New Releases Spotlight: Week of November 3, 2014
This week in the Music Lounge, let’s focus on a few singers with some great new disc out in the past few weeks, two with some heavy Chicago connections…
Andy Bey - Pages from an Imaginary Life
First off, Andy Bey has a new album out in a familiar setting. The very sparse Pages from an Imaginary Life features Bey’s vocals and piano stylings over 15 ballads, ranging from great American songbook classics to a few from his own pen. When Bey’s with a trio or larger group, he can turn up the heat on his piano, but in more intimate settings like this new album, he keeps mainly to a few chords to keep the song moving underneath his deep and earthy voice. The disc is loaded with highlights, but keep an ear out for "Worried Life Blues" and "Lover Come Back to Me," two definite gems on Pages From an Imaginary Life.
Freddy Cole - Singing the Blues
Another great singer with some deep Chicago roots with a new album out, Freddy Cole, is back with Singing the Blues. Freddy’s delivery and feel haven’t changed much over the years, so if you like what Freddy does, you’ll like what’s going on here. He pays tribute to his brother Nat on "Meet Me At No Special Place," and "Goin’ Down Slow" is a nice treat, too. I am certain you’ll be hearing a lot of this one in the coming weeks.
Champian Fulton - Change Partners
And finally, we head to Canada by way of New York to catch up with vocalist and pianist Champian Fulton. She’s just released an album that she recorded with Cory Weeds and some other Canadians on Cory’s Cellar Live label called Change Partners. Here Champian proves herself not only to be a well rounded singer in the Blossom Dearie mold, but also a capable pianist as well, which she shows off in a couple of places, most notably on “Bring Enough Clothes.”
We’re playing these and plenty of other great tunes this week – and tune in on the overnights as well…a number of fantastic albums were recorded this week in jazz history, and Matthew will be getting to a lot of them, from Andrew Hill (another Chicagoan!), Alice Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Grant Green…the list goes on. Bottom line: there are myriad reasons to keep listening all week long to 90.9 FM, CAN-TV 42 and while you’re here, at wdcb.org.
…’til next time, Keep Your Ears Open!
