| June 9, 2006
Media Alert: Jamie Davis It's A Good Thing
Unity Music 251
Street Date: June 13, 2006
CD Review
View the article here:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=22076
It's A Good Thing
Jamie Davis | Unity
By Michael P. Gladstone
Singer Jamie Davis is from the San Francisco area
and spent three years, starting in 2000, as the vocalist
with the Count Basie Orchestra. This debut recording
owes a heavy debt to lessons learned from his experience
with the Basie organization. In addition, the supporting
big band on this album is comprised of Basie Band
veterans and several first-call studio musicians based
in Los Angeles. Pianist Shelly Berg conducts the band,
with arrangements of various tunes by musicians such
as Aaron Lington (North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band),
Allyn Ferguson, Tom Hart, Marcus Shelby, Shelly Berg
and Bob Ojeda. A forty-minute DVD which is included
with the CD covers the making of this album and includes
a lot of footage of the musicians.
The musical setting of It's A Good Thing is very
much in the Basie tradition, including musicians from
that band such as Bob Ojeda and Scotty Barnhart (trumpet);
Roger Glen (flute); Tony Suggs (piano); James Leary
III (bass) and Butch Miles (drums). Comparisons of
Davis' voice and delivery with the legendary Basie
singer Joe Williams are almost inevitable. Like Williams,
Jamie Davis has a rich baritone wihch is strong enough
to match the presence and power of the Basie-ites
present, and insofar as a direct match of the two
vocalists is concerned, they are both indeed similar.
My biggest objection to the album is that the first
half of It's A Good Thing includes several middle-brow
tunes that have been presented for so long, and by
so many (eg. George Harrison's “Something,”
“I've Got the World on a String,” ”Night
and Day,” Stevie Wonder's “Isn't She Lovely”),
that both the band and the vocalist are working with
overexposed material.
However, at the midway point of the album, there
is a brutal transition from “My Funny Valentine”
to a version of Thelonious Monk's “Straight
No Chaser.” Davis is quite comfortable with
Jon Hendricks' lyrics and gets in some fine scatting
in addition. Likewise, songs associated with Joe Williams
(”My Kinda Love,” “Every Day I Have
the Blues,” “All Right,” “Okay,
You Win”) are charged with nostalgia but not
imitation. A Ray Noble classic, “The Very Thought
Of You,” is a perfect choice which Joe Williams
might have picked to show his ballad chops.
Track Listing: Isn't She Lovely; Something; I've
Got The World On A String; Night And Day; Besame Mucho;
My Funny Valentine; Straight No Chaser; My Kinda Love;
Another Star; Every Day I Have The Blues; The Very
Thought Of You; Alright Okay You Win.
Personnel: Jamie Davis: vocals; Scotty Barnhardt,
Chuck Findley, Gregg Adams, Robert Schaer, Michael
Stever: trumpets; David Kiem, Paul Young, James Litz,
Phillip Larson: trombones; John Kelson, Marshall McDonald,
Scott Jepperson, William Frenzel, Keith Bishop, Nancy
Newman: saxophones; Roger Glen: vibes, flute; Tony
Suggs, Shelly Berg: piano; James Leary III: acoustic
bass; Will Matthews: guitar; Butch Miles, Greg Errico:
drums; Keith Perazzo: bongos; Tony Menjivar: congas;
Greg Errico: claves.
All material copyright © 2006 All About Jazz
and contributing writers. All rights reserved.
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