Friday, November 21, 2008

Sheila Jordan "Winter Sunshine" CD Review

CD REVIEW:
From Rifftides- Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/


Sheila Jordan, Winter Sunshine (Justin Time).

The first word in the CD's title may refer to Jordan's age, the second to the quality of her singing. She is seventy-nine and sounds thirty. Part of her schtick in this live recording at Montreal's Upstairs club is to tell the audience how tired she is, but she doesn't sound tired. She sounds like a young bebop and ballad singer with sunshine in her voice. If there must be scatting, let it be the kind of canny scatting Jordan does in "I Remember You" and her montage of "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" and "Little Willie Leaps." She praises pianist Steve Amirault, bassist Kieran Overs and drummer André White...for good reason. The chatter between songs wears thin after two or three hearings, but it is on separate tracks, and most CD players are programmable.

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