The Royal Bopsters are the latest in a lineage that dates back to the Boswell Sisters via the Four Freshmen, Hi-Los, LHR and Man Tran. They don't let their predecessors down but come up with harmonies that are rich and full and arrangements that are as multi-textured as a vanilla layer cake and twice as tasty.
A typical example is How I Love You which was arranged by Pramuk and features him on a vocalese version of Dexter Gordon's solo on I Love You For Sentimental Reasons.
But Not For Me is an absolute gem of close harmony singing at its jazziest - including the verse which could have stood alone!
Sheila Jordan pops up on Lucky To Be Me and, as Shakey once wrote, "Age cannot wither nor custom stale her infinite variety". The same could also apply to Bob Dorough on Baby, You Should Know it. This must surely have been his last recording (he died in 2018) and yet there is no indication in his sparkling and witty vocal that suggests anything was untoward.
Holli Ross's feature, Quando Te Vea, also has McGuinness blowing "mouth trombone". Pete's vocal moment comes on Harold Arlen's My Shining Hour - just one of the many outstanding moments on an album that's as cool as a crew cut was when a crew cut was cool - a 52nd St. barber shop - and yet as modern as tomorrow!
Love it!
Available Nov. 13 on Motéma Records.
Lance
But Not For Me; On a Misty Night/Gipsy; How I Love You; Lucky To Be Me; Why'd You Do Me the Way You Did?; Day Dream; Cuando Te Vea; Baby, You Should Know it; Our Spring Song; Rusty Dusty Blues; Infant Eyes; My Shining Hour.
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