Customer Reviews

With A Song In My Heart: The Rodgers & Hart Songbook

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Miss Wesla Whitfield has a lilting and gently swinging style, she understands the meaning of WORDS. As a Word of Faith person, I think Miss Whitfield really gets into her lyrics and beleives what she sings. Whitfield and her husband pianist arranger make some beautiful, sophistcated and classy jazz. This cd is perfect for romantic moods, and for parties. Miss Whitfield has a unique voice and is the greatest cabaret singer today, and she deserves the same recognition taht Diana Krall, and Jane Monheit have.

...Weslia has a very charmiing voice. It sounds like the voice of an angel. She really knows how to sing a passionate song.

Before I go any futher with my statements, I want to make a truce with the other fans of Weslia. These comments that follow are to be construcitve in nature, they are not intented to inflame anyone. At my age, I don't have any fight left in me.

As I have stated, Weslia has the voice, but is this all there is? Are the any other factors that should be involved in recording a good cd?

What about chemistry? What about chrisma? What about communications? How about expression? Does any of these items matter?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then you need to read on. If your answer was no, then you need not read any futher.

I have always felt like a big part of a good recording was the instrumentation that was used. Also, the tempo of the songs should come into play. One should ask that the tempos vary from song to song?

My ideal of good instrumentation would be these examples:

piano only; guitar only; bass only; violin only;
piano-bass; piano-violin; piano-guitar; trio;
quartet; acappella; acapella on first verse then acc.

These examples of various instrumentations, I feel should give any cd a much needed boost and should hopefully help keep the fans maximum attention.

You can call me crazy if you like, but this is me and this is what I like to hear in my music.

Weska Whitfield is the greatest vocalist around today, she is a very jazz oriented singer, who really knows how to swing, and is able to bring you to tears with her touching ballad singing. Whitfiled has the rare gift of bringing the beauty out in each and every song she sings, never forgetting to sing the verses to songs. Her recordings are always a joy to hear as she has impeccable taste in picking a variety of well known and little known standards, and bringing out their inner beauty with her perfect phasing and perfect pitch. She possesses a pretty voice and her busband jazz pianist Mike Greensill always does her arrangements, he always puts her in a wonderful jazz setting, making all of her cd's essential. On this cd Wesla sings some great tunes by Rogers & Hart, thankfully she doesn't shoose one that have been overdone, she chooses a variety of well known and some lesser known gems, there's not a dud out of the bunch. This cd is definateky worth checking out. Do yourself a favor, and purchase this one.

Simply the best. An extraordinary talent with a superb voice accompanied by an equally talented ensemble of jazz piano and bass.

WESLA's voice is a matter of taste, but one can not say that great care was not taken into making this record a good product.Being a huge RODGERS and HART fan i suggest that you listen to this record at least twice before judging it.The problem here is that there is so many good recordings of their songs available that it is hard for new singers to enter the carousel with ELLA,SARAH,ANITA(i can't find that one)and of course FRANK and TONY.My favorites here are the lesser known YOU ARE TOO BEAUTIFUL and HE WAS TOO GOOD TO ME songs that were not recorded too often in the past.A great care has been put on the lyrics here, but it's normal since LARRY HART was the best lyric writer of his time.I miss the orchestral arrangments with songs like I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TIME IT WAS.In conclusion, i suggest to the reviewer of TEXAS to get out of his state once in a while, it might enlarge his critical wit.

Yeah to everyon who's discovered thsi awesome version of Blue Moon, Wesla Whitfields a genious!!! The whole cd is great, but look out when blue moon comes on, your gonna be blown away baby...

Wow this cd is HER best(all her cd's are her best), Wesla sounds so inspired here by Mike Grinsell's loose and jazzy arrangemets, here she's backed just by bass and piano, what a cool concept, it brings out the chancetaker in Wesla, she sounds more like a jazz singer here than on any other cd. The reason this is Wesla's "best" is fer her version of "Blue Moon" which I swear on my great, great, great Grandmother's grave is the best version EVER!!! May I be sruck by lightning if this isn't the greatest version of Blue Moon! Wesla sings Blue moon as a duet with the bass player and no other instrument, IT'S AWESOME(eat yo heart out Sheila Jordan). WOW this is crazy, wild, swingin, and romantic all at once. THE BEST, of the BEST, is on this DESEERT ISLAND CD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUY IT TODAY, TOMORROW & THE DAY AFTER THAT

Among current female vocalists there are far more champions of the Great American Songbook than I would have dared imagine twenty years ago. I also sense that there are an equal number of claques, avid supporters who are zealously protective about the way their favorite singers are portrayed. Since I've just discovered Wesla, I can give a fairly objective reaction without need to defend an established preference.

She has jazz sensibilities, both in her choice of material and supportive musicians, but it would be misleading to call her a jazz singer. She remains true not merely to the spirit but the letter of the song--a fidelity that can become predictable and dull unless the performer's approach brings new life to familiar chestnuts. For me, Wesla's unique gift is the straightforward, "pragmatic," line she takes with a song, an almost matter-of-fact face-off with the song's most striking melodic and lyrical possibilities. Forget the mannerisms, histrionics, production values, the dramatic or confessional business. She manages to be affecting because there's so little hint of affectation in her elocution--no coyness, breathiness, sexy stuff, hipness, "attitude." All the focus is on the strength of that breath stream, the fulsome sound and totally "forward" placement of the voice itself. Even her curious rhythmic displacements (two successive single syllables--"with" and "you"--always come out as a snappy iamb--"wi-thyuuu") support the strongly felt progress of her melodic lines.

This is an immensely satisfying session, though perhaps not quite as consistent as the other that I've heard--"Teach Me Tonight." She plays a bit of catch-up with the lyrics of the opening tune, "With a Song," and seems a bit guarded on the high notes of the second, "Spring Is Here." On the other hand, it could be argued that with a singer this assured, it's equally assuring to glimpse such moments of vulnerability.

At the risk of being the "emperor's new clothes" revealer, and as a musician, this CD startled my ears. I heard Ms. Whitfield in person in SF several years ago and enjoyed her performance. However, on this album, her consistently flat (as in pitch) delivery made it astonishingly difficult to listen to. I enjoy a good jazz singer as much as anyone, but I also found this presentation much too distorting of the rhythms, and the lyrics, of the beautiful originals for my taste. Sorry folks - this is not one I'd recommend.

This would be the once cd i'd take with me on a cruise ship, just incase i got stranded on a desert island. Mike Grinsell's pino is so complimentry to Whitfield's sensitive readings of timeless standards. all of Whitfield's cd's are desert island worthy, however Rodgers & Hart wrote so many great tunes and Whitfield sings all the rare verses no other singers dare to, and she picks songs by R&H that are rarely sung gems ,that were once standards, and now thanks to her they will be again. thanks Wesla for touching my life with your special gift of song. A++++++++++ CD.