This album consists of six non-jazz songs from the past which were specially chosen by Ms Segal-Garcia for their social meaning. Firstly we have For What It's Worth (Stephen Stills), a protest song of the 1960s, short effective bursts of song, ending with a recording of a protesting crowd. This is followed by an original song from our singer, What Are We Gonna Do?, about finding which road to follow in order to put things right, with guitar and percussion moving the song along.
And So It Goes (Billy Joel) is a duet sung by Ms Segal-Garcia with Paul Jost speaking his lines alternately, concerning the working out of a love affair. Peter Gabriel's Down To Earth has interesting lyrics about the evolution of the human race; Get Together (Chet Powers) is combined with Can't Find My Way Home (Steve Winwood) and is sung with feeling to a rippling piano. The final track, Save The Children, (Marvin Gaye, Al Cleveland, Renaldo Benson) is about environmental issues, as suggested by the title.
Ms
Segal-Garcia has a pleasing full-toned voice and the instrumentalists do their
stuff well, with a good jazz feel, especially from piano and guitar. However I
preferred some tracks more than others. For instance the Billy Joel song (I
admit that Joel is not my favourite lyricist, too self-indulgent) was too
dramatic for my taste, with the vocals almost musical theatre style, and the
final track was a missed opportunity, rather overdone. Interested readers must
listen and judge for themselves.
Ms Segal-Garcia is a prolific recording and performing jazz artist who is a mainstay of the Los Angeles jazz scene. This is her 14th CD as leader and she has chosen to work with notable musicians from the Southern California jazz community.
The
album is available here, there and everywhere. -
Ann
Alex
No comments :
Post a Comment