Customer Reviews

After Hours

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

four and a half stars. probably, the best ever vocal version of "you go to my head": intoxicating. what lee does with her voice is amazing. but there are excellent versions of other standards like "caravan", "good-bye pork pie" "straight ahead" and "fire waltz". and though not on the level of "you go to my head", a very good version of "ev'ry time we say good-bye". all in all, an excellent album from beginning to end, with mal waldron's monk-esque, hipnotic, slow tempo piano as a perfect accompaniment to lee's unparalleled voice. forget diana krall and norah jones, here we have a true heavyweight. long linked to avant-garde music, lee passed away in 2001, leaving an unfortunately small repertoire of jazz recordings. i strongly recommend "after hours", i only wish she had recorded more albums of standards... finally, the sound quality is incredible. recorded in france in 1994.

Lovely voice of Jeanne Lee, willing to circle around the tones of Mal, giving him space and taking it back completely where wanted... A woman of strength and softness both.
Master Mal Weldron's tones in a romantic mood. The man who has the reach and approach with those very clear under- and upper- notes.. here giving the plateau of sound and inter-acting to the voice.. Hmm, sweet thing!

I am currently studying for a B. Mus in jazz vocals and accidentally stumbled across Jeanne Lee. I have never heard anyone speak of her. I find her approach to jazz to be refreshingly original and unpretentious, (unlike many jazz singers). In some undefined way this is definitely jazz singing and not just because of the song choices or the few scats. Her scatting on Caravan has a similar vibe to a person humming an improvised tune while out walking which I think is the way it should be. Really cool.

Lee's intonation and vocal agility are first class. Caravan and Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat are the stand-outs for me. The rest of the tracks leave me a bit cold, the accomponiment from Waldron is ok but I feel over-all the album lacks variation, it is only piano and vocals the whole way through and although a bit of colla voce is great, some of the tracks could have benefited from more rhythmic drive and vocal cut.