Now Available on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/learn-to-smile-again/id91146369
As
likely hasn't escaped your notice, more and more jazz singers are
mining material from the great pop-rock songwriters of the 1960s and
'70s--Joni Mitchell, Lennon and McCartney, Laura Nyro, Van Morrison,
Jimmy Webb, Leiber and Stoller, Carole King and the Brill Building
crowd, Smokey Robinson and others from the Motown stable, etc. But one
incredibly rich vein of American gold has been all but ignored. Until,
that is, a Canadian--Montreal-based singer and bandleader Susie
Arioli--decided it was high time to tap it. The singer-songwriter in
question is country-pop whiz (and, later, Tony-winning Broadway
composer) Roger Miller, the Texan tunesmith best known for such
mid-'60s novelties as "Dang Me," "England Swings" and his signature hit
"King of the Road"--none of which number among the half-dozen Miller
compositions included here.
Instead, Arioli--working as always alongside guitar virtuoso and
arranger Jordan Officer--digs deeper to unearth such treasures as "Less
and Less," "Husbands and Wives," "Half a Mind" and "A World I Can't
Live In," each a glorious testament to Miller's talent for clever
wordplay. Rounding out this cashmere-soft set are a hauntingly tender
treatment of Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Howard Dietz and
Arthur Schwartz's equally self-reflective "By Myself" and two original
Officer instrumentals that suggest the hypnotic lure of Santo and
Johnny infused with a spicy splash of Les Baxter.
-Christopher Loudon
Add to cart
