Customer Reviews

On the Other Side

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm a bit of a Tierney Sutton fanatic. That said, I've seen her many times in concert from New York to Los Angeles; and of course I own every one of her recordings. There is a common thread that strings together her live performances, her studio and live recordings, and even just sitting and chatting with her in person. Tierny posses a brilliant, sparkling wit, magnetic personality, and a sense of grace, true friendliness, and joy that is lost on many other performers who get a taste of fame. Yet even with all of these traits, there is always a tinge of seriousness; a bit of melancholy; a sense that not all is right in the emotional whirlpool of life. Tierney touches that part of all of us that is melancholy and perhaps a bit sad and heartbroken- but listening to her music, you feel like it's truly OK to be sad- in fact, it might be just the therapy you need to let go and just allow yourself to drop the facade of constant happiness. This new CD is exactly what I have been waiting for Tierney (and "the boys") to record. It is not a depressing CD, rather is it a thought provoking ode to love and the sadness that love can bring. The overall message seems to be that it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Tierney's vocals are as fluid and gorgeous as ever; she can drop to the sweetest of whispers and then jump up and really "belt it out" when appropriate.

A particular favorite on this CD is "Glad to Be Unhappy," one of my favorite songs that Billie Holiday recorded. Rather than focus on on the sadness of unrequited love, as Billie did, Tierney uses the song to point out that there is sweetness and joy in love- even if your love is not returned.

It always amazes me how performers can record the same classic songs and make them completely their own. This is one of Tierney's most successful and beautiful recordings. Every single tune has such great expression, and like Billie Holiday's later recordings, you can't help but feel that you are getting a true piece of Tierney's innermost emotions. She uses and shares these emotions with no holds barred; something that takes amazing strength and bravery. Of course, Tierney's amazing talent of delivering each song so that you FEEL the underlying emotion is an incredible feat all by itself!

Will this album make you feel sad? No, I can't say that it will- but it will make you feel like you are not alone in your pursuit of happiness, and it will leave you with a sense of hope that happiness just might find you. Thank you Tierney for sharing "the other side" of your beautiful personality and talent with us!

Unlike many of the reviewers here, I am not particularly expert in jazz, though well-versed enough to appreciate many of the finest artists in the medium; my orientation is far more toward classical and even the more artistic expressions of rock I grew up with in the 60s and 70s.

That much said, this album is a revelation. To call it emotionally moving would be both accurate and inadequate; there is a depth of feeling and expression at work here that transcends genre; indeed, at a recent concert of the Tierney Sutton Band, there were moments when it seemed I was listening to a symphony orchestra, such was the not merely the range and shade of sound, but the almost perfect location and choice of sounds; it was as if the universe of expression was complete and fully-fleshed.

There are many treats on this album, but among my favorites are the band's dark and haunting rendition of "You Are My Sunshine." It would be wrong to refer to this as a cover; what it is, is a song completely reconceived, one whose general theme we may have heard before, but one that is otherwise unrecognizable, emotionally tinged, and deeply moving.

Other reviewers have referred to this album in terms of breakthrough, elevating Tierney and her band from great to iconic. I suspect this is true. If you are a lover of music, of any genre, do yourself a favor and spend some time getting to know this album.

With her seventh album, Tierney Sutton has entered that rarefied atmosphere where her music transcends genre. She is truly in a class by herself.

But she is not alone musically--this time around, she shares co-billing with her longtime sidemen. And a genuine band they are. When they appeared here two years ago for the Virginia Arts Festival's Port Folio Weekly Music Series, she asked that my onstage introduction be not of her alone, but of "The Tierney Sutton Band." Her last recording was called I'm with the Band. She's had the same guys with her now for fourteen years, and the intricate musical settings they come up with really are band arrangements. The rapport, personal and musical, is remarkable.

A look at the song titles reveals this CD to be, if not a full-blown concept album, at least one that is built around a coherent theme. Eight of the tracks have the word "Happy" in their names, one is "Glad to be Unhappy," and the other four allude to happiness or a close cousin. In the liner notes, Sutton says her topic is the "search for happiness," not necessarily the attainment thereof. It makes me wonder what's been going on in her life since last she recorded.

Lest you think this is gonna be some smiley-faced "Up with People" love-in, the opening "Get Happy" makes it clear Tierney and her boys plan to dig much deeper into the emotional landscape. The dirge-like setting is closer to Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor Pour la Fin du Temps than to Judy Garland or Ella Fitzgerald. But the tone quickly changes as the very next track joyously jazzifies "Happy Days are Here Again" and gives pianist extraordinaire Christian Jacob just enough room to stretch. Later, on the back end of the record, the two songs are repeated and reversed, with "Happy Days" presented as a beautifully drawn out ballad and "Get Happy" juiced up as a modified boogie-woogie.

