Laurence Hobgood w/ Charlie Haden & Kurt Elling: When The Heart Dances

Posted by: Simon Drake on 24 April 2009

Laurence Hobgood w/ Charlie Haden & Kurt Elling
When The Heart Dances
naimcd112- OUT NOW


Expert pianist, composer and arranger Laurence Hobgood has long been a great friend of Naim. In the 90s he recorded two highly acclaimed albums for Naim in the group Union, and a further two as a solo artist, Left To Own Devices (2000) and Crazy World (2005) with the Laurence Hobgood Trio.

Described by Dave Brubeck as “one of the most incredible pianists I have ever heard”, Hobgood has been directing Kurt Elling’s Blue Note (and now Concorde) recordings for fifteen years and has accrued his very own Grammy Nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying A Vocal Performance for his work on Elling’s Flirting With Twilight (2001).

Everybody who witnesses the Laurence Hobgood Trio supporting Kurt Elling live, agree, that Laurence Hobgood is the single most under-rated and ridiculously talented US jazz musician of his generation. allabout jazz.com described Hobgood as “one of the finest pianists out there. Period.”

Long regarded as one of the worlds’ greatest living bass players, Charlie Haden, now in his 72nd year, was a great admirer of Hobgood’s early work for Naim. It was True Stereo engineer and mutual friend Ken Christianson, who proved matchmaker for this stunning pair-off. Haden, whose renowned audiophile duo recordings for Naim provide respite from his arduous touring and recording schedule for Universal, first made a name from himself in the late fifties with the forward-thinking, and at the time revolutionary, quartet alongside Ornette Coleman and then in the sixties as part of Keith Jarrett’s Trio and American Quartet. In the seventies Haden formed the Liberation Music Orchestra, a spirited politcally minded free-jazz band that concentrated much of their ideas on the Spanish Civil War. Throughout the eighties and nineties Haden has worked with all manner of musicians both in the jazz world and beyond achieving massive critical acclaim both for his collaboration with guitarist Pat Metheney (“Beyond The Missouri Sky”) and with his own band he formed in the late eighties, Quartet West.

A great friend and musical companion to Hobgood, the pre-eminent male jazz singer of his generation Kurt Elling agreed to make a boundless contribution to When The Heart Dances, by adding vocals on three tracks; First Song, Stairway To The Stars and Daydream. Elling, who now records for Concorde/Universal, has a rich baritone voice spans four octaves and displays astonishing technical facility and emotional depth. He has now accumulated seven Grammy Award nominations.

Safe to say, the culmination of such great musicians is a moment to remember in the recorded history of Naim.

Learn more about Laurence Hobgood: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/lhobgood.htm
http://kurtelling.com/hobgood.html

[MORE] [BUY NOW]
Posted on: 24 April 2009 by Simon Drake
All Music Guide Review
By Michael G. Nastos

NAIM label stablemates Laurence Hobgood and bassist Charlie Haden countermand the current frenetic state of events in modern-day rat race soundbyte society with this beautiful recording of duets, solo piano tracks, and three offerings with Kurt Elling. Soothing the savage society, this music is sure to appeal to those who need a leaner, trimmed back, more serene dose of reality to balance what has become a world torn by strife, uncertainty, and fear. This is not to say this is music lacking substance or intrigue -- far from it. Both pianist Hobgood and bassist Haden, clearly virtuosos, think on their feet together and separately, creating cohesive vistas of beauty, spirituality, emotional depth, or in a general sense, togetherness. They've chosen well-known standards adapted to their sensitive natures, in the case of "Que Sera Sera" an acceptant reverent and quiet adaptation of the oh well/whatever theme. Hoagy Carmichael's "New Orleans" starts in a clever, modernized two step folded into a blues frame, "Why Did I Choose You?" is both romantic and quizzical, and the incredible pretty and dark melody of Don Grolnick's "The Cost of Living," immortalized by Michael Brecker, is as stunningly emotional a tango inferred piece as has ever been written. Haden's "Chickoree" is bouncier in midtempo pace, still low key, with Hobgood's stride flavorings, while the pianist composed the title selection in a cascading waltz to light terpsichore that Haden follows along with beautifully. The tracks with the ever coy and wistful Elling include Haden's famous reflective ballad "First Song," including the poignant lyric about a "song that lightened up the world, when love was new." "Stairway to the Stars" showcases the vocalists spontaneous quality in elongating phrases and dynamics, while the Duke Ellington penned, drifting away waltz "Daydream" has Elling in a very deep, very midnight blue mood. Hobgood's solo works are as captivating as anything else, especially "Leatherwood" with its spirited and folksy stance, or the sheltering "Sanctuary," half church, half wedding song. An excellent recording from start to finish, played with extraordinary intimacy, heart and soul, this wondrous music is specifically built for those times in life when relaxation is a prerequisite to get one on to the next better day.

see this review in context...here...
Posted on: 24 April 2009 by Simon Drake
Jazz Breakfast Review
By Peter Bacon

There have been many pleasures discovering the singing and recordings of Kurt Elling, and one of them is discovering his pianist and musical director, Laurence Hobgood.

