Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Asa Harris: All In Good Time

75

Asa Harris: All In Good Time

By

View read count
Asa Harris: All In Good Time
The Vocal Series. Borrowing the majority of Christine Hitt’s band from her recording You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To. (MAXJAZZ 107), vocalist Asa Harris makes her MAXJAZZ debut with a collection of standards that is unique in itself. The fourth in a Vocal Series released by the new label, Harris is preceded by the aforementioned Hitt disc, LaVerne Butler’s Blues In The City (MAXJAZZ 105) and Carla Cook’s It’s All About Love (MAXJAZZ 106). All of these recordings have an interesting and often surprising mix of standards and some originals. Ms. Harris’ offering is no different.

Alpha est et O. I believe that Chicago-born Ms Harris addresses all of the major eras of jazz. Chronologically, she begins in the Stride era with a lilting “Jitterbug Waltz”, hits the Swing era with Tuxedo Junction (composed by her Uncle, Erskine Hawkins), and proceeds through the height of Tin Pan Alley with an up-tempo “Love For Sale”, a pensive “Someone to Watch Over Me”. She rounds out the disc with the Bebop balladry of “Lullaby of Birdland” and a very cool “Mack the Knife”. The overall feeling of this disc is laid-back brilliance. All of the performances are self assured and creatively arranged. Kudos to bassist Tom Kennedy for his superb playing in general and his over-the-top introduction on “Tuxedo Junction”.

Track Listing

The Song Is You; Daydream; A Time For Love; The Late, Late Show; Love for Sale; It Never Was You; The Jitterbug Waltz; These Foolish Things; Wave; Someone To Watch Over Me; Tuxedo Junction; Die Moritat Von Mackie Messer; Lullaby of Birdland. (Total Playing Time 55:49).

Personnel

Asa Harris: Vocals; Todd Strait: Drums; Tom Kennedy: Acoustic Bass;; Rick Haydon: Guitar; Ray Kennedy, Kim Portnoy: Piano

Album information

Title: All In Good Time | Year Released: 1999 | Record Label: MAXJAZZ

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.