Album Review: Cliff Beach – You Showed Me The Way

Cliff Beach (vocals); Munenori 'Moon' Kishi (keyboards); Evan Mackey (lead trombone, music director); Ruben Salinas (baritone sax); Sam Williams (tenor sax); Luis Cardena-Casillas, Joe Ferruzzo (trumpet); Satoshi Kirisawa (drums); Andy Moresi (guitar); Leah Concialdi (baritone/alto saxes)

I could do worse than simply quote from the publicity sheet to describe what type of singer this guy is. 'This 'funky, soulful. swinging singer, pianist and composer sounds like he could be the love child of Ella Fitzgerald and Stevie Wonder'.

Cliff Beach is a graduate of Berklee College of Music who has released one album a year for the last 10 years. He is a native of Washington DC who learned harmony singing in church. He started his professional career in 2003 in Los Angeles and eventually performed with a 7-piece band and backing singers. He also works in radio and TV and has a voice stretching to more than 3 octaves, singing in the styles of jazz, soul, R&b, funk and neo-soul.

This album however, consists of jazz standards and one original song. The collection is dedicated to Ella Fitzgerald as the songs were all sung by her. However, not all the songs are in a truly jazz style. For instance the first track, That Old Black Magic, is funky with a keyboard sound that I'd describe as 'bubbly' and with lots of repetitive short phrases.

Many of the tracks are similar, especially in the first half of the album, then from about track 8, Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, jazz becomes more prominent. I'm Beginning To See The Light has some clever singing along with the drums; It's Alright With Me has a Latin accompaniment, a trumpet solo and then fours; You Showed Me The Way is sung as pure jazz; A-Tisket, A-Tasket is fun with scat singing, clapping and backing singers. The album is pleasantly rounded off with the original The Gift of tthe Blues, which (you've guessed) is bluesy with a fine baritone sax introduction.

To sum up, I found the first half of the CD confusing because of the mixture of styles, making some tracks rather 'busy' but the latter tracks were better listening. This is a CD which would be good as music at your next party and also the sort of music which would sound good at a venue such as Newcastle's Hoochie Coochie.

I haven't mentioned the instrumentalists because they sounded good and knew their stuff, so what can I add?

The album is available on all streaming platforms and physical CDs are available on BANDCAMP. Ann Alex

That Old Black Magic; Round Midnight; Love You Madly; How Long Has This Been Gong On?; Alright,OK You Win; Honeysuckle Rose; How High The Moon; Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most; I'm Beginning To See The Light; It's Alright With Me; You Showed Me The Way; A-Tisket, A-Tasket; The Gift Of The Blues.