Call Me Irresponsible-Michael Buble
It's no coincidence that Michael Bublé's new album starts with just his voice and some fingersnaps on "The Best Is Yet to Come," a song made famous by Frank Sinatra. The Canadian smoothie looks longingly towards early-'60s Vegas, an impression quickly reinforced when a boisterous horn section makes its grand entrance, about 20 seconds into the track. That Bublé means business is confirmed by the second cut, a fast-paced take on Henry Mancini's "It Had Better Be Tonight," and of course by the CD's very title, another song identified with Sinatra as his cockiest. There are just a few sidesteps from the retro formula that's served Bublé so well so far: a languid duet with Brazilian star Ivan Lins on the bossa "Wonderful Tonight," a gospel choir on "That's Life." Interestingly, Bublé co-wrote the best of those sidesteps, "Everything," a Norah Jones-esque number that alluringly harks back to sunny '70s pop. It's also the only song on the album produced by Bob Rock (best known for his work with Metallica), sending out a strong signal that Bublé should reach out to unlikely collaborators more often. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Melding the contemporary and the classic in ways only he can, Michael Buble has created his most complete studio effort yet. Ranging from "I've Got The World On a String" to "Me and Mrs. Jones," in addition to two new songs co-written by Michael, Call Me Irresponsible makes this album irresistible.
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Sunday, February 24, 2008
Call Me Irresponsible-Michael Buble
The Very Best of the Manhattan Transfer
The Very Best of the Manhattan Transfer
This is an excellent collection of many of the high points of the Manhattan Transfer's first decade, demonstrating both their reach and their grasp as they draw material from swing, modern jazz, and doo-wop into their own distinctive style. There's a tongue-in-cheek cool that connects the swing of Erskine Hawkins's "Tuxedo Junction" to the elemental girl-group harmonies of "Boy from New York City" and the TV themes like "Route 66" and the variations on the "Twilight Zone." More traditional jazz skills, though, are apparent in their renditions of some Jon Hendricks vocal classics. Composer Jimmy Giuffre plays saxophone on their version of his "Four Brothers," a key theme for bandleader Woody Herman, while there are also stellar renditions of Weather Report's "Birdland" and the standard "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square." It's an entertaining collection by a group that's never let itself be confined by the expected. --Adam Rains
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1. Boy From New York City
2. Trickle Trickle
3. Gloria
4. Operator
5. Tuxedo Junction
6. Four Brothers
7. Ray's Rockhouse
8. Soul Food To Go (Sina)
9. Spice Of Life
10. Baby Come Back To Me (The Morse Code Of Love)
11. Candy Listen Listen
12. A Nightingale Sang In Berkely Square
13. Birdland
14. Java Jive
15. Route 66
16. Twilight Zone, Twilight Tone
They have been around for more than three decades now. This group has earned a reputation as one of the most hard working and versatile acts in show business. The Manhattan Transfer made a decision years ago not to concentrate on any one particular style of music. It was surely the right choice because Manhattan Transfer continues to perform to this day their unique blend of bebop, fusion jazz, pop and doowop to enthusiastic audiences all over the world.
"The Very Best of the Manhattan Transfer" certainly does live up to its moniker. Rhino has done a splendid job in assembling 16 of the groups very finest recordings. It is simply amazing to me that a group of such abundant talent only managed to place a total of 7 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Each and every one of those tunes appear here including as you would expect "Operator", "Trickle Trickle", "Baby Come Back To Me (The Morse Code of Love)" and the groups biggest single release "Boy From New York City" from 1981. At that point it looked as though Manhattan Transfer just might be a fixture on the pop charts for many years to come. But Manhattan Transfer never really fancied itself a Top 40 act. Rather the group appealed to a wide variety of audiences and as such found a great deal of success on the album charts in the ensuing years. Many great tunes from those albums appear on this disc including phenominal renditions of standards like "Candy", "Tuxedo Junction", "Route 66" and "Java Jive". I also loved the groups cover of the doo wop classic "Gloria". I found each and every track on this CD to be an absolute delight. The remastering job is amazing and the 8 page booklet was also very nicely done.
The Manhattan Transfer was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. They have also won 10 Grammys. This CD should be considered "essential" for serious collectors of American popular music. Very highly recommended.
Quincy Jones - Live in '60 (Jazz Icons) (2006)
Quincy Jones - Live in '60 (Jazz Icons) (2006)
Jazz Icons: Quincy Jones features Q conducting what he called his Â"dream band.Â" With an 18-piece orchestra of world-renowned players such as Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Sahib Shihab, Budd Johnson and Benny Bailey, this 80-minute program featuring 17 songs, is one of the fi nest examples of big band jazz ever to be captured on fi lm. Shot in Switzerland and Belgium in 1960, these two concerts are the only known visual documents of this legendary tour—an important lost chapter in an illustrious career which has spanned six decades.
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Monday, February 18, 2008
Ken Burns's Jazz: The Story of American Music [BOX SET] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Ken Burns's Jazz: The Story of American Music [BOX SET] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] 
Ken Burns Jazz - The Story of America's Music collects 94 tracks of music on five CDs along with 48 pages of annotation, explanation, and photographic documentation. It's all in the service of telling a tale of Americans working together, overcoming differences and conflicts, and moving toward a common goal. The general backdrop, of course, is the development of an indigenous music and its intertwinings with American life throughout the 20th century. But the central characters of this boxed-set story are really Burns, by now this country's pre-eminent documentary filmmaker; the producers at PBS, the original if no longer the dominant national television network; and the staffs of two major record labels, Verve and Columbia Legacy, who, in combination, possess a significant slice of jazz's history in their vaults.
