Lyn Stanley: Interludes

Self-produced
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Interlude

This is a beautiful album, first-class in every way, starring a multi-talented woman graced with a flawless voice. 

But it isn’t true jazz.

Lyn Stanley is quite exceptional. She’s a college graduate with a PhD in communications, and a successful career in business. She has won championships in USA DanceSport, and placed third in a World ProAm event. She also has studied voice under coach Annette Warren Smith — famed jazz pianist Paul Smith’s wife — and is an audiophile fanatic. Stanley’s recordings have been released on high-end vinyl, SACD stereo and reel-to-reel tape.

(Incidentally, Stanley dedicated this album to Paul Smith.)

Interlude has a lot going for it, starting with 14 classics from the Great American Songbook, with excellent arrangements by some of the music world’s best. Additionally, the two bands supporting Stanley include some truly great artists: among others, pianist Bill Cunliffe, bassist Chuck Berghofer, trombonist Bob McChesney and guitarist John Chiodini.

Stanley’s voice is flawless: Her tone, range, enunciation, warmth and phrasing are superb, and she “sells” a song as well as anyone alive today. No surprise, she’s quite popular. Her albums sell in the tens of thousands globally, which — considering the relatively limited “buying audience” that exists for jazz today — is exceptional.

So, why the caveat regarding her style? Well, Stanley doesn’t swing like artists such as Anita O’Day, Kim Nazarian, Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holliday. Stanley is more like Sarah Vaughn, although she could swing like crazy, when it suited her. (Remember her cover of “Cherokee”?)

Still, anyone who collaborates with the range of arrangers, producers and musicians assembled for this album — and her earlier releases — surely has a passport to the jazz genre, as far as I’m concerned. Call it what you will, this much is certain: Stanley is in a class by herself.

Patrick Williams: Home Suite Home

BFM Jazz
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Home Suite Home

Who gets the credit for a great jazz album? It’s usually the performing artist(s), and that almost always means an instrumentalist or vocalist. Well, that isn’t the case here; all the credit belongs to Patrick Williams. He composed and arranged the music; he selected the instrumentalists and vocalists; and he was the driving force behind it all.

Williams may not be a household name among jazz fans, but recording artists and producers certainly know and appreciate him. He has written the music for more than 65 feature films, 100 television films and 25 television series. He has won four Emmys and two Grammys — out of 19 nominations — and he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, for his orchestral work An American Concerto.

Needless to say, he had his pick of the 18 instrumentalists and three vocalists who participated on this album. Every serious jazz fan will recognize all of them, starting with vocalists Patti Austin, Tierney Sutton and Frank Sinatra Jr. The instrumentalists include pianist Dave Grusin, drummer Peter Erskine, trumpeter Arturo Sandavol, trombonist Bob McChesny, and saxists Bob Sheppard and Tom Scott.

The true “stars,” however, are the eight tracks composed and arranged by Williams. Four are tributes to members of his family: children Elizabeth, Greer and Patrick B., and his wife of 53 years, Katherine. The rest relate to musicians Williams reveres: “A Hefti Dose of Basie,” for composer/arranger Neal Hefti and Count Basie; “That’s Rich” (drummer Buddy Rich); “I’ve Been Around” (Frank Sinatra), sung by Frank Sinatra Jr. and Tierney Sutton; and “52nd & Broadway,” sung by Patti Austin.

The arrangement voicings are second to none; the interplay between the brass, reed and rhythm sections is to die for. And the result swings like crazy; I’ve never heard better!

The descriptor genius gets overused, but no other adjective applies to Williams, for what he has created here.  You’ll never tire of listening to what he hath wrought.

Mark Winkler: Jazz and Other Four Letter Words

Cafe Pacific Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Jazz and Other Four Letter Words

Los Angeles-born singer/songwriter Mark Winkler has performed and recorded since the mid 1980s. He’s another hip vocalist in the style of Dave Frishberg, Mose Allison, Michael Franks and Bobby Troup, although Winkler’s delivery is a bit more smooth. He has written charts for others — such as Liza Minnelli and Randy Crawford — but is best known for performing his own material. He’s also a crossover artist, in that he does a lot of pop music and has even written a Broadway show.

His recording output was limited for awhile, with only half a dozen albums until the new century. Since then, he has been much busier. 

Winkler always surrounds himself with talent. The backup musicians on this release include pianist Jamieson Trotter, guitarists Larry Koonse and Pat Kelley, bassists John Clayton and Dan Lutz, drummers Jeff Hamilton and Mike Shapiro, and instrumentalists Bob McChesney and Walt Fowler. 

Winkler also does a couple of duets with Cheryl Bentyne, of Manhattan Transfer fame.

The menu includes tunes by Frishberg, the Gershwins, Paul Simon and Richard Rogers, along with some originals. Everything is appealing, and — more importantly — everything swings.

Winkler is an excellent vocalist, and his voice is smooth as silk. Give him a try.