Customer Reviews

You Are There

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

 

 

(5 stars for Roberta, but be careful with the CD). Following up on the success of "Easy to Love," Roberta Gambarini released a 2006 collection of fourteen songs, which is entitled "Lush Life" and which, to date, has achieved four, five-star ratings on Amazon under the ASIN of B000JLPKVE. "You Are There," THIS product, is almost exactly the same album, and Amazon's "Better Together" feature, on this page, in which they urge you to "Buy this album with Lush Life at $64.95," will surely disappoint anyone who loves Roberta enough to spend that kind of money for two CDs.

Though both CDs contain fourteen songs and play at over an hour, ten of the fourteen songs from this CD are identical to those on "Lush Life." "You are There," this CD, omits "Skylark," "Body and Soul," "Cool Breeze," and "Lush Life #2," all of which were recorded in an exciting live performance at the Umbria Jazz Festival, and substitutes "People Time," "You're Getting to be a Habit," "Come Sunday," and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra." If you happen to love the four that are included here instead of the four "live" songs on "Lush Life," maybe this CD will appeal to you, but you must be willing to pay the very steep purchase price.

If, for some reason, you decide to buy this CD INSTEAD of "Lush Life," you will find Roberta brilliant, as always. Limiting the accompaniment to just the piano of Hank Jones, she is very much a cabaret singer here, singing mostly slow, sad ballads with her gorgeous alto, and varying the phrasing to give new emphasis to the lyrics. There are no vocal pyrotechnics here, as she concentrates on the song itself, rather than taking it into new realms with improvisation and variation. The result is a wonderfully moody CD which has moments of excitement but only a few hints of her huge talent with scat and high energy jazz variations. n Mary Whipple

When all's said and done, all a good singer needs is a good pianist. Ella Fitzgerald never sounded better than with Ellis Larkins, and here, Roberta Gamabarini does well to entrust her youthful voice to the expert hands of Hank Jones.
Italian singer Roberta Gambarini walks this musical tightrope on her new album, where the only accompaniment is provided by Hank Jones's discreet piano.
Eldest and last of the Jones dynasty that included superstar drummer Elvin and trumpeter Thad, Hank knows every great song inside-out.
"Stardust" and "Deep Purple" reflect his taste and mature ability to combine modern chord voicings with the earlier right-hand elegance of a Teddy Wilson.
Roberta, a bright newcomer from Italy, now based in New York, lacks Ella's unique tonal richness but has similar warmth and flexibility.
She was born in Turin and in 1998 moved to the USA, where she won third place in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocal Competition and was more recently voted No. 1 talent deserving wider recognition in Down Beat's 2007 Critics' Poll.
(Her very first CD, currently unavailable, was released in 19991 for BMG with the title "APRESLUDE" with Italian guitarist Antonio Scarano).
"The tracks on ARE YOU THERE explore various melodic permutations of some of the pair's favorite standards by the likes of Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Billy Strayhorn, Irving Berlin and EY Harburg--the intent, it seems, being to extract as much beauty from the line as possible. Gambarini displays an aptitude for bebop scatting unusual in singers of her generation, especially on "When The Lights Are Low" and "Just Squeeze Me", during which she and Jones swap brief and inspired musical anecdotes.
Beyond melodic interpretation, the pair apply great restraint to the tempi; even on tunes like "You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me", more commonly played at a toe-tapping clip, Gambarini lays back into the cheerful lyrics while Jones expands leisurely on the melody.(Suzanne Lorge).
This is her third CD released in US (the first was called "Lush Life" and the second, "Easy to Love" was nominated for 49th Grammy Best Jazz Vocal Album along with "Footprints" by Karrin Allyson , "Live At Jazz Standard With Fred Hersch" by Nancy King, "From This Moment On" by Diana Krall and "Turned To Blue" by Nancy Wilson).
Ten of these songs are identical to those on the "Lush Life" CD, released in the US in December, 2006.
The album displays a vocalist who is already mature in technique and interpretation. She has a clear, light voice - perhaps too lightweight for a darkly mournful song like "Suppertime", the cry of a woman widowed by a lynching. This Irving Berlin song (from the 1933 show "As Thousands Cheer") is just one of several unhackneyed items in a programme that includes little-known numbers by Harburg & Schwartz ("I'll Be Tired of You"), Frishberg & Mandel' You are there' and four tracks by Ellington.
There are also two compositions by Benny Carter: "People Time" and "When Lights Are Low" - the former sung without words but entirely as slow scat.
Hank Jones's accompaniments are consistently sympathetic and tasteful, following Roberta's lead rather than dictating her direction.
On some tracks he gets the chance to stretch out with his own solos, which are always well built.
A good example is in "Just Squeeze Me", where his striding left hand ably drives his melodious right hand.
She clearly has the necessary talent: a good voice and a feeling for jazz improvisation.
Stand out tracks : "When Lights Are Low", which sparkles with agile improvisation and easy swing and "Just Squeeze me".
Easy To Love
Footprints
Live at Jazz Standard
From This Moment On
Turned to Blue

