Search - Various Artists :: Come Into the Cool

Come Into the Cool and Feel Frustrated

Foggy Tewsday | 06/10/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"On Christmas Day 2006, a new national radio station called theJazz began broadcasting to the UK. It's a welcome addition to the nation's airwaves and this two-disc compilation is a fairly representative sample of the kind of music that can be heard on the station.



The first CD on this collection is entitled `All-Time Legends' and, as you would expect, features some of the biggest names in jazz and some of the most well-known tracks. Unfortunately, this has been done so many times before with jazz compilations aimed at a general audience; there is a lack of imagination in the selection of tracks. If I name some of the artists on this CD, I bet you can fill in the track titles: Nina Simone, Sergio Mendes, Astrud Gilberto, Dinah Washington, Dave Brubeck. I bet you got them all right: `My Baby Just Cares for Me', `Mas Que Nada', `The Girl From Ipanema', `Mad About the Boy', `Take Five'.



Now, don't misunderstand me, these are all excellent tracks, but they seem to appear on every jazz compilation going. By the way, the Dave Brubeck track is a live version of `Take Five' and not the usual version that makes it on to these compilations. Unfortunately, I don't know where this track was recorded, what album it's been taken from or who the other musicians are because there are no liner notes.



While I'm on my soapbox, and without meaning to sound heretical, please could we have a moratorium regarding `Summertime'? I know the song is a standard, but it's been done to death. Compilers: please stop including it on compilations. Musicians: please stop putting it on albums. Surely I can't be the only person sick of hearing this tune? It appears on `Come Into the Cool' by way of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Again, this is not meant as a criticism of those artists or the Gershwins or the song itself, but really, enough is enough.



The second CD in this collection is called `Modern Classics' which is a little presumptive given that some of the tracks are very recent recordings. Claire Martin's track, `Everything Must Change' is taken from her album, `He Never Mentioned Love' which was released in the UK on the same day as `Come Into the Cool'. Similarly, Jane Monheit's `Surrender' is the title track from her 2007 album.



The second CD has seventeen tracks, but only two of them are instrumentals: Chris Botti's `Drivetime' and Wayne Shorter's `Footprints'. I'd like to have seen a little more imagination used. I could have happily lost the tracks by Amy Winehouse, Liz Wright, Jamie Cullum, Curtis Stigers and Stacey Kent in favor of, for example: Emily Remler, Eliane Elias, Iain Ballamy, Jessica Williams and Karrin Allyson. Oh well, I suppose it all depends on the material available for inclusion.



`Come Into the Cool' is not a bad compilation, but the choice of some of the tracks will lead to duplications in many people's collections. The lack of liner notes and information about the radio station that this compilation is supposed to promote is also disappointing.



Track listing. CD1: ELLA FITZGERALD & LOUIS ARMSTRONG - `Summertime'; DUKE ELLINGTON - `Take the `A' Train'; MILES DAVIS - `If I Were a Bell'; OSCAR PETERSON - `Night Train'; ASTRUD GILBERTO & STAN GETZ - `The Girl From Ipanema'; NINA SIMONE - `My Baby Just Cares for Me'; LOUIS ARMSTRONG - `West End Blues'; BILLIE HOLLIDAY - `Strange Fruit'; SERGIO MENDES - `Mas Que Nada'; DINAH WASHINGTON - `Mad About the Boy'; COUNT BASIE - `April in Paris'; LEE MORGAN - `The Sidewinder'; DAVE BRUBECK - `Take Five'; STAN GETZ - `Desafinado'; HERBIE HANCOCK - `Cantaloupe island'.



CD2: DIANA KRALL - `The Look of Love'; JAMIE CULLUM - `I Get a Kick Out of You'; MADELEINE PAYROUX - `Dance Me to the End of Love'; CHRIS BOTTI - `Drivetime'; NATALIE COLE - `My Baby Just Cares for Me'; CLAIRE MARTIN - `Everything Must Change'; CURTIS STIGERS - `But Not for Me'; STACEY KENT - `Makin' Whoopee'; COURTNEY PINE - `Tryin' Times'; GWYNETH HERBERT - `It's Alright With Me'; PETER CINCOTTI - `Sway'; CLARE TEAL - `I Just Want to Make Love to You'; WAYNE SHORTER - `Footprints'; JANE MONHEIT - `Surrender'; JACQUI DANKWORTH - `Blue Moon'; AMY WINEHOUSE - `There is No Greater Love'; LIZ WRIGHT - `Afro Blue'."