Scats & Tracks

Diane Schuur - Live In London (2006) {GR2 Records 2GR20002}
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© 2006 GR2 Classics / GR2 Records | 2GR20002
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Standards / Contemporary Jazz

Does Diane Schuur still matter? Though the vocalist has been performing actively on the national jazz scene since her 1984 GRP debut, Deedles, came out, and she has won two Grammies, critical interest in her work has waned since the early 1990s. Many critics have lauded her powerful voice and stylistic versatility but lamented her tendency toward histrionics and emotional blandness. Live in London, recorded at Ronnie Scott's, might reassert her potential in the vocal pantheon. The disc is a fine example of Schuur the vocalist and pianist, collaborating with a fine band—bassist Scott Steed, guitarist Rod Fleeman and drummer Reggie Jackson—before an adoring (if subdued) audience. In many ways she represents exactly what is missing from a lot of "contemporary jazz—she knows how to balance jazz technique and feeling with emotional accessibility.

At the end of the 1970s, Ella was in her early sixties (on this particular recording she was 60).
Ella starts with a swinging rendition of `Too Close For Comfort', which was already on her repertoire in the mid-fifties (she first recorded it in duet with Joe Williams accompanied by Count Basies Band). Here her voice has grown older but she proves that doesn't mean her singing qualities have decreased! ~ Amazon

George Benson is well embarked on the third phase of his career, and Absolute Benson, though unfortunately titled (it sounds like a compilation, but is actually an album of new recordings) is another in a series of consistently excellent CDs that characterize it. Benson excited traditional jazz fans in the 1960s and early '70s with his albums of inventive guitar playing on Columbia, A&M, and CTI, records that made him seem the logical successor to Wes Montgomery. Then, in 1976, he moved to Warner Bros. Records and recorded Breezin', featuring the single "This Masquerade," on which he sang, and suddenly he became a million-selling pop vocalist who happened to play guitar, seemingly the logical successor to Nat "King" Cole. That, of course, made him anathema to traditional jazz critics.