The Great American

The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, is the new album from American musical legend Tony Bennett and acclaimed jazz pianist Bill Charlap. This new release continues the classic series of Tony Bennett album releases celebrating the essentials of the Great American Songbook. The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern is an appreciation of the genius of Jerome David Kern, one of the 20th century's most important American composers of musical theater and popular music. Jerome Kern was a major force on Broadway and in Hollywood musicals in a career that spanned more than four decades. He expanded on earlier musical theater traditions, from vaudeville to operetta, to embrace new dance rhythms, syncopation and jazz progressions and helped invent the modern…

Matt Monro was a regular feature of the British singles charts between 1960 and 1965, after which he had only one other UK hit (And you smiled, a top thirty entry in 1973, not released on an original album, only on compilations). Despite the lack of hits, Matt's music remained popular with adult audiences. So there are none of Matt's own hits on the two albums presented here, but you'll find plenty of familiar (and not-so-familiar) songs via Matt's covers of pop songs from the sixties and early seventies, as well as older songs from the Great American Songbook.

"The Great Journey" is Colin Matthews' largest vocal work, running to nearly forty minutes. It is a setting of a condensation of the report by Alvar Nu-ez Cabeza de Vaca (c 1490 - c 1560) to Emperor Charles V. Cabeza de Vaca was part of a ill-planned Spanish expedition seeking the legendary (and unsubstantiated) treasures of Florida. The expedition shipwrecked. Left for dead in the swampy land, he was rescued by and lived among the Indians. He found three other stranded Spaniards. Together they made an incredible journey back to Spanish territory, travelling through totally unknown lands from Florida to Mexico, arriving at Spanish settlements nine years after their fleet left Spain……

Joseph Stevenson @ AllMusic

An award winning jazz ensemble composed of Boston's finest jazz musicians continues to provide lush ballads and swinging arrangements of well known songs from the Great American Songbook. The Boston Jazz Ensemble is an all-star group put together by award winning jazz guitarist Gerry Beaudoin…