divas

Signup & post a comment!






More articles by Dave Nathan

Jazz Comes to New Bern
Eyes for You
Burgundy Street Blues
The Rat on My Piano
Twelve Times Romance




Recent CD Reviews
Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz - Two Not One Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz
Two Not One
Henry Darragh - Tell Her For Me Henry Darragh
Tell Her For Me
Jeb Patton - New Strides Jeb Patton
New Strides
Michaela Rae - Blues with a Backbone Michaela Rae
Blues with a Backbone
The OtherTet - The OtherTet The OtherTet
The OtherTet
George Garzone - Among Friends George Garzone
Among Friends

CD Review Search
Artist Name  
Album Title  
Record Label  
Author  
 




 
(15)




The New Five

New York Hotel
From Introducing The New Five

More | Recent | Top










.. Privacy Policy | AAJ Supports: Lens Lady All material copyright © 2009 All About Jazz and/or contributing writer/visual artist. All rights reserved. Advertise | Contact Us