no music

It will be over soon , hang in there !

Get seven dems lined up.

Time to get out a good book and read.

If only naim audio made an ipod! : )

(...probably come with a rucksack for the power-supply)

Debs

You might come back with fresh ears

quote:

Originally posted by mudwolf:
Time to get out a good book and read.

Dickens'"A Tale of Two Cities", last read in 1963 :-)

You will enjoy your music all the more when the work is finally done - something to look forward to.

mat

I'm back in my house :-) After a week without music, I fired up the system right away.

First silver disk to get air time was Queen Latifa's "Dana Andrews Album". She has the clearest, most beautiful intonation of any singer in recent memory, and a flawless rhythm
that combines with a perfect jazz diction to produce illuminated renderings of songs you thought you knew.

The band is absloutely first rate, and the extensively engineered recording sounds just beautiful.

My favorite song on the album is "Lush Life", which gets a reading here far superior to Ella Fitsgerald.

Track 1 and "Mercy, Mercy" are my least favorite tracks on the album, but they are still extremely well done. Disregarding these two tracks, i find the Dana Andrews album perfect.

Pay attention to the bass on this one - very nice indeed ...

surely you're kidding....

quote:

Originally posted by soundsreal:
surely you're kidding....

not even a little bit. it stunned me - i didn't know she had it in her. this is the best female vocal album i have heard to date.

are you sure the decorators havent spilt paint on your cdp ?

quote:

Originally posted by scottyhammer:
are you sure the decorators havent spilt paint on your cdp ?

one mistake - it's Queen Laitifa's "Dana Owens Album", not Dana Andrews.

i'll say it again, this is the best female vocal album i have heard. and her performance of "Lush Life" is the best female vocal jazz standard ever. No one else can touch her - not even close.

and i hear female jazz vocalist all the time, in my collection, on wwoz and live in clubs.

the "Dana Owens Album" is the high water mark.

I haven't heard The Dana Owens Album but I've heard Queen Latifa sing standards, and she is the real deal for sure.

There have been too many great female vocalists for me to say she surpasses them all, but she's definitely among the great.

All best,
Fred

you should air the house out a little more, I think there must be paint residue or something still floating around.....
seriously, I'm glad you like the album, it was just okay for me. we used to play it in my store and people would run.....different things for different people, i suppose...

quote:

There have been too many great female vocalists for me to say she surpasses them all, but she's definitely among the great.

P LEASE!!! what is going on? She seems like a very nice person, but she can't act, she can't really sing, she was a good spokesperson for the hefty set, and she'd make an even better spokesperson for black lesbians, who need someone like her to step up and speak out.
BUT, one of the greatest female singers? EGAD, I think I need some air before I hurl!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by soundsreal:
...she can't really sing!

Like all the truly great singers in that respect then?

quote:

Originally posted by soundsreal:

quote:

There have been too many great female vocalists for me to say she surpasses them all, but she's definitely among the great.

P LEASE!!! what is going on? She seems like a very nice person, but she can't act, she can't really sing, she was a good spokesperson for the hefty set, and she'd make an even better spokesperson for black lesbians, who need someone like her to step up and speak out.
BUT, one of the greatest female singers? EGAD, I think I need some air before I hurl!!!!

soundsreal, you have me wondering how you form opinions about music, and if musical considerations play any role in that process.
no big deal, you just have me curious :-)

quote:

Originally posted by fred simon:


I haven't heard The Dana Owens Album but I've heard Queen Latifa sing standards, and she is the real deal for sure.

There have been too many great female vocalists for me to say she surpasses them all, but she's definitely among the great.

All best,
Fred

"The Dana Owens Album" is far superior to Queen Laitifa's other album of standards, with "Lush Life" being the high point.

"Lush Life" is a harmonically rich jazz standard requiring the ultimate in musical skills to phrase, I think more so than perhaps any other jazz standard, and the queen surpasses Billy Eckstien, my other favorite.

given the queen's public persona, i was floored to see this side of her. it's very satisfying to find something you didn't expect, someplace you weren't going to look :-)

quote:

Originally posted by Mat Cork:

quote:

Originally posted by soundsreal:
...she can't really sing!

