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Both Sides Now

Millennium Jazz Orchestra

Label: ZenneZ Records
Released: 2023
Duration: 51:14
Views: 352

Tracks

1. Soon 2. I Haven’t Got Anything Better to Do 3. Moon River 4. Something to Live For 5. Detour Ahead 6. Never Will I Marry 7. A Sleepin’ Bee 8. Smile 9. That’s All 10. Both Sides Now 11. I Will Wait For You 12. How Do You Keep the Music Playing?

Personnel

Millennium Jazz Orchestra

band / ensemble / orchestra

Joan Reinders

composer / conductor

Marjorie Barnes

vocals

Additional Personnel / Information

*Reeds: Gerlo Hesselink (lead) alto and soprano saxophone, flute Rob Sijben alto and soprano saxophone, flute Joao Driessen tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet Luuk de Vries tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet Job Helmers baritone saxophone, bass clarinet *Trumpets and flugelhorns: Bas Konings (lead) Suzan Veneman Florian Sperzel Herman Nijkamp Anne-Marie ten Heggeler *Trombones: Gregor Sperzel (lead) Simon Pugsley Jan Peter van der Hoeve Lars de Bie (bass trombone) *Rhythm section: Dirk Balthaus piano Bart Tarenskeen double bass Imre Kruis drums

Album Description

With a career spanning more than fifty years now, Marjorie Barnes rightfully has become a ‘Grande Dame du Jazz’. The songs on this album are part of her musical DNA. Songs that have stood the test of time. Thanks to the arrangements of Joan Reinders, founder and conductor of the Millennium Jazz Orchestra, these songs are sounding more vivid than ever. The chosen repertoire, with a nod to the American Songbook, embraces many different colors and variations, painting a picture of an era from the 1920s to the 1980s. “I feel privileged to work with big bands”, says Marjorie. “In the 1940s and 1950s it may have been ‘normal’, but nowadays... So I am really grateful for that.” Joan agrees: “Like Marjorie says: in the 1940s and 1950s there were a lot of big bands and therefore a lot of arrangers. They were very good too. Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer, Sammy Nestico - who arranged for the Count Basie Orchestra with Sarah Vaughan -, are arrangers that I have admired since an early age. Bill Holman, Marty Paich are a few more names. Not to forget Nelson Riddle, who was largely responsible for Frank Sinatra’s big band sound.” Marjorie has sung most of these songs in different decades of her life: “Just like Joni Mitchell with Both Sides Now, if you listen to her sing it in the 70s and listen to her sing it now, it sounds completely different. And that’s how I feel it too. Songs that I grew up with or that I sang 35 years ago, I sing in a different way now. It comes from a different perspective, if only because I’m older. I have lived a lot of life. You take that into account when telling the story.” Marjorie has become ‘Dutch’ over the years, but she was born and raised in New York, where she sang in Broadway musicals such as Hair, I Love My Wife and Dreamgirls. She was part of the well-known group The Fifth Dimension, with whom she came to perform in the Netherlands – way back in 1975. The band, which scored a world hit with Aquarius / Let the Sunshine in, was the support act to Frank Sinatra at the famous Amsterdam Concertgebouw. She has worked with such great names as Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr., and Billy Eckstein; also with jazz/funk trumpeter Tom Browne, bassists John Clayton, Marcus Miller, and drummer Mel Lewis. After a starring role in the West End (London) production of Bubbling Brown Sugar, Marjorie made Europe her home, living first in England, then Paris, Vienna and finally settling in the Netherlands. There, in 2015, she released Tenderly, a tribute to Sarah Vaughan. Marjorie smiles: “I see this new album as a life’s journey too. It is representative of different moments in my life. These are songs with beautiful stories, and I think many people will recognize themselves in those stories. The album is about different periods in life; different desires, different wishes, different dreams and different disappointments. Things we all experience; although most of us don’t get the chance to perform them with a big band!”

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