Customer Reviews

Live at the Kennedy Center

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

 

 

I find it quite shameful that Amazon, as of this writing, does not provide track information or listening samples for this excellent and varied disc, so I will fill in some gaps:

Track) "Title" Composer(s) [Time]

1) "Like Someone in Love" Burke, J./VanHeusen, J. [4:46]

2) "Like a Lover" Bergman, A./Bergman, M./Caymmi, D./Motta, N. [6:09]

3) "Please Do Something" Carter, B. [5:40]

4) "Introduction to Commitment" [0:32]

5) "Commitment" Werner, K./Wickliffe, P. [7:07]

6) "Worried Over You" Nelson, S./Rose, F./Nelson, E. [5:15]

7) "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" Newman, Randy [6:22]

8) "Tryin' Times" Hathaway, D./Hutson, L. [4:58]

9) "Serrado" Caetano, Viana Djavan [5:02]

10) "Introduction to Twelve Tone Tune" [0:24]

11) "Twelve Tone Tune" Evans, W. J./Wickliffe, P. [4:13]

12) "Epilogue" Evans, B./Vitro, R. [5:35]

13) "Black Coffee" Burke, J. F./Webster, P. F. [9:09]

Vocals: Roseanna Vitro
Piano: Kenny Werner
Bass: Dean Johnson
Drums: Tim Horner

Album Credits
Engineer, Mastering, Mixing: Paul Wickliffe
Engineers: Michael Caplan and Chris Weal
Photography: John Abbott
Liner Notes: Jeff Levenson and Roseanna Vitro

This daring disc recorded from a live Kennedy Center concert vividly captures one of the most musical and expressive voices in jazz today accompanied by an equally impressive trio. Opening with the swinging "Like Someone in Love", Vitro and her trio find humor in the tart "Please Do Something", lament in the bluesy "Tryin' Times", and find their samba in the energetic "Serrado". The real gems in this concert are the arrangements of two Bill Evans numbers with newly added vocals. Here Kenny Werner shines on piano as he effortlessly negotiates unusual and striking changes and rhythms, with both the bassist Dean Johnson and drummer Tim Horner providing tight back-up and solid support. Vitro also rises to the challenge with her vocal dexterity and sensitivity, as much an instrumentalist with her voice as the musicians in her trio. This disc delights on many levels, and for listeners new to Vitro, will be a welcome and much-loved find.

There is a group of jazz singers which, on the one hand, is select, but on the other, is far too large. I'm thinking of singers such as Helen Merrill, Madeleine Eastman, Kitty Margolis, Nancy King, Rebecca Kilgore, Barbara Sfraga and Kendra Shank. Singers who stay in the jazz tradition. Singers who will not bend to the latest fad or trend. Singers who don't make a lot of money, and keep on plugging, anyway.

Roseanna Vitro is most certainly in this group. And that's what this album, recorded live at the Kennedy Center in September of 2005, is all about. This is an album, not of Great American Songbook standards (except for one, the set-opener, "Like Someone in Love"), but of songs written or made famous by such jazz persona as Betty Carter, Bill Evans, Carmen McRae and Peggy Lee.

Highlights: Ms. Vitro's scatting on "Please Do Something" and "Worried Over You", which sounds like Trane-like "inside and outside"; her cover of Donny Hathaway's "Tryin' Times", which sounds like an early-'70's jazz protest song reminiscent of Gil Scott-Heron or Eugene McDaniel; and her rendition of the very difficult-to-sing "Twelve Tone Tune."

Through it all, Ms. Vitro performs with an exuberance confined to the music itself. Yet, as she demonstrates with her husband, Paul Wickliffe's "Commitment", it's not always as easy as it sounds.

5 stars for anyone who can survive in this mode of music into the early 21st century with the elan and panache of Roseanna Vitro. RC