Customer Reviews

Ann Hampton Callaway

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amazing album. From the first song, which Ann Hampton Callaway co-wrote with Cole Porter (no small accomplishment), to the rest of the selections which span the great American songbook, the performances and arrangements are superb. Ms. Callaway's original composition of "Perfect" is a true inspiration lyrically and musically. Her performance of "How Deep Is the Ocean" by Irving Berlin is quite possibly the definitive version of this wonderful standard, infused with a breathy emotion and fire and longing. "Our Love is Here to Stay" by George and Ira Gershwin is joyfully rendered, with charm and intelligence. Ann Hampton Callaway's ability to arfully handle phrasing and nuance of meaning and emotion resounds in every song in this collection. She is a wonder, and this group of songs is impressive and heart-stirring. What a joy! Ann's voice calls up memories of Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and even Barbra Streisand-! -so varied and rich is it in this offering. If you truly appreciate vocal music, add this to your collection, dim the lights, light a few candles, and share Ann Hampton Callaway with someone you love.

No, the cd is not perfect. "Perfect" refers to the last cut on the cd, one written by Ms. Callaway, and one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. The rest of the cd does come awfully close to being perfect, however. Ann Hampton Callaway is much more than a singer -- she is an interpreter of music; an espouser of truth. "How Deep Is The Ocean" is my favorite version of the song -- a song that I frankly found a little tired before I heard Ms. Callaway sing it. One thing I feel about Ms. Callaway, is that whether she is singing a song she wrote herself, or a standard that's been sung hundreds of times by hundreds of other singers, for those moments that the song is emanating from her body (that beautiful voice doesn't just come from her mouth -- it's a force coming at you like a wave of energy from her whole person), it's pure Truth, as only Ann knows it. She's simply amazing. When Ann sings a song, it is her truth, and she is always able to make a believer out of me.

I came to this cd (and Ann Hampton Callaway) a few years late. I first discovered her on her 1999 "Easy Living" album. I liked that cd so much that I went in search of other releases by this artist. That's how I came to own this fantastic, exceptional cd. Not only are the song selections the kind of standards one just loves listening to over and over, but her delivery of the titles is simply outstanding. This woman has a truly beautiful vocal instructment. She should be as well known as Streisand or Sarah Vaughan or Dianne Reeves. She's that good; and lately I can't stop playing this ten year old album! It's worth a listen to.

And she swings like crazy. If her treatment of "Like Someone in Love" or "All the Things You Are" doesn't knock your socks off, you must not be wearing them. Ann's gifts invite comparisons with the likes of Cleo Laine, Diane Shuur, and other female vocal phenoms. And unlike some of them, she doesn't use the song merely as a "vehicle" for showing off sound, range, and phrasing. At the same time, I find this album a very mixed bag. Ann does have a tendency to overwhelm an evocative Rodgers&Hart ballad, as though she's going to "will" it into your consciousness with her musical rhetoric while unwittingly competing with the song's own charms (I confess I'm no Barbra fan). And the arrangements, replete with synthesizer and contrived interludes (even on "Like Someone"), occasionally get in the way, undercutting some of the exhilaration of the singer's inspired inventions.

This is my first Ann Callaway album, and I suspect she's "mellowed and matured" since this release of over 10 years ago. Now that the performer has proven she's a major contender in a large and highly contested field, perhaps she and her arranger can afford to reflect on the lessons of Mabel Mercer or Billie Holiday.

"Warmly engaging, awesomely intelligent, astonishingly down-to-earth and deftly swinging, Ann Hampton Callaway is the perfect antidote to the screeching histrionics and ho-hum blahs that often pass for singing in the Neurotic Nineties." ~ Rex Reed ~

Ann Hampton Callaway possesses a striking voice so full of heartfelt emotion that suits ideally with standards. Rex Reed on his Liner Notes further added that "Ann's three-octave-range is capable of soaring into a brilliant soprano or a lush contralto, depending on the demands of the material, and her musical intuition builds extraordinary harmonic riffs into a driving carousel of infectious rhythms." She does not only sing, she emotes and brings new life and meaning into each song.

Sammy Cahn, one of the best lyricists in the history of Great American Songbook, once commented: "I have never heard anyone like her--she is simply stupendous." Amen to that! Her readings of evergreens such as "Too Late Now," "A Time For Love," "My Romance/My Foolish Heart" and "How Deep Is The Ocean" are delivered with heartfelt emotion that make them all well-worth remembering with the passage of time. She left a lasting impression into each of these chestnuts with her own trademark of excellence in singing.

Listen with your undivided attention to the ingenuity of "I've Got The World On A String" where she used her versatile voice to mimic the sound of a tenor saxophone on its bridge as she engages in a musical conversation with alto saxophonist Jerry Dodgion, trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, pianist Michael Abene and drummer Kenny Washington.

