You Go to My Head

Skandinavien bietet den Jazzfreunden ständig Neues – die dänische Sängerin Malene Mortensen hat allerdings in deren Herzen schon länger einen Platz. Ihr sechstes Album „you go to my head“ soll diesen Platz verteidigen. Zwar ist es weniger gefällig als ihr Erfolgsalbum „Agony & Ecstasy“, beeindruckt jedoch durch konzeptionelle Geschlossenheit.

Nowadays, the majority of those with two ears and a heart recognise her magnitude, whatever their usual musical preferences may be. This unanimity undoubtedly stems from the fact that Billie's voice reaches our greatest depths. Nobody has been troubled by her range, or by limited technical means the singer was offered, although she never needed anything other than her voice to shake the entire planet. Perhaps because Billie sang simply of love and love's desillusions, and the listeners are moved even without particularly grasping the textes. However, what we may hear is the result of a double paradow: vocal mastery, the placing of each syllabe, the perfect expression of each word confirms a tremendous virtuosity, the fruit of long experience; the emphasis put on the songs' lyrics, not often despairing all considered, come more from the despair of the interpreter than their actual contents…

Digitally remastered edition of 2LP's on a single CD of two truly classic albums from one of the greatest female vocalists of all time. Miss Lee made more than 700 recordings and more than 60 albums. Her own favorite album, 'The Man I Love,' was recorded in 1957 with arrangements by Nelson Riddle and an orchestra conducted by Frank Sinatra . 'If You Go' includes laid back themes with stunnning arrangements from Quincy Jones.

Released in 2018 by journalist David Nathan's Soul Music label, Don't Let It Go to Your Head is easily the most thoughtful and generous Jean Carn compilation. Most of the selections are drawn from Carn's time with Philadelphia International and its subsidiary TSOP, when she was in the top class of vocalists specializing in elegant soul that did not pander to the mainstream. Included are all the essentials off these four 1976-1981 albums – "Time Waits for No One," "Don't Let It Go to Your Head," the superior 12" inch version of "Was That All It Was," and "Bet Your Lucky Star" among them. A raft of duets and featured appearances on releases headlined by Norman Connors, Dexter Wansel, Al Johnson, Roy Ayers, and Grover Washington, Jr. – altogether a distillation of the Expansion label's Collaborations anthology – enhance the two-disc set. Listeners with more adventurous taste should also seek Carn's earlier work on progressive jazz sessions led by the likes of Connors, Doug Carn, Azar Lawrence, and Jamtume

Following in the well-trod footsteps of Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, and Wynton Marsalis, among others, Roy Hargrove has his day with strings, purveying moody, lovelorn ballads at glacial tempos. At first, one's hopes are raised that this could turn out to be one of the best attempts in this field. The leadoff track "You Go to My Head" is gorgeous; Hargrove plays soulfully and inwardly, and pianist Larry Willis's arrangement is emotionally satisfying without being cloying. However, the disc continues on and on in this fashion, one tune seeming to blend into another, one arrangement sounding like the next (besides Willis, who contributes five charts, Gil Goldstein does three others, and Cedar Walton chips in two).