The Spirit Of St. Louis

The Manhattan Transfer | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 27, 2009)
• Original Release Date: October 10, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic
• ASIN: B00004YNGW
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,972 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #54 in Music > Jazz > Vocal Jazz > Vocalese

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Clichés have gotten something of a bad rap. Essentially, they're the most instantly recognizable attributes of any artistic endeavor. Louis Armstrong's were his sweetly gruff, speaking/singing voice and deceptively simple Dixieland jazz trumpet flourishes. The Manhattan Transfer's clichés are the group's slick jazz and harmonically perfect takes on the traditional vocal quartet. The common ground of this Manhattan Transfer tribute to Armstrong may not be entirely discernable at first listen, but that's the beauty of music--influences can sometimes reveal themselves in ways that surprise and delight the performer as much as the listener. Crucially, the veteran quartet wisely dispense with their sometimes predictable MO, allowing producer Craig Street (Me'Shell Ndegeocello, k.d. lang, Cassandra Wilson) to challenge them with a series of arrangements that wed vintage instrumentation to a distinctly non-vintage set of instrumentalists (including Los Lobos' Steve Berlin, modern jazz horn great Jon Hassell, Beck alumni Smokey Hormel, and adventuresome guitarist/loopist David Torn). The producer also allowed Transfer members to pick their own Armstrong favorites for interpretation, giving the band members unusually free solo spotlights (including Tim Hauser's one-take wonder "Blue Again," a deliciously lazy reading of "Sugar" by Cheryl Bentyne, Janis Siegel's "The Blues are Bewin'," and Alan Paul's playful "Gone Fishin'"). The result is arguably the Transfer's best album in a decade, one that fuses their impeccable vocal perfectionism to Armstrong's still vibrant and soulful legacy. The result is anything but a cliché. -- Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of their best, December 28, 2000

By 

James C. Springer (Lisle, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spirit Of St. Louis (Audio CD)

I agree with this title's reviewer here when he states "The result is arguably the Transfer's best album in a decade, one that fuses their impeccable vocal perfectionism to Armstrong's still vibrant and soulful legacy. The result is anything but a cliché."

This is easily their best work since the one-two punch of Vocalese/Brasil, which, ironically another reviewer here denigrates by saying about it "look how devoted we are to jazz arcana." (The first time I EVER heard that nay saying about the Vocalese outing. And probably about as untrue as could possibly be.) Why this release is getting brickbats is beyond me. I've been a fan of the group since 1980 ... I consider myself fairly objective. A highly regarded release here, Swing, I find somewhat disappointed by as a counter-example. People speak of the "sound" of St. Louis, but I found the "westernized-swing" sound of Swing disconcerting. Granted, I've warmed up to that one, but the top 3 TMT albums in my book are easily Vocalese, Brasil, The Spirit Of St. Louis.

This is a wonderful outing and I really think the dissenters should have another listen or three <g> Louis Armstrong had such a large body of work and I believe the Transfer touches on many aspects of it ... it IS a wonderful tribute.

Jim

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great vocals, bad engineering., February 16, 2001

By 

Kenneth Myers (Flint, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spirit Of St. Louis (Audio CD)

I felt that MH did an outstanding job as they always do. My beef is with the recording, engineering and arrangements. I think that the engineer is trying to be cute in capturing the vintage sound of the 30's and 40's by reducing the highs and tinning the middle. In other words, before HI FI. I dont appreciate LO FI sound. Lets hear how MH reallys sounds. I feel like I am sitting in a 55 gallon drum. Also I can't hear the soloist over the rhythm instruments. Or sometimes that's all I hear. Bad mix. Can't understand any of the words. Sometimes too busy, sometimes big gaps in the sound. Sounds like a bunch of kids playing with new audio toys. Summary: performance good, sound quality bad.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best vocal record of the year., October 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spirit Of St. Louis (Audio CD)

I've been listening to an advance of "The Spirit of St. Louis" for weeks, and think it is the best vocal album of the year -- if not in ages. Raw, impassioned, and exciting performances -- both invidually and collectively -- make this the best Manhattan Transfer album since "Vocalese", if not the best of their long career. Producer Craig Street and the incredible musicians strip away all the gloss and reveal the luster of 4 great singers. The songs may be from the Louis Armstrong canon, but the Transfer give original and indelible interpretations they make their own. There's not a bad track in the bunch. Longtime fans may be put off -- but the adventurous, and the uninitiated, will find this to be a classic.