Customer Reviews

Love Is Good for Anything That Ails You

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This is the second Gibson CD I own. If you are a fan of jazz from the 1920s and 30s played in the New Orleans style, this CD will be an excellent addition to your collection. Great for sitting back and enjoying in an easy chair on a hot summer evening.

This CD is a tremendous accomplishment by Banu Gibson and her fine band. Based in New Orleans, Banu leads a tight band that pays fine tribute to jazz music released in the early 1900's. For this recording, the band put together a treasure chest of arrangements. The title cut kicks it off - Love Is Good For Anything. The horn section really sparkles on this and many of the cuts. Listen to the work of trumpet player Duke Heitger - for my money, one of the hardest working musicians in New Orleans. Duke's solos are full of emotion and evoke memories of the best trumpet players from the Crescent City. This CD includes some classics e.g., My Melancholy Baby and As Time Goes By (both done very well) as well as other familiar and obscure tunes. All in all, this is an excellent compilation of tunes, guaranteed to get your foot tapping and lift your spirits. When someone says "they sure don't make music like that anymore", now you can respond "Banu does...here, give it a listen".

One of the few newer popular jazz singers worth listening too today(the other being Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers). Banu Gibson is a 1920's oriented vocaist who sings in the genere of a 20's flapper, but without copying anyone, she is creative, and has a great New Orleans style backup band. You won't hear any dated boop-bbop-a-doo or yodeling here, just good 20's style jazz singing in the Annette Hanshaw tradition as apposed to the Helen Kane or Lee morse tardition. Banu's voice is beautiful, and vintage sounding, making her a hit at trad and dixieland festivals everywhere. On this CD released on her own Swing Out label Banu spreads her wings on some standards from the 1930's for a change(instead of 20's), in one song "Me Minus You" she re-creates a Boswell Sisters effect by overdubbing her voice. Although we really don't need more versions of "As Time Goes By" and "My Ideal," Banu more then makes up with such rarites as Mildred Bailey's "Junk Man," Billie Holiday's & Helen Ward's "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo" and "Wrap Your Cares In Rhythm & Dance." It is a nice change to hear Banu sing some 30's tunes, and uplift these standards with her wonderful voice. Easily recommended to fans af classic jazz, and if you like Lee Wiley, Connee Boswell, Mildred Bailey, Ethel Waters, et. al. you won't be disapointed in Banu Gibson, although she doesn't copy any of these singers she sings in their genere.

It's a mystery why Banu Gibson isn't a household name. Her versions of these standards are delightful. The band is incredible, and the arrangements are wonderfully articulate, with evocations of early jazz bands such as Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five (or Seven).