CD Review: Beverley Church Hogan - Can't Get Out of This Mood

Beverley Church Hogan (vocals); John Proulx (piano); Ron Stout (trumpet/flugel); Graham Dechter (guitar); Doug Webb (flute/tenor sax); Lyman Medeiros (bass); Clayton Cameron (drums); Kevin Winard (perc.)

(Review by Lance).

Singers seem to go on forever. Some, like vintage wine, improve with age. Others work on well past their sell-by date. Few, however, begin their recording career aged 83!

Bev Hogan did just that! After spending her early/mid-teens gigging around Montreal she relocated to Los Angelos where a recording contract with Capitol Records was up for grabs. Unfortunately, this would have also involved an intensive touring schedule and she was now married with a one-year-old child...

So, motherhood and family building took over and music was relegated to, if not a back seat, a non-performing one for the next 40 years.

In 2002, Beverley sang at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood and, suddenly, her once-promising career was back on track and, finally, aged 83, she recorded her first album!

I listened to the album before reading the notes (I just glanced at the sleeve) and I was knocked out by this sophisticated lady who, I guessed, was maybe approaching middle-age from a distance - I was falling foolishly in love - if only I was younger.... then I read the notes, Beverley Church Hogan was even older than me.

Listening again, with hindsight, I realised the phrasing, the reading of the lyric could only come from someone who'd grown up with the GASbook as a second bible - the maturity shines through - age certainly hasn't withered her voice and I wondered what she must have sounded like and what would have happened if she'd signed up for that Capitol deal.

As it is, this will do nicely, thank you very much.

Apart from the great vocals, the band is also brilliant. Proulx did the arrangements and the solos from Stout and Webb put the icing on a very tasty cake indeed!

Lance.

Take my Breath Away; Losing My Mind; You're Looking at me; Can't Get Out of This Mood; Wait Till You See Him; I Know You by Heart; I'm Through With Love; Speak Low; Stuck in a Dream; Time After Time.