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Crowell hits all the right notes on new bluesy CD By STEPHEN PEDERSEN
She and the band that brewed it, Dave James (drums), Jamie Gatti (bass), Russ Brannon (guitar), Rick Waychesko (trumpet), Eric Landry (trombone), Paul Harris on organ and others, will launch the CD with two sets and some quality hang-out time in the Commons Room of Hotel Atlantica, tonight starting at 7 o’clock. The CD is an all blues, heady vintage of 11 songs, eight of them originals. The multi-talented Crowell wrote them, arranged them, sings them on the CD and plays tenor and keyboard in the band. She credits co-writer Peggy McKinnon, L. Jarvis and her own mother for some of the lyrics. Two of the tunes are takes on the late Theo (Ted) Hilfiker songs from The Floorboards days of Crowell’s most notable early band. And there is Duke Ellington’s Nothin’ But The Blues, a signature tune of Crowell’s from her favourite arranger. She doesn’t leave town without it. If this CD were a keg of beer, the froth would get up your nose and linger on your lips, imparting a strong aftertaste of hops on the tongue like an Old Stock Ale. No calories, however, which is lucky because it tastes so good. In fact it is an outstanding disk, which rewards repeated listening as you focus on individual instruments or on the lyrics. The solos swing hard without exception. On a first hearing, Crowell’s voice sounds a little bit distant in the mix but she did this on purpose, she said in a subsequent interview. She said she wanted the vocals to take their place as another instrumental colour in the band. She achieves this goal most strikingly after the second bridge on the title track. Crowell has a great ear for voicing and instrumental harmonization. Her arrangements are well balanced and little big-band-ish with a great sense of swing. "I’ve done a lot of work over the years arranging," she said. "Duke Ellington is at the top of my list of great arrangers, a harmonic wordsmith from a rich period of music. "I just wanted to engage every musician in the band. I wanted to add in passing chords and rhythms that engage the rhythm section as well as the horns. We used a swing shuffle in the rhythm section, which creates more space than a jazz shuffle. That’s why I like a drummer like Dave (James) who can sing hard on jazz but also play more simply on the blues." The CD was engineered by Russ Brannon and produced by him along with the help of James and Crowell. With so many superb local players on the gig, Crowell felt particularly lucky. She credits James with mentoring the project. Any way you cut it, when you are in the middle of it, Crowell and company show us that there is a right way to be wrong. And the blues are all about that. ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) If this CD were a keg of beer, the froth would get up your nose and linger on your lips, imparting a strong aftertaste of hops on the tongue like an Old Stock Ale. No calories, however, which is lucky because it tastes so good. |
