Billy Strayhorn - Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
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CD Details
Artist: Billy StrayhornEdition: Music CD
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2007-01-23
Music Label: Blue Note Records
Soundtracks:
- Fantastic Rhythm
- Rain Check
- Lush Life
- Satin Doll
- Something to Live For
- Johnny Come Lately
- Day Dream
- Tonk
- Chelsea Bridge
- My Little Brown Book
- Valse
- Blood Count (My Flame Burns Blue)
- The Flowers Die of Love
- Lotus Blossom
- So This Is Love
Music reviews of Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
Music Review: POISON!!! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! See the documentary on PBS instead!
Rating: 1 Stars
This is probably the worst jazz CD or album in my huge collection. The instrumental performances are efficient but lifeless. There is NO soul, here; just emptiness.
Elvis Costello, as per usual, sings through his nose while rattling his adenoids. The "special lyrics" written by Costello for Strayhorn's BLOOD COUNT are as vapid as the garden variety product of David Byrne. Diane Reeves sings this music like she never really studied it and lived with it. It sounds DEAD! Nothing happens with the text and she betrays NO undertanding of the music in her singing.
Of course, when I saw the PBS documentary about Strayhorn (Why is it that this was not on the AMERICAN MASTERS series, instead of INDEPENDENT LENS, when Ellington had a 2-hour documentary on American Masters???) I realized why Reeves sings so slowly and cautiously, completely draining the mercurial spirit of Strayhorn from the music and lyrics. These performances are DEADLY!!! These songs are CENTRAL to the jazz repertoire, and in the film, she is GLUED to the sheet music READING IT! The songs sounds DEAD because she didn't know them!
FIND THE DOCUMENTARY, use this disc for a very expensive kitty-litter-pan scoop!
Strayhorn would be appalled, if he heard how lacking in joy and spirit this is!!!
Description of Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
Companion soundtrack to Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, a 90-minute documentary film about the pioneering African-American composer, arranger and pianist. The film presents Strayhorn's fascinating life as it has never been told before, showcasing his talent and passions, as well as taking a hard look at his complex relationship with Duke Ellington and illuminating the issues that prevented Strayhorn from receiving the full recognition he deserved.Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, the soundtrack, features 15 Strayhorn compositions performed by several of today's jazz stars, including Blue Note artists Bill Charlap, Joe Lovano, and Dianne Reeves, as well as piano legend Hank Jones and special guest Elvis Costello.
From 1938, until his death in 1967, composer/arranger/pianist Billy Strayhorn was so entwined with Duke Ellington that musicologists are still trying to figure out where the former ends and the latter begins. On this companion soundtrack to the PBS documentary, pianists Bill Charlap and Hank Jones display their solo chops on the stridish "Fantastic Rhythm" and the soulful "Satin Doll" and reprise the great Ellington-Strayhorn four-hand piano workout, "Tonk." Vocalist Dianne Reeves and guitarist Russell Malone brilliantly navigate the harmonic challenges of the title track, while she and her rhythm section dance "Something to Live For" with an Ahmad Jamal bounce. Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster would approve of Joe Lovano's quartet rendition of "Chelsea Bridge," featuring Jones, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Paul Motian. Lovano and Charlap anchor Elvis Costello's languid lyrics on "My Flame Burns Blue (Blood Count)," adding another interpretive layer to the eternal artistry of this compelling and confounding musician. --Eugene Holley, Jr.
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