Teddy Wilson covers a dozen songs by George Gershwin on this live date with bassist Arvell Shaw and drummer Bert Dahlander. All of the music had been in Wilson's repertoire for some time at this point in his career, so his playing seems effortless. The sequencing is a bit unusual, in that all of the faster numbers, including a very brisk "Liza" and "Oh, Lady be Good" (powered by Dahlander's brushwork), are on the first side, while all of the ballads, including a lush "Summertime" and an inventive "Bess, You is My Woman Now," are heard on the second half. Wilson is in top form with his typically eloquent yet swinging style. Shaw is given a number of solo opportunities, displaying his superb arco bass technique in "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "Our Love Is Here to Stay."
With Wilson's longtime friend Pat Sansone of Wilco producing, Wilson and the band recorded in Studio A at the Sound Emporium, the late country maverick Cowboy Jack Clement's studio. The musicians included Nashville’s premier session players including bass player Dennis Crouch, Russ Pahl on pedal steel, multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke, and world renowned Fiddle master Mark O’Connor. Working with this Nashville band gave Wilson the same kind of feeling he had as a kid, strumming along with those bluegrass bands.
The first-ever collection to celebrate the contribution and career of cherished Motown star Mary Wilson. The Motown Anthology features 38 songs. Featured songwriters include Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Deke Richards, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Thom Bell and Linda Creed.
The latest release from Heart’s lead singer Ann Wilson under the banner of The Ann Wilson Thing, Focus #2, might strike many new listeners as unsettlingly abrupt. Instead, however, it represents a sharpening of focus all great artists experience from time to time…
In January of 2006, the remains of Joyce Carol Vincent, aged 38, were discovered in her London flat. She died in her apartment in late 2003, surrounded by undelivered Christmas presents. She was described as outgoing, attractive, and ambitious by neighbors, friends, and family, but somehow wasn't missed. This chilling story made headlines in Great Britain, and the mysterious person behind it moved Steven Wilson to create this fictional concept album (small "c"). He doesn't adhere to story's grim details. Instead he writes from the perspective of a living woman who is, due to choice, circumstance, or both, alone and ultimately unknowable. Engineered by Steve Orchard, and produced and mixed by Wilson, the album is sonically rich and detailed. It's an immense, imaginative landscape that melds classic album rock, sophisticated '80s pop, metal, prog, and electronica in expertly crafted songs…
Nancy Wilson's not the first name in bluesy jazz (check out Dinah Washington and Joe Williams for that), but she usually can enliven the form with her sophisticated and sultry style. That's made clear on her rendition of "Stormy Monday Blues," where she eschews blues clichés in favor of a husky airiness, at once referencing a lowdown mood and infusing it with a sense of buoyancy. This split is nicely essayed on Capitol's Blues and Jazz Sessions, as half the tracks ooze with Wilson's cocktail blues tone and the other find the jazz-pop chanteuse in a summery and swinging mood. Ranging from the big band blues of "I've Got Your Number" to the lilting bossa nova "Wave," Wilson handles all the varying dynamics and musical settings with aplomb. Featuring cuts from her '60s prime with the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Oliver Nelson, George Shearing, Gerald Wilson, and a host of top sidemen, this best-of disc offers a fine, off-the-beaten-path overview of Wilson's Capitol heyday.
Genius, icon, and trailblazer Brian Wilson revolutionized music as head of the Beach Boys. Now, he retraces his steps and reimagines the most iconic songs from his back catalog into their purest form, with him alone at the piano. Featuring "God Only Knows," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "California Girls," "Good Vibrations," and many more on solo piano.
With Heart only intermittently active in the early 21st century, Ann Wilson took the opportunity to release her first-ever solo album, something her sister Nancy Wilson, Heart's other half, took care of back in 1999. But where Nancy's solo debut was a live, acoustic effort comprised of both original material and covers, Ann has gone the nearly-all-covers route for the Ben Mink-produced Hope & Glory; only one song, the album-closing "Little Problems, Little Lies," comes from Wilson's own pen…