Adventures In Jazzland
TRACKS
Bugle Call Rag * My Honey's Lovin' Arms * Emaline * I Never Knew What A Gal Could Do * If I had You * Three Little Words * My Blackbirds are Bluebirds Now * Someday Sweetheart * Keep Smiling At Trouble * Mine - All Mine * You're Driving Me Crazy * Poor Butterfly * You Brought a New Kind Of Love to Me * Indiana * Little Buttercup.
Stony Plain Records, Box 861, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 2L8 - SPCD1313 - (780) 468 6423
Re-Issue : Producer, Holger Petersen - Liquid Sound recordings, Toronto - Playing Time: 67 min.
The sound quality lends itself nicely to this inspiringly styled Traditional jazz music, which in effect is relaxing listening as it is heard in the two Jeff Healey CD albums entitled "Adventures in Jazzland & Among Friends".
Blind since early childhood Jeff Healey began to play the guitar by resting it on his knees thus creating a revolutionary playing technique that became his signature performance style.
Like many jazz musicians Jeff’s hero was Louis Armstrong and his trumpet playing on the "Adventures in Jazzland" album are telling signs of it. This is his first jazz recording that features his “Jazz Wizards” – Colin, Reide, Chris, Jesse, Ross and Gary, together with the others listed below who are itemised accordingly in the liner notes individually across both the fifteen and fifteen + one songs' groups.
The voices of jazz singers Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby are still recognised by millions of people throughout the world, and perhaps known alone of many in Canada is the voice of Healey who sings here on ten of the 15 tunes, but it is the first time that I’ve ever heard Jeff in song.
I can deduce that outwith tune number five If I Had You leading and topping with song You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me, amalgam, inclusive with his other eight on vocals, determines a unique distinctive jazz singing voice on this "Adventures" album.
The lyrics’ vocals are clearly articulated on all of the 23 songs within the 31 tunes total of the two albums.
My highlights here are for the beautiful playing of Poor Butterfly, together with Someday Sweetheart, Mine-All Mine with violin and, the choice Healey and Grosz guitar duo, with the difficult and lovely toned clarinet on the tastefully, exquisite Little Buttercup, not overlooking with the C-melody on Emaline and, in going back to the best of Barber, Ball and Bilk/Temperate Seven (T.S.) days in England, UK of the 1960s, listening to You’re Driving Me Crazy - all of those with no end to else pick of the Jeff Healey bunch of recordings.
Any leisure group or any other type of organisation in setting their sound volume control down to five-tenths decibels whilst listening to the total of the Jeff Healey kind of jazz music tunes, as an example, of the bass saxophone playing skills on Keep Smiling at Trouble all, should greatly benefit in human reward.
Among Friends
PERSONNEL
Dick Sudhalter (tpt flugel-horn ); Chrisopher Plock (tenor sax); Jim Sheppard (tmb); John RT Davies (alto); Danny Douglas (tmb);
Tomaz Jardim (gtr); Inder Marwah (gtr); Roberto Rowsenman (gtr); The Jazz Wizards.
Stony Plain SPCD1312 - Web: www.stonyplainrecords.com - Playing Time 62 mins.
In his liner notes, Jeff explains that the roots of some of the numbers on this album “Among Friends” germinated back in the year 2001 with among others a well known jazz musician from New York and two from England.
Incidentally, multi-instrumentalist John RT, a prominent member of the T.S. group back in England ran his own band “Gentle Jazz” and, indeed with the other two jazz artists, American cornetist Dick Sudhalter and English trombonist Jim Shepherd in the line-up after him (the here named altoist) becoming in 1972 co-director of Retrieval Records, is hopefully, newsworthy.
There are more than a handful of top class songs on this album congruent with the jazz genre comfortably fitting in, as Jeff Healey has on it proven.
Take Limehouse Blues (A Mug of Ale), according to Brian Rust, it was recorded by Ted Lewis, NY in 1928; Duke Ellington, NJ ’31; Fletcher Henderson, NY ’34; Earl Hines, NY and Nat Gonella, London in ’38; and, in 1940, both Ella Fitzgerald, NY and, Django Reinhardt, in Paris - are added to the list.
In particular the Out of Nowhere tune is a prize for all lovers of jazz guitar music and trumpet ensemble.
One could quite easily lose their heart to Lost on listening to string bass, piano, vocals and alto in Oh! so beautiful harmony.
Rhythm guitar and vocals are for Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael with solo guitar and, adding a nice touch to it is tenor – really delightful.
Trumpet, vocals, piano are a trio for Where Are You lovers.
It’s on Midnight Blues that brings a lovely ending to this album - more so for me, it is on the longest track that runs for 6.55 minutes of the sixteen tracks on this “Among Friends” CD that the Walter Donaldson number My Buddy is, on hearing the opening and ending of it on flugelhorn, following a guitar intro, the relaxing novel ‘as I hear’ vocals, the alive steady rhythm, the tuneful trombone, an inspiring alto melody and, not least, a complementing lilting, luxuriantly piano movement, all of that simply does succinctly say it much - to great extent.
A magnificent bundle of famous songs made instinctively for Classic-Jazz.
Kings Jazz Review
Tuesday the 3rd of April 2007