(Review by Ann Alex)
I was fascinated
to read that this singer works as a dentist. What is it about jazz that
attracts the medical profession? Quite a few local musicians are doctors – is
it the fact that jazz is maybe a more numerate and scientific type of music
that encourages clinicians to play? In
fact, our singer is quoted as saying ‘The creativity demanded by a fluid jazz arrangement
is no less than what is required for the art of dentistry.’ Interesting! I must persuade my dentist to take up the
saxophone. I digress, but maybe this is a talking point for BSH. Anyway, our
singer performs throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts and this is his third
album since 2011. The album is a collection of Gasbook standards, mixed with a
couple of more modern songs and two songs of American patriotism.
Night And Day is sung to a Latin guitar accompaniment, No One Ever Tells You is a blues sung to
a saloon piano accompaniment, The Way You
Look Tonight features a ska beat, The
Coffee Song (about all the coffee in
Brazil) is a Latin number with amusing
lyrics such as ‘a politicians daughter was accused of drinking water’. One of
my favourite tracks is Leonard Cohen’s Dance
Me to the End of Love, done as a sinuous klezmer tune played on saxophone. The
rest of the tracks were: You Make Me Feel
So Young; Orange Colored Sky; Come Rain Or Come Shine.
One of the tracks that
intrigued me was The Sound Of Music,
not my favourite song, and nor was it helped by rather sentimental backing
singers and a melodica solo. Then came the last 2 tracks, in which the speech
about ‘Give me your poor from all nations’ etc was spoken. I’d enjoyed the rest
of the CD so I could deal with this, but I was dreading the final track, which
was the Battle Hymn Of The Republic.
But guess what? I loved this version, it was rock-influenced, with guitars,
saxes and percussion, a tasteful down to earth way of interpreting the song,
and an interesting way to conclude an enjoyable listening experience.
The CD was
self-released on March 18 and is available at all fine online retailers. See www.stevelipmanmusic.com
Ann Alex (contract not yet terminated. Perhaps you can’t manage without me!)
Steve Lipman
(vocals) + (on various tracks): Dan Thomas
(electric guitar); Colin Jalbert (drums); J Witbeck, Reed Sutherland (bass);
John Corda, Zach Cross (piano); Nick Borges (trumpet); Steve Yarbro, Ryan Emken
(sax); Ryan Palkoff, Kathryn Rapacki (trombone); Nate Christy, Ben Falkoff
(acoustic/electric guitars); Sara Hill (violin); Dan Prindle (cello, piano,
bass); Mary Corso, Beth Harvey (backing vocals); Jimmy Robitaille (percussion);
Glen Nelson (melodica); Jim Arment (clarinet)
2 comments :
Yes, Ann, you're still on the team. As it happens, I've got a dental appointment this afternoon. If I'd had your review earlier I'd have booked a flight to Connecticut or Massachusetts and have Steve perform whatever procedure is needed. Perhaps he could put me to sleep with a lullaby instead of an anaesthetic...
If you want a Jazz playing dentist try the Denmark Street Dental Practice in Gateshead. The first time I went there the background music was Bessie Smith singing Give Me a Pig's Foot etc. Naturally I got chatting with Neil Paterson,the senior partner once he had finished torturing me and he explained that on quiet days he played jazz saxophone. I have never been there on a quiet day so haven't heard him play but the background music soothes me.
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