The Hoagy Carmichael
Songbook
What does Hoagy Carmichael's
music sound like in your mind? I think of leaves rustling and water flowing
over small stones; I think of a musical playfulness allied with deep feelings,
sadness and joy. His music has been given life on a million pianos and by tens
of millions of singers and instrumentalists - but it is sublimely expressed on
a new CD by the trio of Harry Allen, tenor saxophone; Rossano Sportiello,
piano; Joel Forbes, string bass. I Walk With Music: Hoagy Carmichael Songbook
is both familiar and fresh, both embracing and sweetly surprising. Harry,
Rossano, and Joel are masters of small-group playing: each of them is a superb
soloist, able to entrance us all by himself. But they excel at swing synergy,
so that this trio is much more than the three soloists assembled in a room.
Their deep empathy for Hoagy’s melodies comes through: they do not use the
chord changes as a reason to convert the composer’s deep melodic lines into a
series of ninths and thirteenths. Indeed, this CD is a master class in singing
through instruments. Harry and Rossano - sweet melodists with great
inventiveness and agility - are in inspired form. Neither of them will mind if
I take a few lines to celebrate Joel Forbes, unsung hero of so many sessions
and recordings. Bassists get very little
respect; when I asked one of them if he approved of some videos I’d made (and I
really wanted his opinion), he said, "Well, I'm only the bass
player." But Milt Hinton always reminded us that the string bass was the
base, the foundation on which everything rested. And Milt would recognize Joel
Forbes as a true master - participating in the ensemble without trying to
dominate it, his sound rich and full, his time marvelously supportive, his
notes the right ones. I hope to be able to write about a Joel Forbes Trio date
or CD someday - until then, I hope listeners aren’t so entranced by the tenor
saxophone and the piano that they neglect Mister Forbes. ~ JazzLives.wordpress.com.
Gac Records/CDBaby, 5638084013,
2013
Recorded 9th
January, 2013 At Trading 8s Recording Studio, Paramus, New Jersey
Musicians:
Rossano Sportiello - Piano
Harry Allen - Tenor Saxophone
Joel Forbes - Bass
Tracks:
01. Moon Country {Hoagy
Carmichael, Johnny Mercer} (6:40)
02. In The Cool, Cool, Cool
Of The Evening {Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer} (5:20)
03. I Get Along Without You
Very Well {Hoagy Carmichael, J.B. Thompson} (3:25)
04. New Orleans {Hoagy
Carmichael} (7:20)
05. The Nearness Of You
{Hoagy Carmichael, Ned Washington} (5:53)
06. I Walk With Music {Hoagy
Carmichael, Johnny Mercer} (5:26)
07. Two Sleepy People {Hoagy
Carmichael, Frank Loesser} (3:59)
08. Rockin' Chair {Hoagy
Carmichael} (6:40)
09. One Morning In May {Hoagy
Carmichael, Mitchell Parish} (5:57)
10. Georgia On My Mind {Hoagy
Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell} (6:41)
11. April In My Heart {}
(6:36)
12. Jubilee {Stanley Adams,
Hoagy Carmichael} (4:28)
13. Skylark {Hoagy Carmichael,
Johnny Mercer} (2:48)
Total Time: 71:13
Credits:
Producer - Rossano
Sportiello, Harry Allen, Joel Forbes
Recording, Mixing &
Mastering Engineer - Christopher Sulit
Photography - Fran Kaufman
Design and Art Direction -
Brian Wittman
Liner Notes - Hoagy B. Carmichael
