Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Cristina Morrison: I Love

43

Cristina Morrison: I Love

Track review of "Fine and Mellow"

Cristina Morrison: I Love
Vocalist Cristina Morrison is also quite the lyricist as she demonstrates in spades on I Love. Original compositions like "Summer in New York" are beautifully carnal while the title track is a celebration of art and free spirits. Swing is the vitamin that nourishes this music, catalyzing a fine extended band to pitch-perfect performance. This is bright and contemporary jazz singing in the best sense of the word. Morrison's tone is sure and her mid-range uniform. She readily puts muscle behind the lyrics warranting it, and while never exactly dropping to a purr, still imbues the more sensual pieces with enough humidity to drench the area. The best example of this is the closing piece, Billie Holiday's staggering "Fine and Mellow."

Morrison and her band's arrangement of "Fine and Mellow" takes full advantage of an opening double bass and vocal chorus that immediately establishes the organic basis for the song. Bassist Marcus McLaurine begins with intention rather than swing, playing an intentional stilted blues line for the first two vocal choruses before pulling out the stops with the rest of the band, and throwing out some nose-bleed swing. Morrison coos and laments, frets and warns. She captures the inconsistent danger in love and lust. MClaurine's bass solo is in no way abstract: it is not a wink but a grab of the lapels. Guitarist Vinny Valentino adds some elegant low-down to the song, his solo one of decadent noblesse rather than roadhouse hubris and machismo. Nicely done, Cristina Morrison.

Track Listing

Summer In New York; Fifteen Day Affair; I Love; Stand Still; What A Difference A Day Makes; Red Mafia & Jass; East Of The Sun; Perfect Little Storms; Fine & Mellow.

Personnel

Cristina Morrison: vocals; Christian Hidrobo: alto saxophone; Walter Szymanski: trumpet; Steve Einerson: piano; Willard Dyson: drums; Marcus McLaurine: bass; Alex Alvear: electric bass; Vinny Valentino: guitar; Gregoire Maret: harmonica; Sammy Torres: percussion; Alex Harding: baritone saxophone; Navijio Cevallos: requinto; Nanda Proano: vocals.

Album information

Title: I Love | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Self Produced

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.