Customer Reviews

I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good

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Lisa Hearns is an up-and-coming jazz vocalist working mostly in NYC and Boston. The daughter of not one but two music professors, she is a graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music. Recorded in 2006, "I Got It Bad & That Ain't Good," is Ms Hearn's debut, and so far only album.

I'll be honest: I love altos; I like contraltos - particularly those ladies with a dark or brassy edge to their voices; but sopranos? Well, I can take 'em or leave 'em - and in Ms Hearn's case, I'll take her! To my ears, many sopranos sound "childish" - it just puts me off to listen to a vocalist singing about adult themes in the voice of a child. But Ms Hearn's voice is clearly the voice of a woman - it's clear and clean, with just a little breathiness and smoke in it - and when she moves to the lower register of her range, her voice takes on a lovely round mellow tone. Critic Chris Spector says that Ms Hearns has a "Doris Day, girl next store, kind of voice...." I second that observation, except that I'd call her the "woman next door."

"I Got It Bad..." is a set of ten songs, most of them standards, starting with the title song and including: "Easy Living," "Cheek to Cheek," "On the Street Where You Live" and "Cry Me a River." Ms Hearn's handles all of these songs with relaxed swinging ease. There aren't any surprises, unless you count a lovely, bluesy "I Heard It on the Grapevine," but there's nothing wrong with spending an hour with some old musical friends.

The band is excellent: Whether pianist Keith Ingrim is soloing or running the rhythm section, his work is outstanding; guitarist Howard Alden, who sits in on four songs, shows why he's been one of the best in the business for darn near 30 years; and bassist Kelly Friesen, (who does some beautiful bow work on "Lonely Woman") and drummer Arnold Wise are rock solid.

The sonics are fine: Ms Hearn's voice is crystal clear, front and center; there's good instrumental separation and there's lots of air under the instruments.

Born in Massachusetts, and a graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music, vocalist Lisa Hearns has established herself in the New York City area as a jazz vocalist of considerable note. On her album "I Got it Bad & That Ain't Good" (Quicksilver), she is backed by a trio of pianist Keith Ingham, bassist Kelly Friesen and drummer Arnold Wise, with guitarist Howard Arlen guesting on four of the ten songs and Friesen handling all of the arrangements.

The title track is a well known Duke Ellington classic and with the neat arrangement, the listener is easily enthralled by Ms Hearn's lovely voice and phrasing. At a time when some Billy Holiday soundalikes get noticed, Hearns takes "Easy Living," and makes the song as much as her own with Howard Arlen adding a nice acoustic guitar solo. Again she has such a lovely voice but also her sense of time and her phrasing is refreshing. The Motown classic "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," opens with her softly singing the vocal backed by Friesen's bass transforming the song into a indigo-laced lament.

Friesen's arrangement refreshes Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek," with a sprite tempo and a nice solo from Ingham and she cleanly negotiates the tempo changes placed in the arrangement. Cole Porter's "Love For Sale," has a bluesy tinge in her vocal here while the blues is even more pronounced on the Horace Silver-Leonard Feather blue-ballad "Lonely Woman," while her delivery on the bossa nova, "Wild is Love," is equally delightful. After another enchanting swinger, "On the Street Where You Live," she closes with the classic lament "Cry Me a River," again taking a familiar song and placing her own stamp on it.

"Cry Me a River" concludes a superb release that hopefully will introduce many to a marvelous singer with a lovely voice, matched by her clean intonation, phrasing and feeling that she brings to a collection of well known songs yet she makes them sound new.

This review appeared originally in the April 2009 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 315) and I have made minor edits. As far as stars, I would give it 4 or 4 1/2, but I try to be somewhat conservative most times in the stars department. It will be on my blog, [].