Sutton uses her voice like an instrument and her band uses open spaces orchestrally, as evidenced on their mesmerizing version of "You Are My Sunshine." Her phrasing is impeccable and unexpected, drawing syllables out one minute, compressing them the next, turning words into pure music and back again. Her voice and piano duet with Jacob on "Happy Talk" is a master class in jazz singing.

Sutton found three of her four bandmates--Jacob, bassist Trey Henry and drummer Ray Brinker--playing with trumpeter Jack Sheldon's big band in the early `90s. Sheldon drops by for a couple of tunes here, including an entertaining vocal tradeoff on "I Want to be Happy." Tierney herself makes you believe in the potential for genuine happiness with her gorgeous vocal on the haunting "Make Someone Happy."

She and her pianist close the show with Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," a highlight of her live performance here and a fitting finale for Tierney Sutton's finest recording to date.

copyright © 2007 Port Folio Weekly/Jim Newsom. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

Published 2/20/07 in Port Folio Weekly.

Every review so far has been "right on" and kudos to these superb reviewers. Tierney is my favorite vocalist since Lady Day and this album puts her over the top in my book. I have loved everyone of the band's CDs. Tierney was superb on "Introducing Tierney Sutton", her first, and has remained consistantly divine, until this benchmark, destined to be a classic, puts her & the boys beyond the jazzosphere! Be happy! Buy this disc today! I'd buy it just for the instrumentalists alone; clearly, Christian Jacob is in a league of his own. Don't believe me. Buy his CD. You'll listen to it over and over again with great joy. Jack Sheldon is an icon lending enough spice to make this masterpiece the best jazz work in decades.

Five BIG Stars!! WOW! Suberb jazz singer Tierney Sutton is on fire on this Grammy-nominated CD and her voice is absolutely STUNNING. This CD is a great set of 13 wonderful songs, most of which revolve around many songs with "Happy"-titles that are approached "on the other side" of happiness. There are also alternate, very different versions of 2 songs. This marvelous jazz singer performs these mostly well-known standards in her own unique style with excellent support and solos from her band (Christian Jacob on piano, Kevin Axt & Trey Henry on bass and Ray Brinker on drums) and guest, trumpet-meister/vocalist Jack Sheldon. With this CD, Tierney continues to be in the front rank of international jazz songstresses.

Ramping up on many of these "happy" songs by pouring on the heat with relaxed intensity, the effect is more like longing for "happy"-ness than having it. There are some truly happy songs included, however. The 'Pieces De Resistance', the best of the best, include both very hip versions of "Happy Days Are Here Again" with lots of solo room on these very different performances. "Get Happy", version 1, starts out as a wild dirge that intensifies, with her signature vibrato driving me crazy with it's incandesence. Decades ago, Shelia Jordan and George Russell once showed what could be done with the folk anthem "You Are My SunShine" as a jazz vehicle, Tierney shows another way with an excellent performance, that singular vibrato again elevating the proceedings and with the trio shining brightly. Jack Sheldon's trumpet is in great form on "Glad To Be Unhappy" and his trumpet and voice light up "I Want To Be Happy" with Tierney. "Happy Talk", as a voice/piano duo, is truly joyous with some great scatting and great piano solo and 'comping' from Mr Jacob. The best vocal performance on the CD to my ears is the amazing "Haunted Heart", truly a study in jazz ballad singing wizardry, with a big solo from Mr Jacob. This is wonderful singing! One of the best vocal performances of the year. The search for happiness is on and Tierney is pointing the way. My Highest Recommendation! Five HUGE Stars!!!!

(This review is based on a 13 track ITunes digital download)

When Tierney Suttons and her perfect band hit the shops with a new cd you must do only one thing: run and get it as soon as you can! This incredible singer has the capacity of take you away in a completely different dimension. The magic it's not only in her pristine clear and beautiful voice or in the undoubtful art of her faboulous trio: it's in a brilliant mix of musicianship, culture, bliss, joy and sophistication. Tierney's music is a travel somewhere deep inside the emotions: this time we travel along happiness, and what a trip is this! From the exquisite admission of faith and love of "Glad to be unhappy", to the hypnotic chant of "Get happy" right through the pearl of this collection, the magnificient "Haunted heart", possibly one of the best songs of the whole american songbook, here transported to a stratospheric level. Thank you Telarc for believing in and supporting this incredible artist. We surely are HAPPY to get lost in the beauty of her music. She's getting better and better with time and you wonder what's going to be the next marvel. Don't miss this one!

Tierney has made me HAPPY!! I admit that I am a Tierny Sutton addict. What is there not to admire and like - she is original, gorgeous, musical and continually strives toward a new and finer excellence. What I love about her is her incredible artistry and devotion to excellence and detail. Comparing her with any of the "top" pop celebutants is like comparing the Hope Diamond to zirconium. In other words, there is no comparison.

