Back in 2011 I interviewed Erin after hearing her album Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast. I was knocked out then and I'm reeling again listening to this new one. Erin, a founder member of Man Tran, finishes her European tour tomorrow night (Sunday March 19) at London's legendary '606' Club. Talk about Blues to be There!Track 1: Erin Girl For Rhythm//Jumping With Symphony Sid. A clever merging of the two riff tunes with Erin sounding smoky and swingy. The nightclub chanteuse/the girl next door. All but two of the tracks on Vignette has Erin accompanied by a sole multi-instrumentalist - in this case - Paul Jost, a world class singer himself who pitches in on drums, vocal bass and harmonica.
Track 2: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight: Bob Dylan is becoming a more and more frequent name on these pages. Danny Levin is Erin's companion on this one providing piano, violin, cello and keyboards - ah! the beauty of multi-tracking. Listening to Erin singing the emotive words I can tell her straight that I'd love to be her baby tonight...
Track 3: Jackie. Remember the Annie Ross take on Wardell Gray's Twisted? 'course you do. Well, Annie followed that up with this one, also based on a Wardell solo. Erin does it justice with only Bruce Hamada on bass for support. Faultless.
Track 4: O Grande Amor. A Jobim song, David Friedman on vibes and Erin singing in Portuguese. She sounds like she was born with coffee in her veins. Time for some java myself...
Track 5: Came So Far For Beauty. We've had Dylan and Jobim and, now Leonard Cohen who's another guy turning up quite regularly these days. John Lissauer on piano, sax and keyboards makes me wonder what the rate is for all these doubles, trebles etc!
Track 6: Which Way Steinway. The collaborator on this one is composer, pianist, bassist, guitarist, A.J. Croce (son of Jim and Ingrid). The tune is an out and out swinger with the pair displaying their jazz chops to the world.
Track 7: A Bicyclette: Sung in French, Erin sounds like she was born with Burgundy in her veins.
and, on piano, Rob Mounsey provides the aperitif.
Track 8: Wonderful World. Not the Louis Armstrong hit but the earlier Sam Cooke classic. A superb song with Steely Dan guitarist Elliott Randall along with Steve Donnelly (acc. guitar); 'Level' Neville Malcolm (bass); Andy Treacey (drums) and, of course, Erin singing that catchy opening verse;
Don't know much about Geography, Don't know much about Biology, Don't know much about Science books, Or the French I took, But I do know that I love you etc.
Track 9: Black Trombone. A big band setting with the Zaremba Jazz Fellowship and trombone solos by Brian Woodbury. Leader Drew Zaremba plays piano and clarinet, Erin sings once more in French and the band have a wonderful 1930s feeling.
Track 10: We'll Be Together Again. The Frankie Laine/Catl Fischer opus has Erin and pianist Stef Scaggieri combining for a beautiful reading of one of my favourite songs.
If only I wasn't convalescing, If only I was in London tomorrow night at the '606'. But I'm not even in Newcastle for our own hot ticket gig SSBB at Hoochie Coochie which is equally unmissable.
Lance.
Samples/Purchase - release date March 31.
2 comments :
Hello Lance, Just to wish you the best for your convalescence, hope to see you back at the Globe soon.
Thank you Ann, you are most kind but, this posst isn't about me, it's about Erin Dickins who is a very fine singer indeed and a model for any aspiring vocalists.
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