AT LAST REVIEWS

Callaway opens with the question "What is This Thing Called Love?" - her arrangement (with Bill Mays) possesses a contagious riff by the trio, and leads into her softly swinging vocals. Callaway provides just enough scat while trading fours with the trio, and closes with a soaring chorus that hints at all the great tunes to come. "Comes Love," adds the unique sound of Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, and Rodney Jones on guitar. Callaway's soulful vocals provide the perfect complement to Gordon's solos and the groove of Leonhart and Lewis.

On Joni Mitchell's "Carey," Leonhart adds a rhythmic background vocal, proving once again (and contrary to one of his signature compositions) that it's not impossible to sing and play the bass!! The title track "At Last," begins with Callaway's sweet presentation of the verse, and her subtle but effective interpretation of the chorus resonates well against Teodross Avery's tenor solo, and the insistent beat of the rhythm section.

Chick Corea's "Spain," is always an ambitious undertaking, and Callaway provides a dazzling rendition, with her vocal dynamics ranging from breathy whispers, to the soaring passages of the closing chorus. Emedin Rivera is featured on percussion, and serves up a Latin accent beneath Rosenthal's piano, while the arrangement remains honest to Corea's legendary performance, and clearly has elements of Al Jarreau's rendition of "Spain," sprinkled throughout. (I have to confess, I hit the "repeat" button three times on this track.)

Jones and Rivera stay with the trio for a wonderfully laidback rendition of "Lazy Afternoon," that has a feel to it which clearly evokes the title, and is presented almost as a jazz lullaby, that softly fades with a piano trill. Mads Tolling is featured on violin for "Landslide," a creative, melodic cover of the Stevie Nicks composition. Callaway's original (one of two featured on this release) "Save a Place for Me," brings back Jones and Rivera, as her deeply emotional vocals are delicately balanced over a soft Latin mood.

Marvin Stamm adds his flugelhorn to "Over the Rainbow," an uncomplicated, simple arrangement that is perfectly suited to Callaway's passionate presentation, and beautifully accented by Rosenthal's accompaniment.

"Finding Beauty," another Callaway composition, will find you quietly swaying to the beat of Rivera's percussion, punctuated by Jones' guitar fills and solo, while Lewis provides just the right amount of drum and cymbal accents. Softly and tastefully, Callaway closes, perhaps more than symbolically, with "On My Way to You," as you will likely find this album finding its way into to your favorites, and recommending it to your family and friends.

Lovers of jazz vocalists and classic songbook material mixed with some contemporary numbers would do well to add both of these outstanding CDs to their collections. Because whether it's sacred or profane, love and desire are, as the songwriter said, here to stay.

Talented female jazz vocalists are everywhere these days, which is wonderful for listeners who enjoy them, but must be unbelievably frustrating for the artists. After all, there is only so much time and so many different artists that the typical listener will care to keep up with, so the question becomes how to stand out amongst the many talented vocalists out there today? When one has honed one's craft, become the best interpreter of the chosen songs as one can be, found a group of sympathetic musicians to perform with, come up with interesting arrangements that both push the boundaries of the chosen material and still render it recognizable, what else is there?

Increasingly the answer has been to present a grouping of songs around a theme or to find some way to create a mood that extends throughout the varied songs of a recorded program. Cassandra Wilson has often found ways to create a mood throughout an album even thought the songs vary widely in form and temperament, while other artists rely on a particular style (blues, for example) or topic that runs through all the songs in a particular collection. It's no longer enough to use a unifying 'songbook' theme based around one composer, as was often done by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Sara Vaughn.

Tierney Sutton has proven incredibly adept at finding suitable themes for her recordings and making them work for collections of very disparate songs. Even when the topic is based on a single composer or performer, as on Dancing In the Dark, her tribute to Frank Sinatra, she manages to put a new spin on it. The Sinatra album, for example, focused on early Sinatra songs that are often overlooked by a generation that mostly remembers Sinatra from the 1970s on. The follow-up, On the Other Side, looked at the dark side of songs about happiness. After a snappy live set, Sutton returns with her latest album Desire. The album is ostensibly about greed, but the brand of greed spotlighted on many of the numbers that Sutton and her band have chosen is lust, pure and simple. Even the album cover is evocative. Sutton, her long blond tresses and face highlighted like an old Hollywood glamour photo, stares longingly at something or someone beyond the frame. At the same time that she desires something she is herself an object of desire to the observer.

The song selection reportedly began with the two Cole Porter numbers included here, 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy' and 'It's Alright With Me.' Certainly Porter was no stranger to the idea of love, lust, and desire being mercurial and buffeted by the whims of a free market culture. 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy' sails breezily along on the current of Ray Brinker's drums and Christian Jacobs' brisk piano, but the way Tierney toys with the lyrics and musical phrases tells the listener everything they need to know about the song's singer. 'It's Alright With Me' is taken at a frenetic pace, breaking into an easy swing at about a minute and a half, when Tierney's temptress vocals give way to a powerful, muscular solo by Jacobs.