With this recording she has completed her latest search for new musical territory and staked her claim in a pasture of incredible creativity. It is important to note that all the "tricks" (effects) heard here are not gratutitous add-ons for the sake of cuteness but an intrinsic part of the overall performance. That voice glides and hops, the melodies light and wonderful and always pinpoint accurate. Sutton has made the distinct decision to join with her band into a cohesive unit. Indeed, they are becoming a new creature - it is almost impossible to imagine her without the familiar and wonderful background. The playing is at once different yet immediately recognizable.

I am not going to select a favorite because that would be impossible. This is one of the very few albums where each song "spoke" to me in its own inimitable way - even the "round two" versions. The lilting melody intertwined with the vocal florets is simply wonderful. Needless to say, my grade - A+++

This may turn out to be one of those albums I play over and over until I have it all memorized in my head, and what a joy it will be to have it there. The beauty of this work, the thought-provoking theme, the tightness and unity of the ensemble, the uniqueness of the arrangements, the haunting emotions evoked, and last but not least Tierney's incredible voice, all serve to give us probably the best we've heard so far. I've been a fan of Tierney's since 1992. I think it's fantastic that every album she puts out just gets better just when you thought she couldn't get any better. And Christian, Trey, Kevin, and Ray are out of this world. When you see Tierney live, you notice she especially seems to enjoy herself when she's not singing and just getting to listen to her band. Well, they can play for me anytime!

I love this album. The Tierney Sutton Band is brilliant!

The standout characteristic of this album is Tierney puts a different emotion on these standards, quite different from what is expected!

I have seen Tierney a number of times at Blues Alley and followed her career from when she was relatively obscure. I have been a fan always and think she has incredible technique. I first want to say that this album is a considerable improvement on "I'm With the Band", her last, which I felt was long on technique, too fast and short on feeling.

Much more emotions, much more feeling here. I have had this for a while and it grew on me with repeated listenings. Tierney is a VERY accomplished singer and can hold an audience in the palm of her hand,... when she wishes to. The band in flawless, searching in these standards for new meanings, new interpretations. I had never realized before listening to this that "I Want to be Happy" is about death, "It's oh so peaceful on the other side...", and it is sung like a dirge as is said elsewhere. New meanings.

Slower tunes mostly, always helps to mine more meaning. (The faster Jazz is, the less of the performer is present, emotionally). One time I listened and felt that this album was a song cycle with the protagonist in the depths of depression at first, from "I Want to be Happy", "You Are my Sunshine" then "Make Someone (else) Happy" only to cheer up to "Smile" at the end when she accepts life.

I particularly like "Haunted Heart", while missteps like "Happy Talk" seems trivial. I guess it's all about happiness. Tierney turns coy and sexy in Bossa Nova "Sometimes I'm Happy". "You are My Sunshine" is the darkest version you've ever heard.

The band is telepathic, as usual.

Recommended highly. Thoughful, darker and different than you've ever heard them, but unforgetable! I don't think it's quite as good as my favorite Tierney, "Something Cool", but it's one great return to emotional content.

Tierney Sutton distinguishes herself as a unique presence among the welter of contemporary female jazz vocalists. She has it all: flawless intonation, soulful delivery, and an extraordinary sense of how to spring a rhythm. Combine those attributes with her penchant for the eclectic songbook, and Sutton dwells in ethereal company with the likes of Cassandra Wilson.

Sutton's new CD, The Other Side, makes a strong thematic statement. It consists mostly of traditionally upbeat songs such as "Get Happy," "Happy Days are Here Again," and "Make Someone Happy" and gives them a pensive, ballad-like treatment. Given Sutton's energy and her band's restless probing, none of the tunes comes off as lugubrious, but a sequential listening of the entire CD is likely to jade the senses of even the most devoted Sutton fan.

The best approach is to ignore the programmatic intent and focus on the truly remarkable numbers: "Haunted Heart" derails expectations in offering the most conventional of vocal lines over an atypical and initially incongruous accompaniment. But the tension between the vocal and the rhythm lines finds resolution at various points along the way. This radical treatment of such a well-entrenched classic is risky, but finally compelling. Another standout, "Get Happy (Version 2)," features stunning work from pianist Jacob Christian and drummer Ray Brinker. In "Happy Talk," Sutton improvises some of her best scat to date.

In a November concert, Sutton told her audience, "Basically, we take a song and work it until it's unrecognizable." Usually, that experimental impulse makes the break toward freer interpretations. Not this time. Most of these pieces are restrained and subdued. Their tone is the antithesis of their message. But the formula works for most of the numbers, and the CD marks another significant milestone in Sutton's evolution as a unique voice.