Customer Reviews

Afterglow

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

 

 

Why do I gravitate towards impossibly slow music? Because Kendra Shank makes the experience lovelier. This debut album found Shank in a less cloudy voice (she was a bit like Betty Carter in her 2000 release) and her voice just hits you right away. There is a slight Janis Siegel-clarity to her phrasing, and she prefers the slow-burning songs that you can find in any Shirley Horn recording (small wonder that Shirley Horn endorsed this album wholeheartedly). Shank's voice is not like most contemporary female jazz singers carrying the neo-traditional torch, but she is a striking contrast to Diana Krall's smokiness, Cassandra Wilson's fogginess, Stacey Kent's reediness or Norah Jones's soporific honeyed tones. Shank has this voice that can be heard when everything is quiet around the house and her singing voice can be likened to a musical conversation -- as if she is speaking about laundry in that deliberate and caramel-minus-the-fluff voice. Best of all, she draws upon from the rarely-heard repertoire like the title track to Jobim's "Meditation". She may be too slow for others (but so is Norah Jones), but her deliberate slowness will not make you contemplate suicide the way Helen Merrill's later outputs can. Shank's albums are released in indie labels but once you get to see an album of hers, snatch up one. It will not make you forget others but it will make you love someone else.

I was searching Amazon's Mapleshade catalog when I saw this CD ranked with two stars and clicked to find the review below. Talk about hyper-critical. I wonder if there is any music that stands up to such clinical analyis. I have owned this CD for a year and listen to it frequently. Comprised mostly of ballads, the pace is a little slow, but Ms. Shank's voice has a lovely tone and the backing trio of Larry Willis (piano), Steve Novosel (bass) and Steve Williams (drums) perform to their usual high standard. The recording, like nearly all Mapleshade productions is truly exceptional. I find myself tapping my toe on Paris Bossa, one of the few up-tempo numbers and feel Ms. Shank conveys emotion quite well on Almost Blue. My criteria: Does the music move me? Yes. Does it sound good? Yes, indeed. Highly recommended.

This was Ms. Shank's first album, but the last one of the three I've heard. It is nothing like "Wish" or "Reflections". Rather, it is a consistently romantic album, with lovely cuts such as "Almost Blue", "There's Never Been a Day" (with a sensitive addition of Gary Bartz' alto), "Tes Yeux Bemol", "Left Alone" and the title cut. Ms. Shank sounds like Miles Davis (of the Gil Evans era) throughout, and the feel of this album is like a firelit cabaret and cheek-to-cheek slow dancing (except for "Devil May Care", which seems oddly out of place here). She was not really to return to this style again, finding a different voice ultimately with a different quartet--but this is a wonderful voice nevertheless, and of her three albums, best displays her prowess on the acoustic guitar. I write this on Valentine's Day, and this album is recommended for this day!

PERFORMANCE - A; RECORDING - A

I came upon this recording looking for Mapleshade recordings, after hearing a cut on the Mapleshade sample. This is Ms. Shank's first recording, and the only one I have so far, but based on this amazing beginning, I will buy whatever else she has recorded.

First of all, she has (or had on this recording) an uterly gorgeous voice. Notes reflect her meticulous training, but her phrasing is superbly sensuous without being wanton. Her guitar accompanying herself is excellent as well, and when you realize these were recorded in true Mapleshade fashion -- two mikes and one take, no equalizer or overdubbing, there is absolutely nothing between the listener and the performers. Gary Barz and Larry Willis join her on this CD and Willis' piano is as elegant as I've ever heard him.

My wife and I have had this CD a week, and we've listened to it a total of 5 times. Each time gives us an opportunity to discover something new about this fine performance. Listen to it with someone you love -- who has a good ear!

I too was moved to write a review of this CD by the review below. I too initially found Mapleshade because of its painstaking and minimalist approach to recording and mastering. I have to say that I find the vocals on this CD along with those on "Sunny" by Sunny Sumter, aslo on Mapleshade, to be as good or better than any recorded vocals I have come across. The sense of immidiacy is amazing. I also enoy the music a great deal. It is by and large an intimate feeling recording. I find Kenrda Shank's voice to convey a nice sense of emotion and feeling and the song choices generally showcase her style well. I would whole heartedly recommend this disc for any fan of small club sounds vocal jazz and for any audiophile looking for an impressive recording with wonderful small jazz ensemble and vocal sound. For reference my system: Musical Fidelity A3cr separates and A3 CD, JM Lab Micro Utopia speakers, all Audio Magic cabling.

