5 elsewhere: a Charlie Watts biography, Santana taken ill, winners at the Parlies, a choice Scott spot, Swedish sax signing

Read elsewhere: A September publication for Paul Sexton's new Charlie's Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of Charlie Watts - blackwells.co.uk Carlos Santana collapses from heat exhaustion during a performance in Michigan - nme.com The …

Published: 6 Jul 2022. Updated: 21 months.

Vicki Burns, Close Your Eyes ***

Track of the day and new in the One Love spot, the first new occupant of the section in a few days - Vicki Burns sounds great and a bit like the revered Dena DeRose. Listen to DeRose singing the same standard in a very different chamber jazz …

Published: 5 Jul 2022. Updated: 21 months.

Next post

Track of the day and new in the One Love spot, the first new occupant of the section in a few days - Vicki Burns sounds great and a bit like the revered Dena DeRose.

Listen to DeRose singing the same standard in a very different chamber jazz arrangement from 20 or so years ago on, appropriately given some words from the lyrics - the Love's Holiday album.

But who exactly is Vicki Burns? Certainly not a beginner - the US singer has established a strong track record over the years. And while coming up to the present and perusing a list of personnel on Bandcamp look there is drummer Billy Drummond. And the very good news is that the Carla-ite is back and topical with his first record under his own name in around a quarter of a century - the upcoming for August and excellent Valse Sinistre.

With Drummond in the rhythm section are bassist Sam Bevan and Stacey Kent's relatively new pianist Art Hirahara who provide a firm foundation for the horns and flute. Burns released Siren Song in 2005 and a live quartet album three years later and in 2020 Bittersweet on which the personnel on the new record also figured.

As for the 1933 Bernice Petkere song first recorded by Freddie Martin and his Orchestra that year these are favourite versions of ours to dip into:

The first is a doo-wop tinged bouncing treatment and top 20 UK hit from Tony Bennett in 1955.

The second is the gorgeously lush Billy May arranged easy listening treatment with strings by Nancy Wilson found on Tender Loving Care dating from 1966.

And the last and best of these is Stacey Kent's very tidy and concise girl-next-door 1997 treatment aided by the Getzian dreaming of Jim Tomlinson on tenor saxophone, found on an album of the same name that catapulted the American singer into the jazz limelight on the UK scene heavily backed at the time by Humphrey Lyttelton on his BBC Radio 2 weekly show.

The Burns track has a storming contrapuntal feel in the opening statement set up by drums and piano. Beyond simple riff/groove clichés the momentum involves more overt swing led by Drummond and moved ultimately after first conversational obbligato trumpet and a peeling-off solo into more of an AfroCuban arena. All is eventually judiciously garnished by flute as if ta-da dancing unselfconsciously around the main strand of the sound. Drawn from Lotus Blossom Days