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Lonely Girl - I Remember Julie

Petra van Nuis

Label: String Damper
Released: 2022
Duration: 58:42
Views: 534

Tracks

Lonley Girl; Trav'lin Light; You've Changed; The End Of the World; Something Cool; Here's That Rainy Day; The Meaning Of the Blues Blues In The Night; It Never Entered My Mind; I Should Care; Baby Won't you Please Come Home; Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most; Cry Me A River.

Personnel

Petra van Nuis

vocals

Andy Brown

guitar

Album Description

Julie London was one of my first influences. I must have listened and sung along with her Julie Is Her Name album hundreds of times while I was a dancer dreaming of becoming a jazz singer. That album inspired me to follow the path I am now on! I studied every nuance of Julie's singing and she became my teacher...her albums my assignments. While I knew my voice could never sound like Julie's with her deep and sexy world-weary tone, I could at least emulate her phrasing, delicate feeling and soft intimate approach. It was her subtlety that appealed to my sensibilities. Julie’s Lonely Girl album features the fine guitarist Al Viola in a duo setting. I’m lucky enough to be married to the magnificent guitarist Andy Brown. We’ve played countless duo gigs together in our twenty-two year collaboration and vocal/guitar duo is the setting I am most comfortable with. The idea to record Lonely Girl – I Remember Julie was suggested to us by Ryoji Fukui, owner/producer of Muzak, the Japanese label that originally released the album. Normally reticent to do tributes, I was convinced this one was a natural fit when I learned that Andy and I share with Japanese jazz fans not only a deep love for Julie London, but a particular affinity for her intimate vocal/guitar masterpiece Lonely Girl. For our tribute to Lonely Girl, I had no intention of imitating Julie London. I am merely offering a gentle nod to a singer whom I admire immensely. I chose songs that Julie sang on her various albums which fit into the mood of a lonely girl sitting alone by the phone after a breakup yearning for a new love to call. ~Petra van Nuis

Julie London has been a gift to guitar players. There was once a time when singing a whole album of Great American Songbook tunes with accompaniment from a simple guitar was unthinkable. Julie’s landmark first album Julie Is Her Name changed that landscape forever. Arranged and shaped by the creative genius of guitarist Barney Kessel, this album not only made Julie a singing star but permanently altered how the guitar was viewed in terms of backing a singer. Julie was a generous employer of some of the finest jazz guitarists of her day including not only Barney, but also Howard Roberts and Joe Pass, not to mention guitarist Al Viola, who accompanied her on the innovative voice/guitar duo Lonely Girl. Legend has it that Julie Is Her Name was one of the biggest influences on the founders of the Bossa Nova movement in Brazil. Folks like A.C. Jobim and Joao Gilberto wore the record out and combined its cool, mellow style with the rhythms of samba to create their guitar-friendly music that revolutionized the world of pop music. Julie’s amazing voice and subtle style have inspired me since I first heard her, and as a guitarist I can’t thank her enough for her innovations regarding the use of my instrument! ~Andy Brown