Jazz Articles

Tom Lellis: Avenue Of The Americas

by Michael P. Gladstone
August 9, 2006

Jazz vocalist Tom Lellis' Avenue of the Americas is at least partially a midsummer's valentine to the music of Brazil, and those tracks represent the finest aspect of this album. Lellis, who began recording in 1979 on Inner City Records, has only a handful of albums to show for the passing decades. His 1993 Concord album Taken To Heart first teamed him with Brazilian guitarist and composer Toninho Horta and exposed his interest in the music of that country. Horta ...

Tom Lellis: Avenue of the Americas

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
June 27, 2006

Tom Lellis is a bold, innovative musician with a supple voice and distinctive style. While he's not your cookie-cutter crooner, he's still fully capable of inducing swoons in his female listeners (see “Baubles, Bangles, and Beads" for evidence). This track also demonstrates some of what makes Lellis an original: his ability to combine different songs as if they always belonged together.

For example, he sings “I Get a Kick out of You" over the chords for “Baubles," and later weds ...