Sound Advice

Patti Austin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 17, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shanachie
• ASIN: B003TVMICU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,668 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You Gotta Be

2. By The Grace Of God

3. Round And Round

4. You Can't Always Get What You Want

5. Let 'Em In

6. Gotta Serve Somebody

7. Vincent

8. A Little Bit Of Love

9. Lean On Me

10. Give It Up

11. My Way

12. Enjoy The Silence

Editorial Reviews

2011 album from the Jazz vocalist. Sound Advice is a concept that Patti feels very deeply, and it shows in her music. Together with the brilliant keyboards and producer Greg Phillinganes, Patti takes on some of your all-time favorite classics and does them in ways that you never could imagine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound Advice Indeed....from a professional, May 24, 2011

By 

Michael McCLain "Amberbaer" (West Chester, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sound Advice (Audio CD)

TRACK FOR TRACK SUPERIOR TO ANYTHING OUT THERE TODAY!

1. You Gotta Be - great song to start the cd with

2. By The Grace Of God- this is how power vocals are done when you can sing

3. Round And Round - sweet vocals

4. You Can't Always Get What You Want - interesting take on this classic - this will play very well live on tour!

5. Let 'Em In - like buttah.....smooth jazzy vocals that make me like this song more and more with each listen

6. Gotta Serve Somebody - love love love the semi-spoken vocals! Patti's voice is so soothing...and her high notes make you want to listen to this track over and over again.

7. Vincent - again....a voice that just smolders.....

8. A Little Bit Of Love - nice uptempo tune....again...sounds great here, but will play well live on tour!

9. Lean On Me - the only version of this song that I tolerate.....she just owns it from the first note....this has been all over the internet since she sang it to Q for his birthday....and I'm glad to have the studio version - at last~!

10. Give It Up - harkening back to her 1980's sound....this number works on so many levels....radio ready!

11. My Way - There is always something special to be heard when it's just Patti and the Piano to start with...you get to hear what I've known for decades....she is the greatest jazz vocalist alive today....this song on tour will bring the audience to tears and to their feet~!

12. Enjoy The Silence - that's right....Enjoy the Silence....a new twist on a classic....stripped down to bare vocals, this is how you make a song your own and don't blink an eye....the echo vocals are amazing and no one sings backup like Patti on Patti.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it, June 2, 2011

By 

Alessandro Filippini (Pistoia, Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sound Advice (Audio CD)

A great album by Patti Austin. The song "Gotta serve somebody" is truly fantastic, I can't stop listening to it.
Other highlights: "You gotta be", "Vincent", "Let'em in", "By the trace of God", "Lean on me" and "Give it up"

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Over-Familiar Made Slick, August 2, 2011

By 

Levi Skrauss "Levi Skrauss" (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sound Advice (Audio CD)

Patti Austin is an amazing singer, probably my favorite vocalist working today. So why isn't this album more satisfying? To be fair, she does blow the doors off the old Des'ree drone "You Gotta Be" with a rousing gospel version, backed by a large choir. (Should also be noted that this recording was from a 2003 compilation album, 'Church - Songs of Soul and Inspiration', so it's not as if she's breaking new ground here.). "You Gotta Be" is Austin covering at her best--taking a familiar song and totally reinterpreting and reinventing it, as she did with the Gershwin standards on the Grammy-winning "Avant Gershwin".

But there's a fine line between re-working a song, and over-working a song, and unfortunately Austin falls short on "Sound Advice" more often than not, by taking (mostly) very familiar songs and not putting her own stamp on them. Instead she commits the mortal sin of taking familiar material and making it sound slick. I guess it's an easy trap to fall into, given her long history of studio work and apprenticeship under slick-meister Quincy Jones. The shame is that she showed she was capable of so much more on "Avant Gershwin".

Even worse, Austin and producer Greg Philanganes degrade her own flawless version of "Lean on Me", by adding instrumentation to their own previous acoustic version. As with "You Gotta Be" Austin was recycling a song previously released on a special 3-song Christmas EP; unfortunately, they didn't leave well-enough alone and spoiled a beautiful arrangement. It's an interesting read of a much-recorded song, but sadly they went a bridge too far.

Singing covers is certainly no disgrace, and re-interpreting standards is certainly a worthy artistic undertaking--reference Bettye Lavette's gut-renovation job on "Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook" to see how it can be done. But with an artist as talented as Patti Austin, it's disappointing to feel like she's doing karaoke. There's the sense that a lot of this material isn't right for her; that this project ultimately devolved into a grab-bag of recordings from mutiple disparate projects which hadn't panned out. Did financial exigencies necessitate an ill-conceived offering to her 90s pop audience? Personally, I'd like to see her return to interpreting classical jazz as she did on "For Ella" and "Avant Gershwin", taking on the American Songbook as a serious artist rather than diletante dabbling in pop schlock as she has here. She is too gifted a singer, interpreter and artist not to.

As harsh as that might sound, "Sound Advice" is plenty listenable. It just isn't memorable, and it gets old quick. Patti Austin is capable of so much better.