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Barbara
Montgomery -
Trinity (Mr. Bean and Bumpy)
The first time out, I stopped the disc three tracks in, mostly because I felt the backing arrangements overpowered Ms. Montgomery's voice. But the jewel case kept sitting there, on top of the tuner, and the disc was in slot number six in the player. And on one Saturday morning, the changer went from five to six, and I was too lazy to stop reading on the couch. I began paying attention at track five - "Avec Le Temps," mostly because having flunked French, I was impressed. By the time track seven was playing - "Junkman," I was fishing out all the stuff Jim Eigo sent with the disc. Barbara Montgomery is from Philadelphia. She is no youngster. Her performing history goes back to the sixties. This is an ambitious disc - not altogether successful. But - witness my second reaction - it is worthy of paying attention to. Sort of mentally filter out the inappropriate synthesized music, and what you have left is her voice. And what a voice! This is no disc full of rehashed standards; five are originals penned by Ms. Montgomery with her keyboard/arranger, Aaron Graves. The title tune, "Trinity" is the best of these. Two are Leonard Cohen songs - I've never been a fan. I'm simply not that cerebral. Or depressed. Van Morrison's "Crazy Love" is nicely done, and worth a listen. Sammy Cahn's "I Fall In Love Too Easily" is the one to download and save. You can do it here for 89 cents. Shame, really. It's worth more. I'd like to hear a remix - with much of the electronic stuff out. Mr. Graves - you play a nice piano. Please lose the rest. But what I really want to hear is more of Ms. Montgomery's voice. Lesson learned. Listen to the whole thing.
- Doug Boynton |
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Pertinent Stuff:
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Two
and one-half microphones (out of four)