Natalie Cole - Ask a Woman Who Knows
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CD Details
Artist: Natalie ColeEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2002-09-17
Music Label: Umvd Labels
Soundtracks:
- I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do
- Tell Me All About It
- Ask a Woman Who Knows
- It's Crazy
- You're Mine You
- So Many Stars
- I Told You So
- Soon
- I'm Glad There Is You
- Better Than Anything
- The Music That Makes Me Dance
- Calling You
- My Baby Just Cares For Me
Music reviews of Ask a Woman Who Knows
Music Review: Like fine wine -- getting better with age!
Rating: 5 Stars
An old friend emailed me today to say that, at that very moment, her husband was listening to this version of "The Music That Makes Me Dance" --- my favorite performance of an almost forgotten Bob Merrill song.
And who was Bob, you ask? Well Merrill wrote musicals that deserved to succeed (such as "Take Me Along" Jackie Gleason, Walter Pigeon) plus some fifties 'gimmick' songs like "How Much is that Doggie in the Window? . . . and, eventually, such magnificences as "People" (with Jule Styne). Where was I? Oh yes, Natalie Cole.
To my ears, this beautiful woman is best songstress since Ella Fitzgerald, who as everyone-should-know-by-now was the female equivalent to Frank Sinatra -- the greatest-ever interpreters of the Great American Song Book.
What would Nat Cole say of this album? I close my eyes and see Nat nodding in agreement, that his daughter's voice is even more beautiful, athletic and expressive than his own.
Nat was of course a jazz giant who played better piano than practically anyone (other than Oscar and Bill). But I believe in my heart he would agree his little girl turned out to be an even better singer.
Some specifics about this wonderful album, Natalie's "best yet" (and there've been three great ones before this). For those who may still care "Who wrote that song?" this album could have used some liner notes! (So here are mine.)
1. "I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do" - from Lee Pockriss & Paul Vance, who wrote some popular hits in the 50s including "Catch a Falling Star" (first Number 1 for Perry Como) plus bits of fluff like "Johnny Angel" (for Shelly Fabares) and the much better "My Little Corner of the World." (Oh yes, and who could forget their "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"?) Well the Pockriss/Vance `estate' has waited four decades for someone of Natalie's magnitude to finally do justice to this previously uncovered gem. Strong melody, great lyrics!
2. "Tell Me All About It" - Pretty Bossa Nova tune; what follows, however, is more substantial:
3. "Ask a Woman Who Knows" - Title track written by Vic Abrams. (Who is/was Vic? No list of songwriters up to 1995 lists him!) Talk about a 'Standard-Just-Waiting-to-Happen.'
4. "It's Crazy" - Co-written by comedian Timmie Rogers---a childhood friend of Nat Cole's in the 1930s who talked Earl "Fatha" Hines' band arranger (Cecil Irvwin) into parting with a copy of an arrangement (of Hine's theme song "Rosetta") which Rogers handed over to his ever-grateful, teenaged friend "Nathaniel Coles" (correct, Coles with an `s'). It's so fitting that Nat's daughter chooses to introduce this undiscovered gem from 1926 to a 21st Century audience. The brass arrangement here by John Clayton is utterly new and fresh---unlike anything you've heard before.
5. "You're Mine You" - Another 'Should-Have-Been-a-Standard' written by Johnny (Body & Soul) Green and a great 1930s lyricist, Edward Heyman.
6. "So Many Stars" - A Brazilian 60s hit for Sergio Mendes and the Bergmans (Alan and Marilyn); this treasure never received better treatment. If you're young, and you've never heard this one before, well---how I envy you!
7. "I Told You So" - Amazing! Natalie introduces yet another 'standard-waiting-in-the-wings.' (Who is composer Duncan Lamont? He's gifted, that's for sure!) Six years after Sinatra's passing, who but Natalie could have done this song so well?
8. "Soon" - I Love a Gershwin tune, how about you? And who but Natalie, to pluck from relative obscurity this seldom-played gem.
9. "I'm Glad There Is You" - A haunting Jimmy Dorsey/Paul Madeira Latin-influenced ballad from 1941--- ignored by everyone since the fifties. (Old-timers will immediately recognize this beautiful tune.) This time the orchestra is arranged by the (almost) incomparable Alan Broadbent. (If Sinatra were still with us, he'd be doing albums with Alan.)
10. "Better Than Anything" - A refreshingly new jazz waltz devoted to, of all things-`Women Shopping.' Guest Diana Krall seems in perfect agreement that spending money is the best thing in life ("better than honey on bread, better than breakfast in bed"----lyrics Cole Porter could have written and would have loved).
11. "The Music That Makes Me Dance" - Written by the "People" people---Jule Styne and Bob Merrill (for 1964's "Funny Girl").
12. "Calling You" - The saddest, most melancholy song here: Alas, a forgettable melody by someone named Robert Telson: I defy you to hum this tune---no matter how many times you play it! (The only weak link on the entire album.)
13. "My Baby Just Cares For Me" - The only standard here whose title is immediately recognizable----from Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn (introduced in long-ago 1930 by Eddie Cantor). A playful arrangement with deep, swinging syncopation --- from great (young) musicians who would have been loved by Nat and Frank, and Ella - the only singers who could have delivered these songs so well as 'Nat's little girl.' To borrow from my favorite lyric here:
"I know she's around, when the sky and the ground started ringing
I know that she's here by the thunder I hear in advance!
Her words, and her words alone, are the words that can start my heart singing
And hers is the only music that makes me dance!"
Description of Ask a Woman Who Knows
Japanese edition of the vocalist's 2002 album. Includes one exclusive bonus track, 'I've Got Just About Everything'.In the 1970s, Natalie Cole made a spectacular debut. And, after a number of personal and professional setbacks in the '80s, she bounced back with her splendid 1991 rendition of her daddy's hit, "Unforgettable," where she electronically performed a "duet" with her father. This CD reunites Cole with producer by Tommy LiPuma, who produced "Unforgettable" and was the hit maker behind George Benson and Diana Krall. This collection is a classic blend of jazz-inflected pop, with the best and the brightest in the business. Backed by a plethora of stars, including trumpeter Roy Hargrove, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Joe Sample, and drummer Lewis Nash, Cole's lithe, Ella Fitzgerald-tinged vocals are showcased in a number pleasing settings. Whether it's the Brazilian sound of Sergio Mendes's "So Many Stars," the scat-happy "My Baby Just Cares for Me," or the big band swing of "It's Crazy" and "Soon," courtesy of the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, Cole projects her aura on these songs once sung by Sarah Vaughan, Barbra Streisand, Nina Simone, and Dinah Washington. Natalie Cole is a jazzy soul survivor in the literal sense of the term, and this recording represents her finest hour. --Eugene Holley Jr.
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