"Fever" is a slow burn number, beginning only with bass and vocals, with drums eventually laying down a slow rock/boogaloo beat. 'Cry Me a River' features perhaps the most arresting arrangement, with Brinker outlining the rhythm rather than defining it, while Jacobs' piano often drifts along seemingly out of time completely. All of the arrangements on the disc allow the listener to hear the song from a different perspective than usual, yet none are gimmicky or outlandish. Sutton's working group is a modicum of taste, remaining solidly within the mainstream jazz tradition yet finding new ways of playing well-worn songs. Tierney is, as always, more than up to the task of reinterpreting these famous songs, but she never sings more notes where less will achieve the same effect. Her phrasing is impeccable, and her understanding of the songs she interprets is unquestionable. Sutton is one of the best vocal interpreters performing and recording today, and she is at the peak of her creative powers, making Desire another successful venture for her and her band.

Perhaps the most telling juxtaposition on the album is presented by the last two tracks. 'Whatever Lola Wants' is sensuous and full of serpentine twists and turns. There is no question about Sutton's motives or desires as she inhabits the mind of the femme fatale namesake of the song. Sutton refers to this performance as the 'dark heart of the album,' and it certainly does present one of the darkest visions here. After Sutton's haunting vocal fades away, the spoken word intro to 'Skylark' arrives like a breath of fresh air. Like the spoken introduction to the album's opener ('It's Only a Paper Moon') the words here come from the sacred book of the B'hai faith. The yearning Johnny Mercer/Hoagy Charmichael melody with its beautiful lyrics provide a welcome counterpoint to the lust for both physical and material experience heard on the rest of the album.

As usual, Tierney Sutton has found a way to frame the songs she's selected for Desire with an overarching theme that provides added context and depth for the listener, and the stunning arrangements are beautifully executed by the singer and her top-notch band.

Ann Hampton Callaway also explores many of the twists and turns of romance on her latest release, At Last, but Callaway is looking at more straightforward expressions of feeling from the heart than the lusty relationships Sutton used to illustrate her theme. Interestingly, Callaway also begins with a Cole Porter song, 'What Is This Thing Called Love?' It's Porter in a less cynical, more simply confused mode, and provides a nice segue into that classic song of love as ailment 'Comes Love.' While Callaway works primarily with a base piano trio backing group just as Sutton does, she adds some variations in color via additional instruments on some tracks. Here she employs trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and guitarist Rodney Jones to punch up the arrangement.

It's interesting that while Sutton provides an overt philosophical template over her theme that informs and illuminates her interpretations of her chosen songs, Callaway's album conveys the very deeply felt romance that eludes the inhabitants of the world that Sutton critiques. That's reflected in the arrangements as well; Callaway's tend toward more traditional jazz standards arrangements (even on more contemporary numbers. The most telling track is Callaway's original "Save a Place for Me" which is presented as a traditional bossa nova number, complete with guitar and additional percussion (courtesy of Enedin Rivera). It shows that Callaway's heart resides in the darkened atmosphere of the club and the cabaret.

Callaway makes some cagey song choices. A few are surprising because of the frequency with which they've been interpreted by other singers through the years. But Callaway confidently puts her own stamp on them. "Over the Rainbow" is a sumptuous and deeply felt performance that will make listeners forget about comparisons, so swept up will they be in the current that Callaway creates. Marvin Stamm's flugelhorn solo adds a tempered melancholy to the song. More contemporary material is handled well, though at first listen I found it hard to get the swinging, bluesy version of Joni Mitchell's rollicking expatriate romance "Carey." But the doowop quality of bassist Jay Leonhart's background vocal that approximates a vocal bassline and Jones' Wes Montgomery-esque guitar figures reveal an arrangement that is right in tune with Mitchell's lyrics. Stevie Nicks' gorgeous 'Landslide' is given a straightforward ballad reading, with Mads Tolling's violin work providing a hint of country without belaboring the point.

The singer and her band have a jaunty go at Chick Corea's classic 'Spain' with Al Jarreau lyrics, with Ted Rosenthal playing an energetic piano solo and Callaway demonstrating her ability to scat with taste. "Lazy Afternoon" is well handled, complete with some background nature sounds, though it is not my favorite rendition of this dreamy song. But that's a small quibble in a delightful hour-long program of music.

And how does Callaway fare on the title track? She sings the entire minute long intro, not generally heard, before heading into the familiar melody. Rodney Jones provides some tasty, bluesy guitar fills, and Callaway's voice is big and robust, like a homemade pasta sauce. The song provides Callaway with an opportunity to really belt it out, and she certainly can. That she reserves it only for the biggest moments of the album's title track demonstrates the maturity and talent that this singer brings to her craft.

