Jazz Loves Disney

Various
Jazz Loves Disney
Verve

A new album offers jazz interpretations of songs associated with Disney Movies. **Jay Newland produced this album of mostly big band orchestral settings (including strings) for jazz vocals that was arranged and directed by Rob Mounsey. Such vocalists as Gregory Porter, Jamie Cullum, Melody Gardot, and Stacey Kent, lend their talents to this project that brings forth songs from such films as "Cinderella," "Lady and the Tramp," "The Jungle Book," "101 Dalmatians" and others.

Jamie Cullum gets things of with the playful "Everybody Wants To Be a Cat," with Mounsey's arrangements handsomely providing the setting for the first part before the band and Cullum erupts into a quasi Dixieland frenzy. Melody Gardot lends a smoky and sultry flavor to "He's a Tramp," with strings adding a lush, but not syrupy feel, with a marvelous saxophone solo. Stacey Kent is delightful singing in French, "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo," followed by Gregory Porter delivering a dreamy "When You Wish Upon A Star."

I am not familiar with China Moses whose rendition of the Lil Green classic "Why Don't You Do Right," is patterned on Peggy Lee's famous rendition, with the bass very prominent in the backing. I am also not familiar with Raphael Gualazzi but he delights on the latin rhumba groove of "I Wanna Be Like You." He and Melody Gardot duet on the peppy "The Bare Necessities." The Rob Mounsey Orchestra is featured on " A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes," opening with some atmospheric muted trumpet to play the lyrics.

Hugh Colman's vocal on "You've Got A Friend In Me" is suggestive of Harry Connick without being imitative. I found Anne Sila sort of out of place with her pop-flavored styling on "Let It Go," while Laika's romanticism sounds matched well with "Once Upon A Dream." Nikki Yanofsky delightfully transforms "Someday My Prince Will Come" into French on "Un Jour Mon Prince Viendra," while The Hot Sardines, only the only track without the Mounsey Orchestra, closes this thoroughly delightful recording with a spirited "I Wanna Be Like You."

I received a download from a publicist. This review appeared in the January-February 2017 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 370).  Here is a sample of the album.

The Hot Sardines French Fries & Champagne

The Hot Sardines
French Fries & Champagne
Universal Music Classics

The Hot Sardines, led by bandleader Evan Palazzo and lead singer Elizabeth Bougerol, might be simplistically described as a retro-swing jazz ensemble, featuring lively, crisp, brassy band accompaniments to Ms. Bougerol's flirty vocals, that evoke in part the music 52nd Street and Paris cabarets. The band includes the trumpet of Jason Prover, drummer Alex Raderman, saxophone and clarinet by Nick Myers, and trombone and cornet from Mike Sailors with a number of selections effectively employing a string section.

As a vocalist Ms. Bougerol might invite comparisons to Cyrille Aimee and delights with her voice and her understated delivery that is so delightful on the unexpected rearrangement of Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love," as well as the Doris Day-like novelty "Sweet Pea." The jazz standard (song by Billie Holiday among many others) "Come Love," opens as a minuet (piano and strings) before Ms. Bougerol sings in her native French before a stride piano break followed by her turning to English with some brassy horns led by Prover's blistering trumpet and Myers clarinet. Similarly original is the rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "People Will Say We’re In Love" taken as a tango with string embellishments adding to the performances flavor.

Alan Cummings duets with Ms. Bougerol on "When I Get Low I Get High," which Ella Fitzgerald popularized and songs like a soundtrack from a late thirties' cartoon. The country-tinged Bougerol original "Here You Are Again" receives an urbane pop treatment followed by a lovely rendition of "Until The Real Thing Comes Along," that was made famous by Pha Terrell's vocal on the Andy Kirk original. The title track might lightly celebrate having a frolic even when times might not justify them. After "La Fille Aux Cheveux Roux (Weed Smoker's Dream)," sung in French to the melody of Kansas Joe McCoy's "Weed Smoker's Dream," that itself evolved into the better known "Why Don't You Do Right?" "Since"La Fille Aux Cheveux Roux" translates as "Women With Red Hair," I suspect this might have original lyrics in French.

After Palazzo's instrumental tribute to his own neighborhood "Gramercy Sunset," has a nice trombone solo along with his almost cocktail-styled piano with a lush strings overlay," that provides a coda to a recording that may not break any new ground, but certainly entertains with these gems of performances.

I received downloads from a publicist. This review appeared in the September-October 2016 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 368). Here is a video for one of the selections on this, "Running Wild."