Another top Mapleshade recording. The songs are quiet and soothing and wonderfully recorded. Have listened over and over without tiring - Great late evening listening!

I have attempted to listen to this album on several occasions with the hope that after getting accustomed to Ms. Shank's voice I would start to enjoy the album. Well....it did not happen. The album's pace is painfully slow, her phrasing is so deliberate that I find myself dosing off waiting for the next word to come out of her mouth. Her voice for me, is just to plain. I do not hear any emotion in it. The upside to the album is that the recording is outstanding. It however does not overcome the bordom that comes over me while listening. I have heard very "live like" recordings of birds chirping but it does not do much for me either.

I have three other mapleshade recordings, Larry Willis, Walter Booker and Sunny Sumter. All three are outstanding. You may want to give these a listen before trying out Ms. Shank.

Winters must be pretty long in upstate NY. Perhaps there are some test-pattern CDs available for that listener...all the better to provide analysis of copper wiring, etc.. As for MUSIC, listen to Larry Willis! Larry is from a line of genius but un-sung jazz pianists (Ronnie Matthews, Harold Mabern, John Hicks) who really PLAY.This one isn't his best...he's carrying the vocalist...but it's worth a spin..then go into the catalog and get more Willis!

There are two basic considerations in recorded music: how good is the music, and how good is the recording? The enjoyment of music, even great music, is diminished if the quality of the recording is compromised. That's why I am such a big fan of Mapleshade Records, whose recordings (as to the engineering or sound-quality) are almost always GREAT. I wish all record companies cared as much about sound quality! However, SOME of the Mapleshade records--including this one--are not so great musically (at least for my tastes).

This CD has excellent sound-quality, but I have a hard time listening to the music. I have a little concern about its tempo and the song selection, but the biggest problem is that Shank sings just a bit off pitch throughout most of the record--and it annoys. This is an excellent recording of an off-key performance.

I got this CD for three reasons: 1) it was on Harry Pearson's list of super CDs (on the website at The Absolute Sound), 2) I was excited by the painstaking audiophile engineering I read about on Mapleshade's website (live mastering to two-track analog tape at 15 inches per second, no mixing board, filtering, or equalization, etc.), and 3) I thought I would enjoy the music. A good bit of the reputation of this CD seems to hang upon the way Kendra Shank's voice has been caught, but I don't think this is a good reason to buy it. First of all, there is the voice itself, which is not very characterful. I wanted to like it. I thought Shank looked pretty in her picture on the back cover. And if you ran across her in a little coffeehouse somewhere you would probably find her pleasant enough, but I don't think she stands up to repeated listening. Her voice too often verges on thinness and even flatness when she sings a sustained note, and when she sings softly (about half the time) she tends to croon instead of supporting the note. Every now and then, admittedly, she surprises you with a nice bit of bloom. But I think the most successful track on the album is "Paris Bossa," precisely because there are almost no sustained notes in the song. Even if you are interested in the album purely from the audiophile point of view ("music be damned--let me listen to the *recording*"), I would caution you. True, this sounds unlike most commercially released CDs, but that is not necessarily a good thing. Shank's voice at first struck me as being unusually immediate and forward on the soundstage, but I soon decided that there was something amiss with it. I think maybe Pierre Sprey (the engineer) has got the mike placed too closely or is using the wrong mike for the job. I'm not really sure, but I know that when I listen I find myself focusing on the sound of the mike as much as on the sound of the voice. Here and there mildly annoying sibilance intrudes, and throughout most of the proceedings there is a hint of what sounds to me like overload. In places the sound even reminded me faintly of what you'd get on a portable cassette player. Strong words, I know, but that's what I felt. I couldn't help wondering whether Sprey is an amateur in the bad sense of the word. The sound of the instrumental ensemble, however, is a different story, and as long as Shank is not singing, this cd is something pretty special. Yes, there are a few places where the sound of the performance space--although it may be captured realistically--is not particularly flattering. (I am a little bothered by it, for example, on the drums at the beginning of "Paris Bossa.") But mostly the instruments sound stunningly good, and the piano in particular is caught well, which is no mean feat. All things considered, though, I still prefer the engineering (and the singing) on Shirley Horn's "You Won't Forget Me." For the curious, my system is hardly high-end, but it's not chopped liver either: AMC CD-8 cd player, NAD C-340 integrated amp, and PSB original Alpha speakers; the interconnect is an Apature Poly A/V, and the speakers are hooked up with generic 12-gauge copper wire.