Curtis Stigers – voice, tenor sax
Larry Golding – piano, Hammond B3
Matt Wilson – drums
Ben Allison – bass
David Tranzo electric slide guitar
John Sneider - trumpet
A friend introduced
me to the work of Curtis Stigers, a
former pop singer who returned to jazz
because he believed in the music. On
the album the friend loaned me, he sang
the Great American song book and I thoroughly
enjoyed it. On this new album, he made
a conscious decision to find songs that
may become part of that Great songbook
in the future. On some of them I’m sure
he is right, but I’m not so sure about
some others. He performs them all however
with that nice tuneful laid-back style
that I was introduced to on the previous
album. The playing of John Sneider on
trumpet is very complementary to the
singer’s style and the backings throughout
are of a high quality. He does not desert
the standard songs altogether, tracks
10 and 12 fall into that bracket.
The best tracks for
me were I feel Fine & Tired of Waiting,
which has a good vamp at the start and
moves into 6/8 in parts, it also has
a very good piano solo from Larry Golding.
You Inspire Me is another great tune
and Curtis gives a fine interpretation
of it, I Fall In Love Too Easily is
a great song, but I could have done
without the heavy off-beats, they don’t
suit the song. I would love to hear
Curtis do this as a straight ballad.
Blue Skies is taken very effectively
as a slow, it brings us back to the
best of Curtis, he is a high quality
singer and this is a high quality Irving
Berlin tune.
Overall this is a good
album from a fine singer and sax player
with an excellent backing group.
Don Mather
CD Reviews
Concord
CCD-2185
