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Keely Smith: Keely Sings Sinatra
by Mathew Bahl
For vocal tribute albums to amount to more than a collection of standards, there should be either strong stylistic connections between artists (Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Dear Ella ) or strong personal ties (Carol Sloane’s The Songs Carmen Sang ). Keely Sings Sinatra has both. Keely Smith and Frank Sinatra shared a longstanding professional relationship as well ...
Holly Cole: Romantically Helpless
by Mathew Bahl
The irony of this CD title is hard to miss. Holly Cole’s confident, smoky alto might convey dark humor or cautious optimism, painful regret or self-aware neurosis, but definitely not helplessness. Ms. Cole combines the modern, post-feminist attitude of the Lilith Fair crowd with the sophistication of a pre-rock interpretative singer. Holly Cole has always been ...
Carla Cook: Just a Swingin' and a Groovin'
by Mathew Bahl
On the question of categories, Carla Cook will say this much: “I'm definitely a jazz singer in that I like to improvise and I like to swing." Beyond that, the subject doesn't interest her. “I don't spend a lot of time haggling with the word “jazz,?" she explains. “I let the “Jazz Police" handle that. I ...
Wesla Whitfield: Let's Get Lost: The Songs of Jimmy McHugh
by Mathew Bahl
Although not in the same class as innovators like Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter or Harold Arlen, the composer Jimmy McHugh (1894-1969) achieved, by any standard, the songwriting trifecta. His songs were of exceeding musical merit, they enjoyed huge commercial success, and they have endured the test of time. In his seminal book, ...
Monica Worth: Never Let Me Go
by Mathew Bahl
The CD package describes Monica Worth as “a rich, throaty alto with echoes of Rosemary Clooney and Morganna [sic] King.” It is a claim that raises an interesting question. Can a singer simultaneously evoke both Ms. Clooney’s earthy directness and Ms. King’s highly stylized abstractions? The answer, of course, is no. While the influence of Ms. ...
Andy Bey & the Bey Sisters: Andy Bey & the Bey Sisters
by Mathew Bahl
Andy Bey's two rapturously received late '90s CDs, Ballads, Blues & Bey and Shades of Bey, were seen as something of a reinvention for the singer/pianist whose work over the previous 25 years, nearly all as a guest vocalist on other artists' albums, had been more than a little on the esoteric side. However, Prestige's current ...
Sue Tucker: Meant For You
by Mathew Bahl
I have to admit that, for very superficial reasons, I did not have high expectations for Sue Tucker's Meant for You. An unknown Minnesota-based singer performing standards on a CD produced, engineered, manufactured and distributed by the singer and her husband. It had the feel of a housewife's vanity project. The CD packaging is not exactly ...
Abbey Lincoln: Over the Years
by Mathew Bahl
Abbey Lincoln's career has always been one marked by constant growth and self-discovery. Over the course of her first five albums, beginning with 1956's Abbey Lincoln's Affair: A Story of a Girl in Love and ending with 1961's Straight Ahead, she transformed herself from a conventional pop singer into an intensely dramatic jazz singer. However, Ms. ...
Ruth Cameron: Roadhouse
by Mathew Bahl
The skepticism that greeted Ruth Cameron's debut album, First Songs, was palpable. Fairly or unfairly, the CD was considered by many to be less about the discovery of a new jazz singer than about Verve keeping its star bassist Charlie Haden, Ms. Cameron's husband, happy. Although it proved she was a good singer, Ms. Cameron's work ...
Cassandre McKinley: Stay the Night
by Mathew Bahl
Stay the Night is the young, Boston-based vocalist Cassandre McKinley’s second CD. Although far from perfect, there is enough talent and solid judgment on display to suggest that it will not be her last. Ms. McKinley’s chief asset is a gorgeous voice that immediately grabs the listener’s attention. Hers is a bright, nicely textured, well pitched ...
