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1. Blues to Frankie & Johnny
2. Devil or Dove
3. Let’s Explain
4. Devil May Care
5. Heroes
6. People Like to Talk
7. Throw It Away
8. More Than You Know
9. Give Him Up Girl
10. Some of my Best Friends are the Blues
11. A Dove
12. You’re Not Alone
13. Will You
14. Meet You in My Dreams

Zoe Schwarz - Vocals
Rob Koral - Electric & Nylon Guitar
Hilary Cameron - Piano, Flute, Strings
Nick Kacal - Double Bass
Mark Fletcher - Drums
Matt Wates - Saxophones

 

First a message to 33 records.

Most people who browse the jazz area on the record shelves, spend about 5 seconds on each record they pick up. If they can’t immediately identify what the record is about they put it down again. This record sleeve can in no way be described as user friendly, I even had to use a magnifying glass to find the record number!

The above is a shame, because this is a very good record, the songs are good, Zoe Schwarz is a fine singer with a great jazz feel and all the musicians involved are top class. Mark Fletcher and Matt Wates are already well known to me and all of the other players are of the same high standard. Hilary Cameron on Piano and Rob Koral on Guitar particularly impressed me. Collectively the band provides a perfect accompaniment to the singing of Zoe and is capable of sustaining interest with well constructed solos when she is not singing.

Zoe has obviously absorbed much from the great jazz singers that have gone before, but the end product is a singer with an individual style and a polished performance.

Many of the songs are written by Zoe & Rob and very good they are to, I particularly liked ‘People like to Talk’ which cracks on with a nice Latin feel, everyone contributes well to this track and Mark Fletcher demonstrates why he is in such great demand as a drummer. Personally, I would have included a few more standard songs, Zoe does a wonderful job on ‘More Than you Know’ and so do the band, I would like to hear more of her in that mode.

To conclude, choose the music despite the ‘arty’ sleeve, this is a fine record which anyone who enjoys quality jazz singing and expert jazz musicianship will enjoy.
Highly Recommended.

Don Mather

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