With ensemble vocal jazz, the danger is always that tight and complex harmony writing will come across as too smooth and too sweet -- for some reason, chords that sound sharp and bracing when distributed among reed instruments can sound cloying and overly slick when sung by human voices. The vocal/instrumental quartet New York Voices don't avoid that trap entirely on their latest album (and their first as an ensemble in seven years), but they continue to demonstrate their mastery of the genre with a solid program of new and old songs and innovative arrangements. Their take on "Darn That Dream" is startlingly new (and features a fine bass clarinet solo by Bob Mintzer), and the lyrics that group members added to John Coltrane's "Moment's Notice" work very nicely. Not everyone will agree that the world needed a vocal jazz version of Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic," but the New York Voices' version is really lots of fun and is sure to bring a nostalgic tear to more than one baby-boomer eye. Apart from a couple of saccharine moments on "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," A Day Like This is a pleasure from start to finish.
by Rick Anderson
Tracklist
1 Darn That Dream 3:31
Eddie DeLange
2 The World Keeps You Waiting 6:08
Peter Eldridge / Lauren Kinhan
3 In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning 5:30
Bob Hilliard
4 On a Clear Day 5:02
Burton Lane / Alan Jay Lerner
5 For All We Know 4:02
J. Fred Coots
6 Love You Madly 4:20
Duke Ellington
7 As We Live and Breathe 4:23
Lauren Kinhan / Eve Nelson
8 No Moon at All 4:51
Redd Evans
9 Chamego (Betty's Bossa) 4:00
Jack Donahue / Peter Eldridge
10 Noticing the Moment 4:36
John Coltrane / Peter Eldridge / Kim Nazarian
11 Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing 4:33
Stevie Wonder
12 Stoned Soul Picnic 3:44
Laura Nyro
13 A Day Like This 4:49
Peter Eldridge / Darmon Meader
14 Jackie 4:31
Hampton Hawes / Annie Ross
Credits
Voice – Kim Nazarian, Lauren Kinhan
Voice, Piano – Peter Eldridge
Voice, Tenor Saxophone – Darmon Meader
NEW YORK VOICES - A Day Like This
[2007] MCG / FLAC / scans
O Púbis da Rosa
