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| Concord's Grammy results and new releases The Concord Music Group had a fine night at the Grammys last Wednesday (2/8), with awards presented to Eddie Palmieri, Dianne Reeves and Sonny Rollins. Palmieri's Concord Picante CD Listen Here! won the Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album. It was his sixth award, with previous wins in the Latin, Tropical Latin, and Salsa categories in 1976, 1984, 1985, 1987, and 2000. Reeves earned her fourth Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for the much-praised soundtrack recording of Good Night, and Good Luck (Concord Jazz), after earlier wins in 2000, 2001, and 2003. Rollins was honored in the Best Jazz Instrumental Solo category for “Why Was I Born?, ” a track from his Milestone CD Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert). Sonny's very first performance Grammy came in 2001, when This Is What I Do was named Best Jazz Instrumental Album. He also received a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. Just out this week (2/14) from Michael Feinstein's Feinery Records is The Love Album, a 1967 Doris Day disc in its first U.S. release. Recorded between the time Day left Columbia (in 1966, after a 20-year affiliation) and the launching of her CBS television series, The Doris Day Show, which ran from 1968 to '73, the sessions were produced by Don Gerson and Day's husband Marty Melcher. Sid Feller, best known for his work with Ray Charles, was the arranger on the date, which featured such top players as Barney Kessel and Ronnell Bright (one-time Sarah Vaughan accompanist). For reasons unknown, the music remained in the can until the mid-90s, when it was briefly available in England and Germany. The Feinery release is augmented by three bonus tracks from a 1971 TV special (The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special) that have never previously been released anywhere. “Doris Day has an innate musicality and an innate dramatic ability that, when she was given the right material and the right accompaniments, can be overwhelming in the powerfulness of their simplicity, ” writes Will Friedwald in his notes for the package. “. . . The singing here is as romantic and beautiful as anything she had ever done.” “My goodness, Shirley Horn, that is some modulation.” So marvels Marian McPartland at the conclusion of Horn's rendition of “Violets for Your Furs, ” heard on The Jazz Alliance's newest Piano Jazz CD (street date 2/28). Taped for McPartland's National Public Radio program in December 1984, three years before the release of I Thought About You, Horn's breakthrough album for Verve, the 55-minute session is a musical delight. The two women quickly establish a warm and mirthful rapport punctuated with more than a few contagious belly laughs. Horn has three vocal features (”I Could Have Told You, ” “Violets..., ” “There's No You”), and finds common ground with McPartland as they duet on three “dirty old blues” (”Billie's Bounce, ” “Cherry, ” “Shirley's Blues”) and a slice of Ellingtonia (”Love You Madly”). The women's unabashed mutual admiration and sterling musicianship make this document all the more precious in light of Shirley Horn's passing just four months ago, at the age of 71. Organist John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) will be McPartland's guest on a Piano Jazz disc due out from The Jazz Alliance 4/4. The Fabulous Sylvester, a biography of the late singer by Joshua Gamson published by Henry Holt last year, has just come out in paperback from Picador. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |