See Faux Go

NEW ALBUM PICKS

Aha. I have some cool album picks that I'd like to recommend.

1. Maroon 5: It Won't Be Soon Before Long.

Of course, it would be nuts if you don't own their other album called Songs About Jane with the classic "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love". This album is a must-have. Their second try also does NOT disappoint. Stellar songs include "Won't Go Home Without You" and "Goodnight Goodnight and the sad, "Better That We Break". I like the rest of the songs---so well produced and fun to listen to.

2. Emilie-Claire Barlow: Tribute

I have to also interject that Barlow's other CD entitled Like A Lover is equally satisfying. It seems an anchrony that Barlow's girlish voice is actually a jazz instrument so finely tuned it simply demands attention. Que barbaridad! Listen closely to her cover of Sting's "La Belle Dame Sans Regret" when she breaks into a duet with the piano. Every note is dead, spot-on technically and aesthetically perfect it's insane--nevermind that the demanding and technically difficult improv is filled with impossible grace notes and runs that she perfectly mimics vocally. Casi na! She is my new favorite jazz singer. The only other female jazz singer who is her contemporary that I would recommend is my #3 pick.

3. Jane Monheit: Surrender

She rocks! I believe that outside of Brazil, Monheit has to be the true ambassador of the Samba. Listen to her duet with Ivan Lins singing in beautiful Portuguese, Rio de Maio. Oooh la la! Beautiful. Her cover of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed" is a wonder to behold, if you can pardon my dumb pun. Her slower, more emotional cover of the classic Brazil 66 song, "Like A Lover" is heart-wrenchingly haunting. Okay, I just love every song on this album.

4. Florante Aguilar: Tipanan: A Celebration of Filipino Guitar

Yes, he is Filipino...and how! This album, a collection of Filipino love songs known as "kundiman" is so romantic that after listening to his guitar interpretations, I am taken back to the days of yore when pretty Filipina maidens used to be serenaded outside their window by a heartsick suitor carrying a guitar and a hope that she will open her window, light a candle and gift him a smile. Those scenes definitely and definitively trump John Cuzack holding up his boombox outside Ione Skye's window in the movie "Say Anything". This is definitely worth the investment.

5. Kenny Barron and Stan Getz: People Time (Live from Copenhagen, 1991)

Nothing, absolutely nothing, can trump Barron's piano and Getz's saxophone duet in "Night and Day". It was as if the jazz gods generously sprinkled fairy dust on this moment and created this perfect melding of piano and sax embodied in a familiar melody. Wow. Wow. Wow. Now, turn off the lights, pump the volume, close your eyes and listen to "First Song". I thought I was going to swoon. This collection, recorded live, memorializes an enchanted night of pure, heavenly jazz. It's as close to Copenhagen, 1991, I can get. And I'm not complaining.