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.

Mark Sherman: The L.A. Sessions

Miles High Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: The L.A. Sessions

Bebop fans will enjoy this album. It’s not the frenetic kind of bop that dazzled the jazz world back in the day; it’s more “polite” ... but it swings just as much. 

Sherman began his career as a drummer, switched to piano and then the vibraphone. He’s also a prolific composer. Although jazz is his first love, he has extensive experience with classical orchestras and is on a first-call basis with many name vocalists.

Pianist/arranger/composer Bill Cunliffe switches gears and plays B3 Hammond organ here. Early in his career, he toured with Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra and, after moving to the West Coast, worked with icons such as Ray Brown. Cunliffe has written scores for films, TV and other orchestras, including his own magnificent big band.

Guitarist John Chiodini is world-famous. He was a member of the Boston Pops Orchestra, under Arthur Fiedler, in the 1960s and ’70s. After moving to Los Angeles, Chiodini toured, wrote and recorded with both jazz groups and name vocalists such as Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and Shirley Horne.

         

Drummer Charles Ruggiero was a member of the New York City jazz scene for several years; he landed a gig with Chuck Mangione, toured with Marilyn Manson and is an in-demand sideman.

It’s clear that this group enjoyed revisiting the bebop era. Many well-known bop standards are included here: Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody ’n You,” Milt Jackson’s “Bag’s Groove,” Charlie Parker’s “Quasimodo,” Benny Golson’s “Whisper Not” and others. Sherman also contributes an original (“Far Away”), and the group puts a new polish on Burke & Van Heusen’s “It Could Happen to You.”

This is a neat album. It’ll bring back a lot of memories and demonstrate that what was exciting years ago, still can get your pulse pounding today.