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Nancy Kelly - Born To Swing
(Amherst)
Released - May, 2006
There's nothing fancy about this disc. The backing combo is small but
top-notch; the tunes are nearly all covers of familiar chestnuts - from
"You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" to "Falling In Love With Love."
And yet - Ms. Kelly's voice has you looking forward to the next track, and
disappointed when the disc is done. Her bio is quick to tell you,
"Downbeat magazine’s reader’s poll voted Kelly the title of 'best female
jazz vocalist' two years in a row."
It's not hard to understand why. She's assembled a great group of
musicians on this outing that work well together. She swings, the band
swings, the arrangemetns swing - the toe (well, my toe) taps, and Ms.
Kelly takes command of each song - bending it to her will. We're not
dealing with some bunch of rookies here, folks - Ms. Kelly (and the band)
are pros. I'm not a great fan of scat; yet - I wasn't searching for the
"next track" when I ran across it. Ms. Kelly keeps it under control - and
never straying too far from the melody.
Highlights (for me) included the Opener, "I've Got The World On A String,"
and "Come Rain Or Come Shine," both featuring great work from Houston
Preston on Tenor Sax.
After 12 cuts, there was a little sameness in all of the arrangements; but
I'm picking nits - sameness isn't all bad when the material is this good.
The rest of the band is filled out by Dino Losito on Piano and Fender
Rhodes, Mark Taylor on Drums, and Neal Miner on Bass.
It's nice to hear a bunch of pros clearly having fun. Highly
recommended
 Three microphones (out of four)
- Doug Boynton
(05/26/06) |
