Ask a Woman Who Knows (Hybr) (Ms) [Hybrid SACD - DSD]

Natalie Cole | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 29, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
• Label: Umvd Labels
• ASIN: B00006F1OR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,533 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do

2. Tell Me All About It

3. Ask a Woman Who Knows

4. It's Crazy

5. You're Mine, You

6. So Many Stars

7. I Told You So

8. Soon

9. I'm Glad There Is You

10. Better Than Anything

11. The Music That Makes Me Dance

12. Calling You

13. My Baby Just Cares for Me

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Natalie, September 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Ask a Woman Who Knows (Audio CD)

Beginning as an Aretha Franklin clone, then sliding into her own soulful niche, graduating into contempoary pop and then moving into the rarified atmosphere of pop standards, Natalie Cole has repeatedly reinvented herself as an artist, with each incarnation upping the ante of quality and range. Now she's a jazz singer with a splendidly arranged and produced album propelled by a superior selection of songs which, though most are from the past, sound totally of today. She's savvy, she's wise, she's smart, she's sassy, she's smooth and once again she's moved forward. This splendid album will, by word of mouth, take in big sales and go on to garner big honors. Never standing still, never content to settle in one place, Natalie once again has charged ahead with dazzingly results.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A WOMAN WHO CERTAINLY DOES KNOW!, September 17, 2002

By 

David (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ask a Woman Who Knows (Audio CD)

Being a huge fan of Natalie Cole's but not a huge fan of jazz, I was sort of apprehensive about buying this cd. But, after one complete listen, I must say it is a joy. Her voice can be one part seductive, one part gritty, one part, playful, one part tearful....she is simple DIVINE! This is an album with very few fast paced songs....this one is one to listen to on a rainy day with a loved one and candles....to me all the songs are standouts in their own way! If you want to escape into her world...go for it! If you want all upbeat songs, this one may dissapoint you....

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like fine wine -- getting better with age!, January 10, 2005

By 

Mark Blackburn (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ask a Woman Who Knows (Audio CD)

An old friend emailed me today to say that, at that very moment, her husband was listening to this version of "The Music That Makes Me Dance" --- my favorite performance of an almost forgotten Bob Merrill song.

And who was Bob, you ask? Well Merrill wrote musicals that deserved to succeed (such as "Take Me Along" Jackie Gleason, Walter Pigeon) plus some fifties 'gimmick' songs like "How Much is that Doggie in the Window? . . . and, eventually, such magnificences as "People" (with Jule Styne). Where was I? Oh yes, Natalie Cole.

To my ears, this beautiful woman is best songstress since Ella Fitzgerald, who as everyone-should-know-by-now was the female equivalent to Frank Sinatra -- the greatest-ever interpreters of the Great American Song Book.

What would Nat Cole say of this album? I close my eyes and see Nat nodding in agreement, that his daughter's voice is even more beautiful, athletic and expressive than his own.

Nat was of course a jazz giant who played better piano than practically anyone (other than Oscar and Bill). But I believe in my heart he would agree his little girl turned out to be an even better singer.

Some specifics about this wonderful album, Natalie's "best yet" (and there've been three great ones before this). For those who may still care "Who wrote that song?" this album could have used some liner notes! (So here are mine.)

1. "I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do" - from Lee Pockriss & Paul Vance, who wrote some popular hits in the 50s including "Catch a Falling Star" (first Number 1 for Perry Como) plus bits of fluff like "Johnny Angel" (for Shelly Fabares) and the much better "My Little Corner of the World." (Oh yes, and who could forget their "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"?) Well the Pockriss/Vance `estate' has waited four decades for someone of Natalie's magnitude to finally do justice to this previously uncovered gem. Strong melody, great lyrics!

2. "Tell Me All About It" - Pretty Bossa Nova tune; what follows, however, is more substantial:

3. "Ask a Woman Who Knows" - Title track written by Vic Abrams. (Who is/was Vic? No list of songwriters up to 1995 lists him!) Talk about a 'Standard-Just-Waiting-to-Happen.'

4. "It's Crazy" - Co-written by comedian Timmie Rogers---a childhood friend of Nat Cole's in the 1930s who talked Earl "Fatha" Hines' band arranger (Cecil Irvwin) into parting with a copy of an arrangement (of Hine's theme song "Rosetta") which Rogers handed over to his ever-grateful, teenaged friend "Nathaniel Coles" (correct, Coles with an `s'). It's so fitting that Nat's daughter chooses to introduce this undiscovered gem from 1926 to a 21st Century audience. The brass arrangement here by John Clayton is utterly new and fresh---unlike anything you've heard before.

5. "You're Mine You" - Another 'Should-Have-Been-a-Standard' written by Johnny (Body & Soul) Green and a great 1930s lyricist, Edward Heyman.

6. "So Many Stars" - A Brazilian 60s hit for Sergio Mendes and the Bergmans (Alan and Marilyn); this treasure never received better treatment. If you're young, and you've never heard this one before, well---how I envy you!

7. "I Told You So" - Amazing! Natalie introduces yet another 'standard-waiting-in-the-wings.' (Who is composer Duncan Lamont? He's gifted, that's for sure!) Six years after Sinatra's passing, who but Natalie could have done this song so well?

8. "Soon" - I Love a Gershwin tune, how about you? And who but Natalie, to pluck from relative obscurity this seldom-played gem.

9. "I'm Glad There Is You" - A haunting Jimmy Dorsey/Paul Madeira Latin-influenced ballad from 1941--- ignored by everyone since the fifties. (Old-timers will immediately recognize this beautiful tune.) This time the orchestra is arranged by the (almost) incomparable Alan Broadbent. (If Sinatra were still with us, he'd be doing albums with Alan.)

10. "Better Than Anything" - A refreshingly new jazz waltz devoted to, of all things-`Women Shopping.' Guest Diana Krall seems in perfect agreement that spending money is the best thing in life ("better than honey on bread, better than breakfast in bed"----lyrics Cole Porter could have written and would have loved).

11. "The Music That Makes Me Dance" - Written by the "People" people---Jule Styne and Bob Merrill (for 1964's "Funny Girl").

12. "Calling You" - The saddest, most melancholy song here: Alas, a forgettable melody by someone named Robert Telson: I defy you to hum this tune---no matter how many times you play it! (The only weak link on the entire album.)

13. "My Baby Just Cares For Me" - The only standard here whose title is immediately recognizable----from Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn (introduced in long-ago 1930 by Eddie Cantor). A playful arrangement with deep, swinging syncopation --- from great (young) musicians who would have been loved by Nat and Frank, and Ella - the only singers who could have delivered these songs so well as 'Nat's little girl.' To borrow from my favorite lyric here:

"I know she's around, when the sky and the ground started ringing
I know that she's here by the thunder I hear in advance!
Her words, and her words alone, are the words that can start my heart singing
And hers is the only music that makes me dance!"