Search - Anita Kerr, Singers :: Slightly Baroque

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A Reader from | Atlanta GA | 12/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been waiting for YEARS to scarf up classic Anita Kerr CDs! Now waiting for WE DIG MANCINI to be released.



If you love Anita Kerr, you just got to get these recordings before they go out of print again (which should be in 6 months or so)!



Of the four that were issued this year (2007)--All You Need is Love, Sounds, Slightly Baroque, and Bert Kaempfert Turns Us On, I find the Slightly Baroque and the Bert Kaempfert albums the most listenable and satisfying. I've never cared much for Anita as a orchestra arranger and conductor, but I've always enjoyed her choral arrangements and solo singing. Frankly, I also think she sounds a little dorky singing and arranging soft rock tunes and bubblegum music of the sixties and seventies. She's much more persuasive at singing and arranging the jazz/pop standards of any day or generation. So the "Baroque" and "Bert" recordings are the most satisfying of the four issued this year, IMHO.



Get them all anyway for they won't stay in print for long. For example, I purchased her double CD compliation of the Burt Bacharach and the Velvet Voices albums on Amazon a few years back and when I went back this year to purchase another copy for Christmas, Collector's Choice had already stopped issuing it and I was at the mercy of the Amazon sellers. So buy buy buy, while it's (still) cheap cheap cheap and hurry hurry hurry!



My two cents."

Slightly Baroque: Incredibly Musical and Entertaining

C. Lambert | Shreveport LA USA | 10/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album, although I am certain it has been bestowed with many accolades, is underrated. For sheer musical pleasure it is unsurpassed with the possible exceptions--harmonically--of the efforts of the original Four Freshmen. However, the combination of technique and innovative harmonies, in my opinion, has never been surpassed in this genre.



But it doesn't stop there! This album is a totally enjoyable experience for anyone, regardless of his/her musical preference, experience, and/or training. Many of our favorite albums, especially progressive jazz, must be not only enjoyed, but studied and diligently listened to, which is why so many modern Americans, even musicians, have become disenchanted with "hard-down jazz." Anita is no slouch when it comes to jazz expression and innovative riffs, but they are blended in such a way as to fulfill the non-jazz audience's desire for the "stroking" of their emotions and sensivities.



In my reviews I always seem to mention the educational value of the material, and Kerr et al's efforts on Slightly Baroque (Sorry, I don't know how to use italics on this forum) are unquestionably of value to the serious student of music. Listen to how traditional sequences, contrary motion, and suspensions/retardations are used in the traditional style then turned on their heads to expose a softer underside normally unheard.



I highly recommend this album to anyone who has ever enjoyed any sensory (sensual?) stimulation from any art form. The sounds, moods, and expressions are not inferior to even the rose or a blossom-flooded meadow! Close your eyes; smell the gardenias; listen to the muted background of a waterfall or seashore; and enjoy this total experience with Anita Kerr and her magnificent group."

Exquisitely bizarre

A. D. Batson | Arlington VA USA | 12/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc is exceptional. Anita Kerr created many masterpieces of easy listening - redoing covers of popular music in her own inimitable style. But this disc goes above and beyond. On top of the cool, elevator-ready versions of such classics as "It's not Unusual" and "One Note Samba", Kerr overlays a 'Baroque" harpsichord track which pushes the whole over to the edge of awful . . and magnificent."