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Gia Notte: Shades

By C. Michael Bailey
September 9, 2010
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Track review of "My Funny Valentine"

Easy, effortless, breezy, and boundless: a few words to describe Gia Notte's approach to the standards. Shades, from beginning to end, displays an intention to recast standards in a different light. Not a bone-jarring different light, just one that is informative and thoughtfully conceived. Longtime Chet Baker ballad vehicle, "My Funny Valentine," is a case in point.

This standard deserves the admonishment that a 50-year moratorium be placed on its recording. However, Notte's autumnal delivery and October crisp support render this warhorse in a novel and provocative manner. Tenor saxophonis tDon Braden and pianist Jason Teborek establish a solidly novel time-signature approach that adds a tension to this song that is so often performed with none. The beauty is that Shades is fully populated with this kind of music—a good sign of things to come.

Track Listing

Caravan; Speak Low; Close Your Eyes; My Funny Valentine; Since I Fell For You; The Look Of Love; Love Me Or Leave Me; Autumn Leaves; I Wish You Love; Lover Come Back To Me; It Don't Mean A Thing; What'll I Do.

Personnel

Gia Notte

Gia Notte: vocals; Don Braden: tenor saxophone, soprano flute, alto flute; Jason Teborek: piano (2, 4, 6-10, 12); Brandon McCune: piano (1, 3, 5, 11); Tom DiCarlo: bass; Cecil Brooks III: drums; Freddie Hendrix: trumpet and flugelhorn; Guy Notte: alto saxophone (3); Kahlil Kwame Bell: percussion.

Album information

Title: Shades | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Gnote Records

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