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Before it can be appreciated as a telling of jazz's tale, Ken Burns Jazz needs to be considered as the landmark in jazz promotion that it is. Burns is one of few Americans - maybe the only one - who could commandeer some 20 hours of television time dedicated to jazz, a music that, despite its rich history, now appeals to only a small minority of American ears. Burns has surrounded his 10-part PBS documentary with a book, a five-CD boxed set, a 20-track "best of" CD, and 22 single-artist discs that compile the work of artists profiled in the series. The musical output represents a rare and historic union of two companies that regularly compete for market share in jazz's reissue bins (and that's where much of the action is these days).
But this is about raising jazz's market share overall, and one need only read the evangelical zeal of Burns' liner notes to appreciate that. That's something we need not - in fact, should not - look at cynically. If the record executives are hopping on Burns' bandwagon, it's for a good reason: Besides the fact that jazz isn't heard all that much by general audiences, even when it is heard, it lacks context. For most people, jazz needs a storyline, a framework. Burns focused his lens in an effort to do just that, and it may prove to be the most powerful vehicle to drive jazz sales since the "young lions" movement of the early 1990s, when Wynton Marsalis and others were the focal points of resurgent interest in jazz.
As with that movement, discontent is likely to ripple throughout the jazz community in reference to the five-CD set. "What about Jackie McLean?" they'll cry. "Is Dizzy Gillespie's 'Manteca' all there is to Afro Cuban jazz?" they'll shout. "What about artists playing in clubs today, like Joe Lovano and Geri Allen and Greg Osby?" And let's not even talk about free improvisation. There are omissions to catch the eye of nearly any jazz lover.
But that's not the point. Ken Burns Jazz is the accompaniment to a film - the story as Burns tells it. In Burns' 10-part telling, the first nine episodes run through 1961, with the last summarizing the music since. This decision is a clear point of controversy, especially for those whose ears are more attuned to recordings of the '60s and beyond. Burns firmly contends that he is a historian, that he's telling a story of the inspiration behind the development of jazz.
Those taking Burns' project overall as a manifesto - that jazz stopped decades ago - are overreacting or misinterpreting. Taken on its own terms, a good deal of important detail is imparted as Discs One, Two, and Three move through the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. As one would expect, heaping helpings of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are laid out. There's also some music that helped give rise to jazz, like a 1919 recording of James Reese Europe's 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Band, two early Jelly Roll Morton tracks, and King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, recorded in 1923. The first four discs support Burns' story quite well - that is to say, he succeeds in setting the music in a meaningful context for general listeners. But Disc Five, which moves from Armstrong's 1963 version of "Hello, Dolly!" to the Miles Davis Quintet's "E.S.P." (1965) to Herbie Hancock's 1983 MTV hit "Rockit" before ending with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra's "Take the 'A' Train" seems a confused hodgepodge - an attempt to cover too much ground. That's not surprising: Burns' story doesn't really deal in-depth with free jazz, fusion jazz, hip-hop jazz or contemporary forms of any stripe. He's waving the flag of jazz as sewn by its founders. And if this box sends listeners off to fill in the gaps or extend the tale themselves, there are any number of satisfying sequels to assemble.
Larry Blumenfeld, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.
Weather Channel Presents: Best of Smooth Jazz
Weather Channel Presents: Best of Smooth Jazz
Midas Records is proud to announce the first ever CD from The Weather Channel ®, "The Best of Smooth Jazz." As 2007 marks the network's 25th anniversary, it also heralds the network's entry into retail music. Music has long been a source of interest for viewers who have been writing in for years asking where they can purchase the music they enjoy during the "Local on the 8s" segment, broadcast 288 minutes each day! The 12-song collection features the Channel's most requested music by such known artists as Dave Koz, Najee, Chick Corea, Pieces of a Dream, Joyce Cooling, Jeff Lorber, Four 80 East, 3rd Force and Paprika Soul. The CD also includes 3 most-requested songs heard only on The Weather Channel by Jeanne Ricks, Ryan Farish and Mark Krumowski.
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History of Music on The Weather Channel
People who keep an eye on the weather also have an ear for music, judging from the huge number of inquiries from viewers of The Weather Channel, who have been asking "where can I get that music I just heard?" That's why a CD of "Local on the 8s" music from The Weather Channel is being presented. For the very first time, fans and admirers of the music have an opportunity to have their own compilation of many favorites.
Seven years ago, The Weather Channel stepped up its efforts to select music that viewers would enjoy. The responsibility was assigned to a network producer who had what some would call a "dream job" - spending hour after hour at music stores finding songs and artists that were right for The Weather Channel audience. Soon, viewers began to take notice of the fresh and contemporary sound of the new musical selections on The Weather Channel. The on-air music was well-received. Some people said that they kept the network on all day to stay in touch with the weather as well as to enjoy the music in the background.
Four years ago, the producer further refined the music "playlist" by scheduling different types of sounds during different parts of the day. For example, during the daytime, the music is light and upbeat. Moving into the evening, the selections have a slower tempo and are more sultry. And then they become even more mellow during the late night.
This blend of the many moods of jazz is captured on our first CD of "Local on the 8s." Out of over 3,000 songs that have been played over the years during local weather on The Weather Channel, we are proud to bring you a collection of favorites on our "Smooth Jazz" release.
