Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ray Brown (and friends): Some Of My Best Friends Are...Singers

387

Ray Brown (and friends): Some Of My Best Friends Are...Singers

By

View read count
Ray Brown (and friends): Some Of My Best Friends Are...Singers
It has been said that you can get by with a little help from your friends. Now, we will all have to get by without one of our best.

Ray Brown was one of the most admired and most beloved bass men of his age. On this new compilation, some of his most talented friends pay tribute by joining the late great on a dozen of his favorite songs.

From Nancy King's whispery "But Beautiful" to Dee Dee Bridgewater's airy "More Than You Know," to Kevin Mahogany's smoothly grounded "The Party's Over," the vocal range nearly matches the range of moods Brown can evince with only four strings. Even so, Brown himself has very little opportunity to step forward and shine. The sign of a true master, perhaps, but also possibly the sin of an uninformed mixer. For though this is an album of Brown's many vocal companions (including a swinging Marlena Shaw, a simmering Etta Jones and a swallowing Diana Krall), it is, after all, his album. And while flashy solos may not have been Brown's mark, a few uninterrupted samples would have been appreciated by friends and fans alike.

Track Listing

I Thought About You; Poor Butterfly; More Than You Know; Little Boy; But Beautiful; At Long Last Love; Skylark; Cherokee; There Is No Greater Love; Imagination; Party's Over; Perfect Blues.

Personnel

Ray Brown
bass, acoustic

Ray Brown: bass; Dee Dee Bridgewater: vocal; Antonio Hart: alto saxophone; Gregory Hutchinson: drums; Etta Jones: vocal; Geoff Keezer: piano; Nancy King: vocal; Diana Krall: vocal; Kevin Mahogany: vocal; Russell Malone: guitar; Ralph Moore: tenor saxophone; Marlena Shaw: vocal.

Album information

Title: Some Of My Best Friends Are...Singers | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Telarc Records

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

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

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.