Music on the Web (UK)

Webmaster: Len Mullenger

[ Jazz index ] [Nostalgia index]  [ Classical MusicWeb ] [ Gerard Hoffnung ]

BUY NOW Crotchet

TINA MAY A Wing and a Prayer 33 Records 33JAZZ134

 
1. Maybe September
2. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To
3. Who Can I Turn To?
4. Sunshower
5. Too Late Now
6. Blue Narcissus (Black Narcissus)
7. Turn Out The Stars
8. When In Rome
9. A Wing And A Prayer (Gentle Peace)
10. Easy To Love
11. A House Is Not A Home
Tina May – Vocals
Stan Sulzmann – Saxes and flute
Nikki Iles – Piano

There’s a contradiction at the heart of this album. In the cover photo, Tina May appears glossy and well-groomed: totally in control. Yet her sleeve-note says that "This collection of songs explores the ‘vulnerable’ side of life". However, there seems to be little emotion in her singing. In fact there is more feeling in the superb sax and flute commentary supplied by Stan Sulzmann.

Tina’s slightly mannered delivery of a song like Too Late Now contains little of the regret that should be there. Similarly A House is Not a Home lacks the yearning that Dionne Warwick put into it. Who Can I Turn To? should be a cry from the heart but it sounds jaunty rather than troubled. Tina seems most at home in the cheeky When in Rome, which has a theme similar to My Heart Belongs to Daddy.

Tina May undoubtedly has vocal technique a-plenty – just hear the long-held notes at the close of Maybe September and A House is Not a Home. But her singing on this album is a bit too calculating to suggest vulnerability.

Tony Augarde

 

Return to Index