Scaggs -- who's currently finalizing a label deal for the planned September release of Speak Low the follow-up to 2003's But Beautiful is a sort of progressive, experimental effort ... along the lines of some of the ideas that Gil Evans explored."
Scaggs says the set features unusual instrumentation" that includes a string trio, bass woodwinds and harp. It was very challenging to me as a vocalist," he notes.
Songs on the album include Chet Baker's She Was Too Good To Be True," Johnny Mercer's This Time the Dream's on Me," the oft-recorded Billy Taylor/Dick Dallas hit I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and the Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash title track. Scaggs says he and collaborator Gil Goldstein considered nearly 50 songs and recorded 17 for the project.
I'm a vocalist," Scaggs says. I come more out of a blues/rhythm & blues background, but this is a different way of using my voice, and much more musically challenging and adventurous for me."
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