In some ways, the arranger brain and ear for beauty he revealed in his accompaniments reminded me from the start of Alan Broadbent, pianist and often arranger with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, so it feels rather neat that for this new disc under his own name Hobgood is partnered by Haden.

They open with a tune you know - or do you? You have to go to the cover to confirm that it is, indeed, Que Sera Sera, so fresh, dark and rich are the chord voicings Hobgood has chosen that the bright, shiny Doris Day tune seems rather trite by comparison (although, as she sang it in a Hitchcock film, you could say the darkness was inherent).

The range of the pianist’s own compositions here is broad indeed, with Sanctuary sounding like it could be a solo jazz piano of a rock hit you had forgotten, while the title song has a cascading loveliness and thoroughly apt, lightly tripping tune. It already sounds like a standard.

The finale is particularly well chosen - Hobgood clearly shares with the late Don Grolnick a taste for mixing flavours of blues and soul in with the jazz, and The Cost Of Living is one of Don’s finest compositions.
Oh, and there’s a guest, too. Mr Elling pops into the studio to wrap his larynx around Haden’s First Song, Stairway To The Stars and Ellington’s Daydream. His sliding and swooping around and into the notes of the Haden song must have delighted no end the veteran bassist, whose solo here is the musical equivalent of exquisitely carved and elementally weathered granite.

There are many other delights here, which you will discover for yourself. The sound of the recording is as effortlessly natural as we have come to expect from the Naim label, and this is also a disc which goes on revealing new insights and nuances with each listen.

see this review in context...here...
Posted on: 24 April 2009 by Simon Drake
Jazzwise Review
By Robert Shore

Laurence Hobgood has one of the best jobs in the world – he’s Kurt Elling’s musical director – but pouring your energies into helping someone else shine, especially a star as lustrous and bright as Elling, often involves hiding your own light under a bushel. So, despite having a Grammy nomination of his own (for his work arranging for Elling, naturally), Hobgood’s praises as a pianist and composer remain undersung. This lovely disc should help redress the balance, although the fact that he’s chosen to record it essentially as a dialogue with another peerless jazz master, Charlie Haden, besides also having Elling contribute vocals on three tracks, means that once again he will have to share the honours. There’s a wonderful, relaxed sympathy between Hobgood and Haden – when you’re this good, you don’t have to should about it – and when, on track three, Haden’s ‘First Song’, Elling’s voice suddenly rises our of the music like Nosferatu levitating out of his coffin at dusk, verily the cup runneth over. The sound quality is glorious too, thanks to the quality of the musicians’ instruments – Haden’s bass was made by the great French 19th-century luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume – and to the attentions of True Stereo engineer Ken Christianson.

visit the Jazzwise website...here...
Posted on: 24 April 2009 by Simon Drake
York Press Review
By Ron Burnett

Laurence Hobgood ("One of the most incredible pianists I have ever heard, Dave Brubeck) has been vocalist Kurt Elling's musical director for 15 years.

Hobgood's new CD, When The Heart Dances (naim label), is a duet with super-star double bass player Charlie Haden, with Elling as a guest on three tracks.

Hobgood's treatment of Que Sera Sera, remembered as a production-line pop song by Doris Day, is as much of a surprise as Sly Stone's version; Hopgood's approach is a measured and rhapsodic ballad, Sly's a raucously funky outing.

The title track is a Hobgood composition, an opening, dancing cadenza turning into a lyrical jazz waltz. The pianist gives generous composing space to his celebrity bass player in First Song and Chickoree. The latter has a sprightly, elegiac melody in the vein of Haden's historic Americana theme and features a two-minute solo from the bass, not the most promising solo instrument, but the recording is faithful to his sound.

Vocalist Kurt Elling's three masterful contributions, Haden's First Song, Ellington's Daydream and jazz standard Stairway To The Stars, are a living legacy of Sinatra, smouldering emotion wrapped in naturalistic expression of lyrics and impeccable musical pitch. This album is a slow burner, a quiet beast which creeps up on you with repeated listening.

see the review in context...here...
Posted on: 24 April 2009 by soundsreal
Love Charlie Haden, maybe Laurence Hobgood if I heard him, but I simply cannot stand Kurt Elling, and I've tried. I asked a few jazz friends tonight about him, and instantly came the frowns and the thumbs down. A friend said sorry to see Charlie waste his time. Oh well, I guess each to their own.... Roll Eyes
Posted on: 27 April 2009 by Simon Drake
The Independent on Sunday Review
By Phil Johnson

Welcome to a new piano star. Better known as the long-standing musical partner of Kurt Elling, Hobgood arrives at the top jazz table with this atmospheric album of duets with bassist Charlie Haden plus two solo pieces and three vocals by Elling.

