- I Haven’t Got Anything Better to Do
- Tell Me All About It
- Ask a Woman Who Knows
- It’s Crazy
- Your Mine You
- So Many stars
- I Told You So
- Soon
- I’m glad There is You
- Better Than Anything (With Diana Krall)
- The Music That Makes Me dance
- Calling You
- My Baby Just cares for Me
- I’ve Got Just About Everything
- Tell Me All About It (Remix Edit)
Backings vary from track to track.
This is a quality music album in all respects; Natalie Cole inherited
her father’s clear diction, accurate pitching and wonderful voice
timbre. In life she has had her ups and downs, but if this album is
anything to go by she is now at her very best. She knows what she
needs from a rhythm section and she has the sense to know that without
them, she would not be able to perform to her best. The backings are
mostly of the jazz quartet, guitar, piano, bass and drums, with a
backing orchestra. The orchestral arrangements work well, better than
they did on the recent Diana Krall and I would suggest that this be
because this is an orchestra put together for the purpose of the album
by Rob Mounsey. The rhythm section does not always have the same personnel,
but then neither does the orchestra. It appears that each track was
optimised as a production, the orchestra ranging from a really swinging
big band on It’s Crazy, to lush strings on You’re Mine. Roy Hargrove
plays flugel on I’m Glad There is You and although there is no sleeve
credit, I think he also plays on Your Mine You. Diana Krall joins
Natalie for the vocal on Better Than Anything, this has to be a welcome
addition to any album! When you consider their different backgrounds,
there is some similarity in their voices and they sure sound good
together.
How nice it was to hear Soon again, I’m sure father Nat used to sing
this super George & Ira Gershwin tune, once again the big band
adds greatly to the enjoyment.
The arrangement of I’m Glad There is You goes back to the lush strings,
but they are ideal for this arrangement of another superb melody,
this time from Jimmy Dorsey. I suspect there is a bit more delicious
flugel from Roy Hargrove on this one and how enjoyable to hear the
verse. I first heard The Music That Makes Me Dance on a Shirley Horn
album; Natalie’s version is different, but equal in its artistry.
My Baby Just Cares for Me is back to swing time and Gary Foster contributes
a nice tenor sax solo on a track that has more than a touch of Ella
about it. Larry bunker plays vibes on the very swinging I’ve Got Just
About Everything, a track that is just full of joy and goods humour.
As I said earlier, this album is sheer quality from start to finish,
Natalie is the complete vocalist now and the musical direction by
Miss Gail Deadrick outstanding. In the future this album deserves
to be in the ‘Songs For Swinging Lovers’ category and they don’t come
better than that!
Don Mather
CD Reviews
VERVE 065
470-2
