1. Good Morning Heartache
2. I Wish You Love
3. La Vie en Rose
4. Poetry Man
5. Dream a Little Dream
6. Sunday Kind of Love
7. They Can't Take That Away from Me
8. Since I Fell for You
9. The Water Is Wide
10. La Vie en Rose (Remix)
Linda Calise (vocal) and Joe Carrier (piano, keyboards): Vinny Pagano (drums): Greg Loughman (bass): Bobby Cord, Pat Cardeiro, Lee Dynes, Alex Krepkikh
(guitars): Ben Powell (solo violinist): Eric Bloom (trumpet soloist): Trevor Kellum (saxophone soloist, track 1): Ben Albert (piano, track 6 guest
vocalist, tracks 2, 9): Joe Calise (bass, track 6): Pete Levesque (saxophone soloist, track 6): Mauro Colangelo (drums, bass, keyboards, track 10) plus
string and horn sections
Recorded 2015 [41:59]
Linda Calise’s gatefold album explores some unexpected byways during the course of what is, largely, a vocal-with-instrumental-and-strings approach. The
lush string wash of Good Morning Heartache, a tune so indelibly associated with Billie Holiday, allows Trevor Kellum’s tenor solo to be heard in
the richest possible light, though this is also an album that celebrates the solo violin in the shape of Ben Powell, whose solos appear threaded throughout
the ten-track selection. His articulate and easy swing graces I Wish You Love and given that Calise is French-Canadian it’s welcome that she
brings a very languorous approach to La Vie en Rose, abetted by his Grappellian obbligato. Poetry Man sees her accompanied by a quartet
espousing a rather Latin groove though it’s a feature of the set that the accompanying musicians change from track to track so things are never static in
that respect, for better or for worse.
Ben Albert, elsewhere a brief guest vocalist, adds his pianistic chops to Sunday Kind of Love, during which Calise is unafraid to roughen her tone
a little and where Pete Levesque turns in a good violin solo. The brass section lends its broadest support on They Can’t Take That Away From Me
though the trumpet solo is very broad, indeed almost burlesque in impact. The vocal scat section is competently done, but it’s not something I particularly
like – a matter of taste, admittedly. Rather better and less forced is the discreetly voiced ballad Since I Fell For You and the track that
follows, the Scottish folk song The Water is Wide, offers a wholly different slant on things entirely. Guitar and solo fiddle – Powell, extracting
folkloric tone – offer the principal support and I think this works well, though more straight ahead jazzers might not agree. The final track is a re-mix
of La Vie en Rose where an accordion prefaces a rather funky bass-and-keyboards affair. It’s more disco than Pigalle.
There’s a slightly uneven tone to this album in which Parisian, folk and ballads sit alongside more canonical material. Calise is a neat stylist and
manages to encompass all these varieties – a testament to her versatility and taste.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
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