Like a more human version of Brad Mehldau, he combines a vivid Romantic imagination, evident on a number of limpid ballads, with great time. The singular thump of Haden's bass remains one of the marvels of the age.

Pick of the album: 'Que Sera Sera': with Haden's tender solo

see the review in context...here...
Posted on: 01 May 2009 by Simon Drake
The Guardian Review
By John Fordham

4/5 STARS

Every time the jazz vocal supreme Kurt Elling performs, his pianist, Laurence Hobgood, somehow manages to both enhance his boss’s show and make you want to hear him play the whole gig on his own. This is Hobgood’s most rounded and complete album as a leader, pairing him with bass legend Charlie Haden as well as Elling on three tunes. It’s no radical makeover of jazz piano: Hobgood has strong Bill Evans connections, and he loves songs. But from the opening Que Sera Sera (a cheesy 50s Doris Day hit turned into a pensive, harmonically ambiguous rumination), the pianist indicates how vividly he can enrich each passing motivic whim. On his prancing then slowly swaying title track, Hobgood’s chords and buildup are pure Evans; Haden’s First Song is a vehicle for Kurt Elling’s swooping slow lines; the gospelly tour de force Sanctuary hints at Mehldau and Koln Concert Jarrett (though only as near-equals); and Hoagy Carmichael’s New Orleans celebrates jazz roots without a cliché or a lazy reference. Elling is occasionally a little stagey, but for the most part this album is a triumph.
Posted on: 01 May 2009 by Lontano
Simon - in case you do not see this one from tonights London Evening Standard

By Jack Massarik
4/5 Stars

Whenever Chicago singer Kurt Elling comes to town the ear is drawn to the tasteful work of his longtime pianist and musical director, Laurence Hobgood. While a keyboard dazzler among the most brilliant on his night, Hobgood is also a deep thinker capable of the sort of contemplative playing revealed here. With only double-bass veteran Charlie Haden for company, plus guest vocals by bossman Kurt (who sings lustrous versions of Stairway to the Stars and a Duke Ellington ballad, Daydream) he produces a beautifully laid-back hour of music with a 3am feel to it.
Posted on: 04 May 2009 by P+T Johnson-Lenz
Simon, thanks for posting these reviews! Happy to see jazz writers appreciating this superb album.

As you know, a couple of us are also posting reviews in a special topic in the Forum on the Kurt Elling site.

So far, we have these:

Naim product description
Naim press release

Reviews:

Michael G. Nastos, allmusic.com
Ron Burnett, York Press
Robert Shore, Jazzwise magazine
Peter Bacon, thejazzbreakfast.com
Kenny Mathieson, Scotsman.com
Phil Johnson, The Independent
Chris Parker, The Vortex Jazz Club
John Fordham, The Guardian
Jack Massarik, This Is London (The Evening Standard)
Ray Comiskey, The Irish Times
AV, The Yorkshire Post

Would love to see more. Supposedly there is one in the BBC Music Magazine, May issue, but I haven't been able to find it yet.


Trudy Johnson-Lenz
Lake Oswego, OR



It's very nice to hear from you but the Forum Rules state:

".... With this in mind - please do not post "live" links to other manufacturer's websites and please do not link to or make reference to discussions posted on other forums."

You might discuss this with Simon.
Posted on: 19 May 2009 by gary1 (US)
Guys, this really is a terrific album. As good as the CD sounds in 16 bit, the 24 bit is amazingly good. This really demonstrates why 24 bit is the way forward (hopefully!!).

Let's not forget to give a nod to Ken Christiansen who recorded and mastered this album. While the musicianship is excellent, Ken just always manages to capture things in just the right way and then fuss with it until it's a good as it can be.

I've been fortunate to be able to hear a variety of Ken's work in both 16 and 24 bit, as well as, both work in progress and final re-mastering. I can tell you that this album is no different and I was really taken aback by the final remastering. As much as I liked the unfinished versions I had heard, the final versions seem to have every note in the right place and the correct emphasis in the music where it is needed.

Ken told me that after meeting with Laurence Hobgood in Chicago to go over a "few things" that he went back over and remastered everything and the final result was even better than the earlier ones. In his words it was "perfect." I have to agree.

Gary
Posted on: 24 May 2009 by MilesSmiles
Another reason to pop by my local Naim dealer today. Smile