Franco And Axis Stingma

Lisa Franco, aka Lisa Lynne Franco and Lisa Lynne, recorded four albums for Innovative Communications, a progressive German label. Silken Wings is the fourth and strongest of those discs. This set features Franco's gentle - yet aggressive - harp with very subtle accompanying instruments and atmospheric recording techniques. Those extras, especially the atmospheric enhancements, courtesy of producer and keyboardist Peter Seiler, frame the acoustic timbres of the harp and enhance its exotic - and erotic - textures. This sensuous music is dreamy and seductive. This CD, like all of her discs, is essential. And, like all of the discs on the IC label, it is hard to find. The atmospheric enhancements make this CD just a little extra special and worth the effort to find.

Lisa Franco, aka Lisa Lynne Franco and Lisa Lynne, recorded four albums for Innovative Communications, a progressive German label. Silken Wings is the fourth and strongest of those discs. This set features Franco's gentle - yet aggressive - harp with very subtle accompanying instruments and atmospheric recording techniques. Those extras, especially the atmospheric enhancements, courtesy of producer and keyboardist Peter Seiler, frame the acoustic timbres of the harp and enhance its exotic - and erotic - textures. This sensuous music is dreamy and seductive. This CD, like all of her discs, is essential. And, like all of the discs on the IC label, it is hard to find. The atmospheric enhancements make this CD just a little extra special and worth the effort to find.

The recordings in the present set are typically fluent, compelling De Franco music in a first-class small combo setting. Individually De Franco and Harry Sweets Edison blow with the confidence and assertiveness that have become their hallmarks. Kessel takes care of business, lying quietly in the background until it comes his turn to solo, then leaping out to have his say. Jimmy Rowles, Herbie Mann, Bob Hardaway, and the rest of the men playing here are deeply swinging in healthly, mainstream fashion. One of the attractions is the delicacy of some of the ensemble textures and the way in which basic harmonies have been amended to fit the character of these 1959 De Franco Septette. Theres a lot of great listening here whatever your bias.