07/16/07
ARBORS JAZZ
NICKI PARROTT & ROSSANO SPORTIELLO/People Will Say We’re in Love: About time Parrott gets to step out on her own. After being a trusted sidekick to Les Paul and Muriel Anderson, an ace session player and member of Diva, Parrott pairs her bass with a simpatico piano man and steps up to the mic showing she can sing as well as swing. Not exactly a cabaret date and too classy for the mass market, this is the kind of low key classy jazz that Ahmet Ertegun and Norman Granz used to specialize in when label chiefs had the discretion to plow profits from the hits back into session that demanded to be made. One of those cool sets you can call a rare treat.
19335
JOE COHN/Restless: If Al Cohn is your pop, better you should pick up the guitar than go into the family business and forever be tagged with comparisons when you are a pro in your own right. An esteemed award winner in New York jazz circles, he’s made his bones on his ax and takes a long over due turn as a leader. With his bandmate Harry Allen lurking not too far in the shadows, blowing some sax from nearby, Cohn mixes old and new, with a few nods to Pop, into a great showcase that will spread the word beyond the Apple about just how much he has it going on. Jazz guitar is in good hands here.
19329
5W PUBLIC RELATIONS
CARMEN & CAMILLE/Two: 25 year old twins have been performing in Vancouver since they were five which means they got to hone their chops, probably as Olson Sister clones, out of most of our eyeshots. If they were trying to emulate those sisters, now that they are adults, we don’t have to watch them embarrass themselves in the tabs as they try on adulthood. Of course, they probably don’t have the same sized bank account and have less chance to do the same acting out. That brings us to this nice pop rock set that isn’t filled with angsty songs about bad break ups with rockers we don’t care about and pretty squabbles with rivals that we don’t care about if we can’t see them naked. They’re aiming for a mainstream the naysayers say doesn’t exist anymore, but it does and they stand a good chance of hitting it. A nice change of pace in what passes for pop these days, youngsters that don’t sound like pissed off 35 year old divorcees.
21280 (Twin Spin)
MALEA McGUINNESS/True Believer: Army brat, model, actress and all around show biz dues payer, McGuinness found her stride when she plugged into the spirit of 70’s folk/rockers, found the groove and added to it rather than just trying it on for size. A solid mainstream record if satellite is your current idea of mainstream, McGuinness has a know how for crafting songs that sound like messages from an old friend, 70’s folk/rocker style. A tasty change up that grabs hold early and often, this is the under the radar pick of the week.
(All Edge)
JAZZ PROMO SERVICES
CARLOS BARBOSA LIMA/O Boto: Even if you don’t like classical music, or are scared off by it, Barbosa-Lima makes it so friendly and inviting that you just might mistake this for an NAC date. Possibly the most ambitious sounding set in his long and stories career, he pairs up with an orchestra for lush, amazing and deep sounds that blow your ears wide open. Ostensibly a sonic travelogue of Portugal’s move into the new world, we leave the NPR analysis to the NPR types and simply enjoy what lies ahead. A masterwork of a set that we highly recommend to the open eared looking for a new sonic adventure.
200707 (Zoho)
Volume 30/Number 258
July 16, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
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Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2007 Midwest Record