I love this album. It was a "pre-order" but only took a couple of days. Shipment was fast and I've listened to this CD over and over again. Such a sultry, smooth voice...reminds me a bit of Ella Fitzgerald....good classy singer...I am sure to purchase more CDs from this vocalist. This selection is on my list of favorites and I will not hesitate to purchase this as a gift for family and friends! So glad Amazon suggested this in their email tips, and I will enjoy the sounds and songs for years to come!
Thank you Roberta Gambarini for YOU ARE THERE, .....I'm glad YOU are!

Yes, You ARE There! It has a cabaret intimacy, and sensuousness. This is a perfect jazz recording with the combo of Roberta and Hank Jones. Roberta's voice has a certain confidence and brightness. And when first hearing her sing i thought Je ne sais Quoi? It felt like the rush and sparkle as from a fine wine. Explanation?....the warm Italian ambiance is apparent. She definitely reminds us of Carmen McCrae---but without the melancholy undertones, and more like bliss instead. Anyway, isn't it a good thing to be compared to the gold standard (Carmen)? Here's a generous CD with 14 tracks and three pages of liner notes all written by Roberta. Sweet.

It's refreshing to hear a vocalist that so clearly comes out of Carmen McRae instead of the usual Ella and Sassy descendants. Roberta Gambarini does an amazing job at taking you back in time with her vocal style; still, it's not just a remake of what was done half a century ago - it's very personal, here and now. Add the piano of the one and only Hank Jones, the accompanist/pianist who in his old age still shows what music is all about, and you have a remarkable duet record that proves just how alive and vibrant music rooted deeply in tradition can be.

Ms. Gambarini has followed up "Easy to Love" with this set of tunes recorded in 2005 with pianist Hank Jones. As the previous reviewer has noted quite well, the CD, although excellent, does not showcase the full range of Ms. Gambarini's immense, explosive talent and, to that extent, disappoints slightly. For some reason, Ms. Gambarini boasts that these tunes, and a few others that evidently were omitted from the CD, were recorded with little preparation and in one less-than-five hour session. Perhaps with more preparation and/or additional "takes," Ms. Gambarini could have put a greater spin on the tunes and hence made them more her own. I was also disappointed somewhat by the production quality: the volume of Ms. Gambarini's voice at times wavers unnaturally a bit. This flux might be expected and tolerated on a live recording but not on a studio recording such as this. Despite my expressed concerns about what "might have been," this is still an excellent CD in which jazz-vocal lovers will take great pleasure and in which fans of Ms. Gambarini will surely revel.

Start with a phenomenally gifted, rapidly ascending vocalist of the same heritage as Caruso and Sinatra, add as the sole pianist the musician who is the current reigning patriarch in jazz, and finally select a few sterling examples from the Great American Songbook. The results are predictably spectacular but not "showy" or "exhibitionistic." This is not an album simply to be impressed by. Gambarini is sufficiently mature, and in command musically, that she can afford to use her virtually unlimited technique to one end: bringing the song to realization for all concerned--the composer, the performer, and the listener. Indeed, "You are there."

Anyone who finds this music "boring" hasn't learned how to listen. If you have yet to discover the "sound of surprise" that is the hallmark of Sinatra's "suicide-song," "saloon-song" albums--Riddle-Jenkins' masterpieces like "Only the Lonely," "No One Cares," "In the Wee Small Hours," "September of My Years," "Close to You"--or, for that matter, of Shirley Horn's "Here's to Life" or of Jack Jones' "Paints a Tribute to Tony Bennett," a collection of ballads such as "You Are There" is apt to be out of reach, regardless of the performer.

To those who understand the American ballad, take notice. To the virtuoso, coloratura, Ella and Sarah credentials that Gambarini evidenced on her prior album ("Easy to Love"), she brings the crystalline elocution, the ear for narrative-dramatic-poetic meaning, the professional's attention to diction and phrasing that were the strong suits of Lady Day, Carmen McRae, and not least of all Old Blue. Some of the songs are more than familiar: "Body and Soul" is the most recorded song of all time, and "Stardust" not far behind. She revitalizes both, outfitting them in resplendent new clothes without changing the essential character of either. Other tunes are less familiar because singers either avoid them due to their difficulty or attempt them but get lost while trying to navigate the tunes' hazardous harmonic/melodic progressions. Gambarini takes on notorious "obstacle courses" like Strayhorn's "Lush Life" and "Something to Live For," not to mention Duke's stirring and noble "Come Sunday" and Berlin's poignant, heart-rending "Suppertime," yet makes you forget about the music's difficulty factor. All that matters is the song--its melody and lyrics reassuringly commanding the listener's attention rather than any thoughts about the challenges to the performer.

