Search - Beegie Adair :: I'll Take Romance

On a somber day, these musicians came to play...

William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 09/05/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The session near Nashville that was to produce this disc was scheduled for 9-11-01. The orchestra parts were recorded in a different studio, whether before or after 9/11, I am not sure, but Beegie and her trio had to do their thing after the news from NYC and DC had filled the nation with grief. Her bass player told her and the drummer "We can't quit. People NEED music. Let's play!" He was right, and the results are excellent. Ms. Adair has a great sense of song selection, and this is one jazz CD on which the orchestra is subtle, not overpowering. Jazz artists who record "with strings" often produce an album that ends up as "boring easy listening." (I love George Shearing, but that happened to him several times in his big label career.) This one comes off a winner, and Ms. Adair dedicated it to the first responders to the acts of terrorism. But it is a romance album, not a patriotic one, except in the sense that one could say "With love in your life, the hard times can be survived, and hope revived.""