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| Track list: 1. Get It Straight (live) 2. Dear Ruby 3. It's Over Now 4. Monkery's the Blues 5. You Know Who 6. Little Butterfly 7. Listen to Monk 8. How I Wish 9. Man, That Was a Dream 10. 'Round Midnight 11. Still We Dream 12. Suddenly (live) 13. Looking Back 14. Suddenly 15. Get It Straight 16. 'Round Midnight (Alternate Take) 17. Listen to Monk (Alternate Take) 18. Man, That Was a Dream (Alternate Take) Running time: 79 minutes Released: 1988 |
We begin with a live recording of Straight, No Chaser with a double bass and then Ms McRae scatting the tune, before bringing in a lyric that has been added. A wider arrangement then picks up and we have horn, keys and drums as well as the bass. It's likeable enough I guess but feels a bit too "lounge" somehow, and then veers off into the territory of rotating spotlights/solos - with whooping and applause added in the mix between each because live version. I don't like the singing much - there isn't a great deal of it, but it sounded out of place to me, which means this could be a long afternoon.
This post is long overdue - I have let a couple of weekends slide by without making it, and the length of this disc means no chance at all for the midweek evening attempt. Even now, as I start, I am a little unsure as to whether I will make it through 80 minutes, but I am giving it a go. Pleasantly the vocal on Dear Ruby feels more in line with the pace and tone of the piece. Here, after the first vocal section ends, it is the horn that sounds out of place when it strikes up. That said, the gentle meandering melody grows on me, and I like the soft volume of the keys behind it. Again, it is very lounge-like, but here it suits better. I wonder if that is because I am less familiar with Ruby, My Dear - though I do have a Monk version of the tune which is half the length of this one. As it concludes (like the first number it had a long instrumental sandwiched between two lyrical verses) I find myself thinking this could be a very mixed bag.
On It's Over Now McRae uses her voice to simultaneously carry Monk's tune and her lyrics. That is a very nice touch. Then she again steps aside to allow her coterie of musicians to perform the tune, vocalisations appear to break up the flow a bit thereafter. Not lyrics, just sounds, until the song takes back the stage - though here is almost sounds like she is speaking the lines just with a bit more emotion than normal. Her voice is husky, which is quite nice, but I don't find it particularly melodic. The version of Blue Monk has a patiently slow cadence to it, a nice lazy sound. Even though the singing does not take my fancy, and the insistence on a bass solo wastes a good 30 seconds or so of my day, I find myself well disposed to the track until the saxophone... well it just has too much of an edge to it compared to the rest of the playing. Its harsh sound rubbing me the wrong way.
Sitting down to do this has had a soporific effect on me. I think it is a form of relaxation. Jazz music almost certainly helps with that, lots of soft sounds. I find my ear tracking the bass line on You Know Who, its soft reliability guiding my tired mind through the busier tune. I am off work tomorrow - and the rest of the week; I hope to get these pages back on track (amongst many other things). On just about every track here Carmen McCrae starts us off, then backs away, before returning to close. It feels a little formulaic. Her song is more prominent on some numbers than others, but the pattern has been set. I am still not taken with her voice, even when on a track like Little Butterfly she gets a bit more room to really sing. The bass and keys have been consistently enjoyable. I may have moaned about the bass solo above, but it wasn't the playing of it that annoyed me, so much as the presence of said solo.
Oh dear - she tried to go high note there and didn't quite reach it. That was a mistake. Some of the sax playing feels like a mistake too, slightly at odds with the timbre and tone set by the core structure of piano, bass and drums. Its not universally so though, rather it seems to blight certain tracks or even specific passages. I find the vocal as liable to miss as the horn, which is a shame.
Having said that, the way the sax opens us up on How I Wish, supported by feathered drums and a wandering bass, is an example of how it can be done right. Some way into this tune it hits a harsh note that shakes me out of appreciation for a second but for the most part there is a lovely bluesy tone and a soft fuzz to the sound. This song stands out from the others thus far because McRae comes in after a long intro, basically with her and the keyboard replacing the saxophone. I find the song a better fit for the singer here too, until she again shrieks a little too high. There is a nice soulful sound to her voice in places, but much of the time it sounds like it is fighting with the tune and the arrangement rather than complementing it and at no point do I find her utterings compelling. It sounds to me like she pushes herself to far towards notes outside her natural range, where that effort would have been better spent by putting more life into the sections that are definitely within her register.
There are things I like here, even moments where I like the singing, but alas, she sings in such a way that I am always expecting a moment I don't like to be just around the corner. Every time she goes up higher, I cringe. 'Round Midnight is particularly bad for this, made worse because for much of this number her voice is in really good accord with the music behind it. I find it astonishing that this album apparently got her a Grammy nomination for vocal performance because she just doesn't deliver a reliable and enjoyable rendition on any of the first 10 tracks. Moments, yes, complete tracks, no. Add to that the fact that much of the time she is taking a back seat to her arrangements and the nomination is a bafflement to me.
To avoid being too negative... when it all slows down with lots of space left by our structural trio and where the sax is nowhere to be heard there is some really lovely playing. The tunefulness of Still We Dream is a treat, for example. McRae does a nice In Walked Bud too... I love the rhythm of this tune anyway and she again carries tune and lyric together in a breathy approach that takes on that rhythm. Alas, that is but the first part of the track. This is another live number and it devolves into the round robin solo problem. When McRae's voice rejoins to close out the track it is far less engaging and the timbre is off. The opening is stellar, the rest falls away disappointingly.
The bad outweighs the good here for me. As I hit the last "new" track (the final five are reimaginings of what has been before) I find myself detached, uninterested, yet also a touch conflicted. Whilst it is fair to say that the singer hasn't grabbed me, some of the tunes are lovely and well performed and it seems a shame to sacrifice the keys, bass and percussion for a few faults in the vocal. That is the way I am leaning though, a clean sweep.
The alternate, studio recording, of Suddenly/In Walked Bud has a brighter tempo but less soul. The studio recording of Get It Straight sounds more goofy when she vocalizes the opening. It is almost as if my mind, made up, is contriving these retakes to confirm the decision it leant on. I much prefer the alternate interpretation of 'Round Midnight. There are fewer cringe moments when the tune goes beyond the comfortable range, but it is also soporifically slow and overlong for something stuck towards the end of a long album I have not much enjoyed. At the end of the day, I really don't think adding lyrics and a vocalist add anything to Monk's underlying tunes. They feel unnecessary and tacked on, because that is exactly what they are. This is just underlined further when the lyrics added are as lifeless and trite as on Listen to Monk for example. Having sat through it a second time the valueless nature of the lyrical content is only too obvious.
The final track leaves a better last impression, both the singing and the tune are better, the latter being really nice (not for the first time). However it is too little too late; I have several Monk recordings and I don't need these versions.
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