Like all the truly great singers in that respect then?

actually, she really can sing, like other truly great singers :-)

FYI from jazzstandards.com :


In 1933 a teenage Billy Strayhorn started work on “Lush Life.” He would fine-tune his composition over the next few years and in 1938, at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Strayhorn played the piano and sang for Duke Ellington. Ellington’s son, Mercer, would later recall that “Lush Life” and “Something to Live For” were responsible for Ellington hiring Strayhorn in early 1939. It would mark the beginning of their legendary collaboration.

In 1939 “Lush Life” could boast lyrics but no title. Strayhorn frequently played the song at parties but it was a pet project and was not intended for publication. On November 13, 1948, however, Billy Strayhorn (piano) with vocalist Kay Davis performed “Lush Life” in the last of seven Ellington Carnegie Hall concerts. The difficult-to-find Duke Ellington-Carnegie Hall, November 13, 1948, released in 1991 on Vintage Jazz Classics, contains the first documented performance of “Lush Life” with Billy Strayhorn on piano and Kay Davis singing.

Recording by other artists began soon after that. An initial Nat “King” Cole B-side, rearranged in a Latin impressionistic style, infuriated Strayhorn. To make matters worse, Cole’s misreading of the lyrics irked the usually unflappable Strayhorn and resulted in an angry phone call.

Strayhorn recorded “Lush Life” on piano without vocal (except for a wordless chorus behind him) in 1961 (The Peaceful Side, 1996 Capitol Records). He recorded solo piano and vocal in 1965 (Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, 1992, Red Baron). Ellington himself never played “Lush Life.”

Additional reading on Billy Strayhorn and the origin of “Lush Life” may be found in David Hajdu’s Strayhorn biography Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn.

“Lush Life” was also the title for a 1993 made-for-TV film starring Jeff Goldblum, Forest Whitaker, and Kathy Baker.



- Jeremy Wilson

Mike, you're funny, you were wondering how I formed opinions? Hmmmm....
I mentioned this thread to a couple of friends in the business, and they laughed their heads off. And while no one was disrespectful of your opinion or Latifah in general, no one could understand your lavish praise.

quote:

Originally posted by soundsreal:
Mike, you're funny, you were wondering how I formed opinions? Hmmmm....
I mentioned this thread to a couple of friends in the business, and they laughed their heads off. And while no one was disrespectful of your opinion or Latifah in general, no one could understand your lavish praise.

so you borrowed your opinion from friends in the business? i am really curious as to what you don't like personally about the way the queen sings. you don't need to talk to anyone else to answer that one :-)

for my part, i find her intonation and rhythm to be perfect, her tone beautiful and her phrasing, particularly in "Lush Life" to be a revelation, bringing new levels of meaning to the song's lyrics.

how about you?

I could see where you would assume that I have no opinion of my own, only voicing my friends. However, I was the first in this group to hear it. And, it was in rotation for a while. I just didn't hear the greatness in it you do. I am surprised, nicely, that it is better than I thought it would be.
Like any other singer's voice in any genre, you either hate it, like it, or love it. I have a good friend in Chicago who sang professionally, and we talk opera singers all the time, and we agree on many, disagree on a few. If you had said you liked Latifah's album a lot that would have been fine, no quibble, but since you elevated her to such realms, well, then I wholeheartedly disagree and had to chime in.
I do like that every discovery you make is the best of the best. It makes for a good read.

quote:

Originally posted by soundsreal:
I could see where you would assume that I have no opinion of my own, only voicing my friends.

I do like that every discovery you make is the best of the best. It makes for a good read.

I didn't assume you didn't have an opinion of your own, I just hadn't heard it. Thanks for clearing that up :-)

Always looking for the best of the best. I don't write about my disappointments, which are more numerous than I wish for. Lush Life is a long time favorite, and I have multiple covers of the tune. The Queen just takes the cake in my book.

Most important, I feel that a good read is the most important single thing in a post. Forums are all about reading and writing :-)

I like Coltrane's Lush Life......