Recorded live at Washington's Blues Alley, Echoes of Era Redux features Crockett recreating songs from Chaka Khan's legendary 1982 album Echoes of Era. This was an album where Chaka dipped her toes into the jazz tub and didn't get scalded. As Alison, who was knocked out by the album says of Chaka, 'She didn't sound like a jazz singer but nor did she sound like a funk singer either. She sounded like herself. That's what I tried to do.'
I think she does exactly that.
Her other inspiration was her father's record collection which was large and eclectic and Echoes of Era was one that she pulled out at random and the project was born.
Them There Eyes is a raunchy romp with great solos from Wilson and Carr. An interlude (Origin Story) follows in which Alison describes her early introduction to jazz.
I Hear Music has more fine trumpet from Wilson with Carr following up with some hard blowing tenor and some frenetic scatting from Alison. Bass gets a chorus or two too.
Another interlude (Thousands of Times) brings up All of me and Take the A Train. More scatting and band solos. Straight down the middle swing with a nod towards r'n'b by the tenor man on the former. Piano and bass cool things down before seguing into the latter number. Trumpet solo wouldn't have been out of place in Duke's band. Tenor solo likewise. Piano likewise. Scat fours - maybe...
Next interlude (How I Grew up) took us to I Get a Kick Out of You. By this stage I was starting to slightly tire of the scatting - a little goes a long way. However the mellow solo by Carr - had he switched to flugel? - made up for it.
The next interlude (I Learned This From Chaka Khan) brought in Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most. Beautifully sung with just piano accompaniment.
The penultimate interlude (Chick Corea's Presence) was another blast by Alison on Highwire - the Aerialist with the trumpet player making like his namesake (Thad).
The final interlude (Here's the Band) was a brief intro to the band. Lance
Available Oct. 20. LISTEN.
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