Search - Terry Blaine and Mark Shane :: Lonesome Swallow

Classic 1920s songs, 21st Century performer

B. D. Tutt | London, UK. | 09/15/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Terry Blaine is an outstanding jazz singer, and this CD is a fine showcase for her talents. She has chosen an interesting repertoire from the 1920s and 1930s - a handful of show tunes, and a larger number of forgotten songs recorded by the two greatest African - American singers of the 1920s, Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. Blaine has a strong voice and a powerful sense of swing. She gives emotionally satisfying readings of the more serious material, and demonstrates a fine sense of humour in the raunchier songs (for example in "My Handy Man" and "Do What You Did Last Night"). She is accompanied throughout by her long term collaborator, pianist Mark Shane. He is a sensitive performer, and the understanding between the two is strong. He succeeds in giving a rhythmic lift to the mostly medium to slow tempo songs here, and plays in a stylistically appropriate way. My only caveat is that Shane has set himself the unenviable task of emulating the great James P. Johnson (the accompanist on the original recordings of most of the Smith / Waters tracks), and predictably falls short of the original. Good as Shane is, he does not have Johnson's touch, power or improvisational genius - but then who today does? This is a fine disc by a talented singer who should be praised for exploring this repertoire. Enjoy this recording, but buy the Bessie Smith & Ethel Waters originals too!"