I have never heard "Our Love Is Here To Stay" sung in catchy, infectious jazz samba rhythm until now. The result is a superbly-interpreted Gershwin classic with a new twist and flavor. And very tasteful at that! Kudos to a team of skilled musicians: Mike Renzi (piano/arranger), Jay Berliner (classical guitar), Chip Jackson (bass) and Terry Clarke (drums) for making this track a delightful treat. The same group of musicians played on "But Beautiful." Its Latin-tinged arrangement makes it one of the best versions of all-time. It is smooth, cool and ear-candy.

Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are" has been interpreted countless time with or without vocals, but Callaway gives a whole new meaning to it by singing its rarely-heard introductory verse. It is also a showcase of her incredible flair in scatting.

I have always thought that Kenny Rankin (Kenny Rankin Album) and Natalie Cole (Still Unforgettable (Amazon Exclusive Bonus Track)) delivered the very best renditions of Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen's gem of a song, "Here's That Rainy Day." Now I have added Callaway's interpretation, thus making it one of the best three vocal versions of all-time.

I had a great time listening to Ann Hampton Callaway's lifelong-dream-come-true-album and would like to recommend it to all vocal jazz fans. It's absolutely beautiful and a keeper!

I stumbled on Ann as I do so many others in my collection by reading the comments left by all who write these critique's. I have seldom been led in the wrong direction.
When I placed Ann on my CD Player in the many CD's of hers I have bought I have been knocked over.
She is everything from wonderful overwhelming blues vocals to Broadway and then singing the fine songs I listed to growing up in the 50 and 60's but secretly listening to those great singers my parents loved.
I think she is great and I enjoy every one of her venue's there is not a bad one.
I call it Ann surprise with some more talent you have been hiding.

For a while before the release of this album, Ann used to perform with Richard Rodney Bennett as her accompanist. Richard does not perform with her in this album, but he has collaborated in contributing exquisite orchestral arrangements to two tracks in a couple of her subsequent releases.

This is Ann's amazing debut album.

This eponymous album opens with "I Gaze in Your Eyes," a song to which Ann Hampton Callaway wrote the music to a previously never-performed Cole Porter lyric, one allegedly written to a soldier. Personally I believe that an album well-begun is an album half-done. Ann sets the musical bar so high with this first tune that in less capable hands the likelihood that these heights could be surpassed is at best slim. But, Ann tasks herself with rising to the challenge. She continues the album with songs mined from the Great American Songbook (GAS) and Ann proceeds to set that bar higher from track to track.

Although the body of the album is mostly from the GAS, Ann introduces one self-penned piece. Ms. Callaway's original composition, "Perfect," which is lyrically and musically heart-wrenching is a counter-balance to the flippant yet clever theme song to the TV show "The Nanny," a ditty that is not included in this release, but for which Ann has been famous and from which she has presumably received sizeable royalties from syndicated airplay.

It helps that in person Ann is infused with charm and intelligence, but that she is able to project this in a recording, is a feat in itself. She is a truly gifted singer who is endowed with great phrasing and with unique judgement to subtly bring to surface the nuance of oft-heard musical standards.

I unabashedly and unequivocally recommend this album.

.....follow it. it knows where it's going. that's how i found ann hampton callaway. i wasn't looking for her...i had never heard of her. i found mary cleere haran because i was looking for anyone who had recorded 'this heart of mine'....i was in a video/audio store one day in l994 and i found a cd called 'anwhere i wander -- liz callaway sings frank loesser'. i found it not because i knew what i was looking for. i found it because i let my taste...my feelings....my judgement do the searching. and when they they discovered what they knew i would want to own....they know me like they know my back ordered oscar peterson cds....and they knew that here was something special. i had never heard of liz callaway....i just trusted her taste because i figured how bad could she be if she chose to do a complete disc of frank loesser? her heart had to be full of the desire to express her respect and her admiration for mr. loesser's incredible contributions to a musical world made so much richer and warm all over by his talents. so i bought the cd. then, not too long ago i discovered that liz had a sister named ann hampton callaway and i figured...well...maybe there's a sibling rivalry here but that could result in two people growing, artistically, because they knew they would be open to a lot of comparisons. the cd i chose just happened to be ann hampton's (i feel i kind of know her on a first and middle name basis by now) debut adventure and that's how i have the cd called 'ann hampton callaway'....and you thought this was going to be your run of the mill 'i discovered her first' show biz story. there is something very nice about her. there is something very new and fresh and even original about her. and then there are the huge influences and suddenly she seems to want to be associated with those who inspired her and she, temporarily, gives up her originality to be THEM. but when she gets to 'my foolish heart' and 'i live to love'....forget about all the great ladies she feels she owes so much to....they did what they did and it's still there for us. now ann hampton callaway must do what she does best and it will be there for us and for her for a long time to come. there are times when her voice seems to be coming from another place...another space...another time. and maybe that's this spiritual thing that she absorbed in her dedication and love for ....well, just listen to her and you will hear them...but stay with it. you'll also get to hear something new and real and something so valuable....even the name 'ann hampton callaway' won't throw you off. she is an original. when she gets to know that....look out! she could really 'happen'.