Something’s Gotta Give
Bei Mir Bist Du Schon
Night & Day
For All We Know
You Brought A New Kind of Love *
Dream
Yes, My Darling Daughter
I’ve Got the World on A String
Come Rain or Come Shine
The Lamp is Low
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Robin McKelle (vocal); Wayne
Bergeron, Gary Grant, Don Clark, Willie Murillo
(trumpets), Andy Martin, Charlie Morillis,
David Stout (trombones), Paul Klintworth (French
horn), Bob Sheppard, Brian Scanlon (alto sax,
clarinet), Gary Fox (clarinet), Pete Christlieb
(tenor sax), Ray Herrmann (tenor sax, clarinet),
Mark Visher (tenor sax), Glen Berger (baritone
sax, clarinet), Quinn Johnson (piano), Larry
Koonse (guitar), Reggie McBride (bass), Bernie
Dressel (drums, percussion); unnamed string
section; * Robbie Wycoff (vocal)
Recording date/place not
provided.
Here’s a real throwback to
the big band music of the 1940s – part, I
suppose, of the movement that’s been called
retro-swing. Song after song here belongs
to the repertoire of the vocalists of that
era and at times the experience is rather
like listening to some recordings of that
era which have by some sort of magic beyond
the reach of mere technology acquired twenty-first
century sound quality.
McKelle has a good vocal
range, equally at home on hard-swinging tracks
and gentler ballads. Unlike some ‘retro’ singers
she doesn’t seem to have modelled herself
on a single predecessor (though there are
a few reminiscences of Ella Fitzgerald); she’s
more eclectic than that, or perhaps one should
say, in fairness, that she has really absorbed
and articulated the ethos and manner of vocalists
of that period and made them her own.
For the most part the songs
are handled in a pretty ‘traditional’ fashion.
McKelle resists the temptation to use them
as vehicles for her own virtuosity (which
isn’t to say that she doesn’t take some appropriate
liberties), preferring to respect the words
and musical structures of what are, after
all, high class compositions.
I assume (it isn’t entirely
clear from the packaging) that trumpeter Willie
Murillo is responsible for most of the arrangements.
And though no place if recording is given,
it seems safe to assume that the album was
made in Los Angeles, Murillo’s home base and
home to many of the musicians who make up
the outstanding band. Murillo’s arrangements
are themselves not mere historical recreations
– while remaining true to the spirit of the
1940s he allows himself some borrowings from
later idioms and some inventive wit. This
is striking in his arrangement of ‘Bei Mir
Bist Du Schon’ which ends up as a Latin number!
On the ballads a Nelson-Riddle-like string
section supports McKelle, working to particularly
good effect on ‘For All We Know’. At the other
extreme McKelle more than holds her own on
the hard-driving version of ‘Something’s Gotta
Give’.
There are not many opportunities
for the band members to solo – a shame, since
what we do hear is excellent, not least a
marvellous contribution by Pete Christlieb
on ‘For All We Know’ and a striking trombone
solo by (I guess) Andy Martin on ‘Night &
Day’. Christlieb’s solo, in particular, takes
us far beyond mere ‘retro’ anything. Elsewhere
there is, perhaps, just a bit too much of
a sense of nostalgia about the whole thing.
I suspect that McKelle, still young, will
give a more individual twist to such material
in a few years time. Certainly she is one
worth following.
Glyn Pursglove
CD Reviews
CANDID CCD 79996 [40:13]
