He Said, She Said Is Delightful CD of Vocal Duets

Grammy nominated a cappella vocal arranger and producer Richard Bob Greene has put together a unique recording of two voices, those of Angie Doctor and Dan Schumacher on He Said, She Said: Duets For Two Voices (Vocoloco Records). The two voices share and split the lyrics, wordless scatting, and provide a musical counterpoint to the other. They deliver twelve delightful and original performances of some standards and even some surprising pop and rock choices.

The things get off to a delightful start on Honeysuckle Rose, followed by Jobim’s One Note Samba, while producer Greene supplied the lyrics for Dave Brubeck Brandenburg’s Gate, and one can chuckle to Schumacher singing about the crossing guard being in the KGB as Doctor sings the more descriptive lyrics about meeting a date in a trench coat. Tanguedia, from the Astor Piazzolla songbook, is a terrific wordless duet with one scatting and the other scats a riff for the performance’s foundation.

The Kern/ Hammerstein In the Heart of the Dark, allows Doctor to sing beautifully vocal while Schumacher hums the accompaniment, while followed by an unexpectedly amusing take of Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust, as they clap to provide a steady groove as bullets fly out of the doorway to the groove of the beat. The playfulness of much of this is evident on Let’s Go Wild, where they sing about throw out the dishes, go out the front door and not look back as they release their inner child. Wordless echoes of Charlie Parker’s Birds of Paradise, introduce the fetching rendition of “All the Things Your Are.” One performance is a trio as producer Greene provides the bass for a trio wordless rendition of Astor Piazzolla’s tango, Milonga del Angel.

A cappella vocal performances similar to this recording are not new, but they have generally employed larger groups that the duets heard here. While the twelve performances only last a half hour, He Said, She Said is a splendid half hour.

I received a review copy from a publicist for the release.