Lovers of jazz vocalists and classic songbook material mixed with some contemporary numbers would do well to add both of these outstanding CDs to their collections. Because whether it's sacred or profane, love and desire are, as the songwriter said, here to stay.

It takes a certain degree of nerve to take on "At Last," Mack Gordon and Harry Warren's classic ballad. Etta James' definitive recording is the standard by which most--if not all--renderings are judged. Singer Ann Hampton Callaway has that nerve, and then some. Callaway, a performer in the Broadway musical Swing!, composed and sang the theme to the hit television series The Nanny. Her associations include Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops. She was also the invited guest performer for former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev's Youth Peace Summit. For At Last, Callaway is accompanied by her trio of Ted Rosenthal on piano, Jay Leonhart on bass and Victor Lewis on drums, along with a few guest musicians. Callaway's earthy vocal is comparable to that of Sarah Vaughan. She delivers a cool, swinging take on Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?," with Rosenthal contributing a charming piano solo and, toward the end of the track, Callaway scatting in dialogue exchanges with Lewis and Leonhart. Guitarist Rodney Jones and saxophonist Teodross Avery join the ensemble for the title song. Callaway starts with a soft, vocal introduction, then belts out those words: "At last, ..." Callaway takes the song to new heights--quite a feat, considering the base material is powerful to begin with. Accented by Avery's solo and Lewis' emphasis on the toms, this rendition is an eye-opener. Callaway turns the power up higher with Chick Corea's classic "Spain." Actually, it's a cover of a cover by Al Jarreau, who co-wrote the lyrics. Percussionist Edemin Rivera adds that Spanish touch to his instruments. As the song progresses, it evokes memories of Corea's instrumental recordings and Jarreau's stunning rendition while, at the same time, appreciating Callaway. She does justice to the earlier efforts while putting her own stamp on this timeless piece, her scatting during the song's high point adding to its beauty. One interesting thing about At Last is that no song is less than four minutes. Typically, with vocal albums the majority--if not all--of the songs are in that radio-friendly zone of three minutes and under. The longer running times here score the double hit of providing more time to enjoy Callaway's voice and making clear that it's a full band effort, with some instrumental breaks and solos mixed in. Combined, that makes At Last a total package.

ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY/At Last

Ah, you can feel the hand of the objective outside producer looking for a hit, in a good way. Callaway has impeccable credentials as a cabaret vocalist but here we find Elaine Martone reaching in to help find that something extra. On paper, this looks like an interesting bunch of song choices, but once you start listening, you hear this is a concept album about romance with a cinematic point of view. High quality performances from the singer and her jazzbo co-horts are right in line with past glories but the something extra lurking in the bytes is a nice something extra. This is a bright addition to Callaway's already beefy resume of past glories.

Ann Hampton Callaway - At Last

By John Hoglund

Always the romanicist, singer/songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway definitively embraces that state of being with her newest and most personal disc, At Last on the Telarc Jazz label. Right from the dynamic first cut, "What Is This Thing Called Love?," with some refined scat, Callaway establishes a dreamy, romantic theme that only increases with each cut that follows.

Some imaginatively interpreted selections stand out more that others. Slickly arranged takes on tunes by Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks and Chick Corea particulary set the album apart. Mitchell's rare "Carey" has a languid yet driving rhythmic sense that pulsates. "Spain," by Arte Maren, Al Jarreau, Joaquin Rodrigo and Corea, is a rhythmically-charged bravura turn that rivals Astrud Gilberto and Sergio Mendes' bossa genius. The riveting lyrics and understated beauty of Stevie Nicks' "Landslide" made this captivating ballad a winner on every level, accompanied by lilting violin and soft guitar, that is haunting. The album's title cut makes one forget the well-known original as sung by Etta James. Other standouts: "Over the Rainbow" and "On My Way to You." The album is filled with personal poems to life and love by a singer's singer in perfect sync with an outstanding band.

EJAZZNEWS.COM

CD Review: Ann Hampton Callaway/At Last

By George W. Carroll

She had me at the Bergman-LeGrand masterpiece version of ''On My Way To You." Ann Hampton Callaway has this prowess at wrapping her voice around a song which can only enhance it's inherent beauty. And, of course, the beauty of her voice in manifest in all that she does. American vocal treasure she is!! Like an impressionist painter, Callaway weaves a panoply of feeling and emotion into her melodies, brimming with the force of her persona & dripping with the fire of her creativity. She has the ability to make our memories linger after a song, whispering to us long after the song has faded. Ann transcends as well as transforms the passion of what the composer intends into pure meaning. What a gift!! Bravo girl!!