Perhaps "Deep Purple" is as good a track as any for illustrating what this singer is made of. The tune is admittedly a venerable chestnut, one I don't recall hearing except in the context of amateur, nostalgic singalongs. A later artist is apt to pass it by quickly (forgivably so) because its apparently trite lyric, melody and chords don't seem worthy of the performer's time and attention--the amorphous and hazy, abstract and even nonsensical lyric (Cole Porter would shudder), the extended near-moribund whole notes, the "unvocal" melodic leaps--in other words, an invitation at practically every measure for stagnation. No doubt Gambarini was aware of all this in electing to go after the song.

A "casual" listening will most likely dismiss the track as a pleasant reading of an old warhorse and little more. But such a response in itself testifies to Gambarini's success at making an awkward old duck sail by the listener's field of vision like an elegant swan. Now do a rewind and subject the performance itself to a close replay. After a verse introduction that's likely to leave even the most knowledgeable "expert" clueless about what's to come, she starts the familiar melody--an incisive, rock-solid E natural below middle C that effortlessly glides to the high note almost two octaves above it before "floating" down to the next resting point and then handing-off to Hank Jones for a chimerical chorus that breathes as though the pianist possessed vocal cords in each of his fingers. But she's not done yet. The last chorus essentially repeats the first but flows even more effortlessly, more reflectively, as the singer brings the meditative reverie to an immensely satisfying closure, connecting the realms of infinite desire and finite vast space that are the subject of this song's singularly abstract lyric. In fact, the alignment of the two realms is so complete the listener is apt to see the vocalist's inserted "cadenza" on the final note--which amounts to, in effect, a reenactment of the song's octave leaps in microcosm--as proceeding naturally and logically from the requirements of the song itself rather than as a performer's need to impress with a grand exit.

No more than two minutes in length, this single performance of a sentimental "period piece" is as immeasurably satisfying as any number of CDs and musical programs that this listener has encountered in the present millennium--and, far from a relic, ranks among the truly timeless performances that have been recorded since 1917 (the year of the first jazz recording).

Just got this CD for my commuting time in the car. What a wonderful companion to have, as I try to unwind from the week's work and prepare for a quiet and peaceful weekend.

Terrific Entertainment by a top notch singer. I would recommend this album to anyone who appreciates truly fine vocal. I would purchase other titles from her library. Roberta is a wonderful singer.

I MORE OR LESS AGREE WITH THE TWO PREVIOUS REVIEWS. HOWEVER IF YOU WISH TO SAVE MONEY, BUY "LUSH LIFE" AND THE EXTRA TRACKS ON "YOU ARE THERE" on itunes. i also own DIZZY'S BUSINESS.

roberta did 3 tracks on that cd with the DIZZY GILLESPIE ALL STAR BIG BAND. she did her virtuostic scatting, BLUE AND BOOGIE, MOODY'S GROOVE, along with STARDUST. see comprehensive review at www.wenjaz.blogspot.com along with a video of Roberta closing out the SINGAPORE JAZZ FESTIVAL 2007.

I WOULD OWN EVERYTHING ROBERTA RECORDS AS I CONSIDER HER REACHING THE LEVEL OF THE BIG THREE , ELLA, SARAH AND CARMEN. if i could i would follow roberta around the world and tape everything she does.(as dean beneditti did with bird) i told her she should carry a pocket tape recorder and record everything as her product would be better than social security.

her output so far is rather limited just 3 or 4 cds as she is still self produced. WHY A MAJOR LABEL DOESN'T BACK HER, I HAVE NO IDEA. she wins the JAZZ JOURNALISTS POLL AND THE DOWNBEAT CRITICS POLL, and you never see any ads promoting her cds.

ALSO you have to see roberta live to appreciate her greatness. however at jazz festivals she might have only one set. at all star appearances, she only gets 2 or 3 tunes. however at club appearances, she might have 2 or 3 sets. STILL SHE'S ONLY GIVEN YOU A FRACTION OF HER VAST REPERTOIRE. SHE HAS TRANSCRIBED HUNDREDS OF SOLOS. AND YOU WON'T HEAR MUCH OF IT BECAUSE SHE THINKS IT'S WAY BEYOND THE GRASP OF THE AVERAGE LISTENER. SHE MAY BE RIGHT BECAUSE AT TELLURIDE SHE COMPLIED WITH AN AUDIENCE REQUEST BY SINGING THE COUNTRY TUNE "CRAZY".

I'M HOPING SHE PUTS IT ALL OUT TOMMORROW NIGHT AT CATALINA'S IN HOLLYWOOD. I'LL LET YOU KNOW AT www.wenjaz.blogspot.com

wenmew@verizon.net