In review--A whole lot of sugar in the bowl

-

Roberta Donnay
& The Prohibition Mob Band
A Little Sugar
Motema

American jazz chanteuse Roberta Donnay takes a journey through jazz history on her juicy CD, A Little Sugar.  The songs range from 1897 to present day while showing off blues, Dixieland, and swing roots.  Donnay immerses herself in the feminist sentiments of Roaring twenties and Depression Era women jazz singers, and Donnay’s softer vocals take on a gritty edge even with songs by Irving Berlin and Hoagy Carmichael. Woman empowerment, though tongue and cheek on songs such as One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show come into play.  Playful is the right word to describe this recording and if you want sexy innuendos listen to (Tropical) Heatwave or (I Want a Little) Sugar in My Bowl.  If you look for clever lyrics, you’ll find plenty here and you’ll chuckle at the witty one-liners too.  After listening to this CD, I feel like watching Hollywood classics, even Silent Era movies.

Backed by John R. Burr (piano), Sam Bevan (bass), Michael Barsimanto (drums), Rich Armstrong (horns), Sheldon Brown (reeds and flute), Wayne Wallace (trombone) and Ed Ivey (tuba on Mama’s Gone, Goodbye and You’ve Been a Good Ole Wagon), this band has a delightful time recreating the past.  From jazz ballads such as Irving Berlin’s 1932 Say it isn’t So to send-ups such as Ida Cox’s 1939 You Got to Swing and Sway, Donnay spotlights her vocal and emotional range.  The press notes mention Donnay’s research into the history of American jazz and a few of her discoveries about the rough and tumble jazz divas of former eras.  You don’t need to know any of this history, and you’ll still feel and get the sentiments on A Little Sugar.  And since these songs go down relatively easy, you won’t need any sugar.

http://www.motema.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Peyote Songs & The Native American Church

-
Image
Father Peyote: Songs of the Native American Church Introduction to the Peyote Church Ceremony This is an archival article written in 2003.  It's not updated.  For more recent recordings, go to Canyon Records website, http://www.canyonrecords.com When some people speak of Native American ceremonies, the peyote ceremony or the ingestion of the hallucinogen peyote (contains mescaline) usually surfaces. However, there is too much false information being passed around in the non-native community surrounding peyote meetings. The first thing people need to know about the Native American connection to peyote is that the plant is sacred medicine ingested as a sacrament during healing ceremonies of the Native American Church. The second thing, people need to know is that the Native American Church is not a set structure like the Christian Church. The peyote meeting could take place in a Navajo hogan or a teepee. And finally, since the peyote meeting does in part derive from Nat
Read more

21st Century Musical Healer Series--Heather Hannan

-
Image
 Healing with Sound and Reiki Based in Toronto, Canada, Heather Hannan has proven with her own life healing experiences the enormous power of sound frequencies. She acts as a bridge between the mundane world (real estate) to other spiritual dimensions (past life regressions, quantum physics, Reiki, sound frequencies,  and other cutting edge work). I met Heather through my Linked In group Musical Healers and I'm delighted to include her work and insights on this blog. As you know, raising music and sound consciousness takes a world-size village of folks, just like Heather dedicating their lives to working with the healing power of sound.  Whole Music: When did you discover and begin exploring sound healing? Heather Hannan: Ten years ago I was at a crossroads in my life and looking for a group of like-minded people with whom to explore my gifts and talents through meditation. Little did I know that via the meditation group I joined I would be invited to
Read more

Talking about Timbre

-
Image
Wikipedia As I mention in my book Whole Music , when I was a child I fell in love with timbre and the voices of the individual instruments we listened to in music class.  Each instrument conjured a specific emotions or feeling in me.  The French horn caused me to feel majestic and the cello invoked melancholy.  My moods would shift with each instrument that I heard and my moods would shift quickly. Today, I listen to more than timbre, but I have an understanding of how tone, frequencies of the tone and timbre (the color of the tone) affect me on all levels.  And I wonder what listening to an entire symphony does with its many voices, themes, keys, musical passages etc... In the concept of "whole music" I prefer not to separate musical components, but in the case of this post, I will present solo instruments for your listening and feeling pleasure. If you keep a music journal (and I hope that you do by now), write down the emotions that come up with each instrument.  R
Read more