Emilie-Claire Barlow is backed on several songs by lush string arrangements.  She has chosen to include often ignored verses in the tradition of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, one of her biggest influences. The Very Thought of You was nominated for a Juno Award in 2008 for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.

The album is Exclusively Available at NativeDSD in Stereo DSD 512 and DSD 256 thanks to our signature Higher Rates Program. It is the singer’s 3rd album on the 2xHD label at NativeDSD.Com following her earlier albums Live In Tokyo and The Beat Goes On.

Emilie-Claire Barlow – Vocal, Shaker & Triangle
Kevin Turcotte – Flugelhorn
Kelly Jefferson – Tenor Saxophone
Mike Murley – Tenor Saxophone
Bill McBirnie – Flute
Nancy Walker – Piano
Reg Schwager – Guitar
Kieran Overs – Bass
Mark Kelso – Drums
Alan Hetherington – Percussion
Drew Jurecka – Violin
Lenny Solomon – Violin
Kathryn Sugden – Violin
Rebecca van der Post – Violin
Rebekah Wolkstein – Violin
Anna Redekop – Viola
Claudio Vena – Viola
Alex Grant – Cello
Wendy Solomon – Cello

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Album Producer Peter Bjornild tells us “This recording is true to the visual image of Ack and Juraj in the hall. Juraj is to the left at 10 o’clock and Ack to the right at 2 o’clock. We captured not only the 2 dimensional placement of the musicians but also the depth and wideness of the hall. Creating a Visual Sound is a question of moving the microphone slightly forward and backwards and listening critically. I must say that I keep being impressed by Frans de Rond’s expertise in this field.

The album was recorded with the Josephson C700S microphone. We did support the piano ever so slightly with a pair of DPA microphones just to add a hint of definition.”

Ack van Rooyen – Flugelhorn
Juraj Stanik – Piano

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This time Fone brings you the first live recording with the great American saxophonist in the company of three great jazz musicians Paolo Birro, Aldo Zunino, and Alfred Kramer, his usual partners when he performs in Italy.

This is a Live to Stereo DSD recording made at the Piaggio Auditorium located inside the famous Museum in Pontedera, the place where Piaggio was born and where it still continues to produce today. Inside the Museum every year the public from all over the world can admire the Piaggio production made over the years, all the models of the Vespe and Ape, all the Aprilia, Gilera and Moto Guzzi motorcycles that have won national and international awards over time.

It is a live recording with great pathos.  You will experience great realism, great dynamics, great music in an album not to be missed.  Each listener, closing his eyes, will be able to relive the emotion of the live performance as if you were present at the performance of these four great artists.

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“The drummer is the boss of the band, not the bandleader,” Count Basie once said. “If the drummer’s not right, nothing’s happening.” That is as true of a small group as of a big band, but audiences have not always recognized it, the importance of the drummer often being obscured by a lot of razzmatazz going on in front of him. Yet, paradoxically, audiences have always loved drum solos, good, bad, and indifferent.

For five years Eddie Graham was the drummer with Earl Hines, one of the greatest and most spontaneously inventive pianists in jazz history. Hines had routines on several numbers audiences demanded every night, but on others, the performance varied according to his mood and inspiration. He himself had a practically perfect time, but the counter-rhythms he delighted in setting up between his two hands created something of a problem for even the most talented of drummers. Eddie Graham quickly learned to cope with it and Hines remarked gratefully on the fact that during his tenure all members of the group were “comfortable with one another,” and that there was “no temperament, no selfishness, no conflict of personalities,” all of which he had endured in earlier phases of his career. “Eddie is a very gifted drummer,” he added, “who can put on an act that is a whole show in itself, and does.”

This “act” was one Hines appreciated very much. “It takes the pressure off me,” he said on many occasions. After creating a percussion fantasy that enchanted most listeners, Eddie would rise up modestly from behind his glittering equipment to a storm of applause. Small and dark-haired, his appearance suggested a veritable Merlin of the drums.

His solos, as this album demonstrates, were logically constructed and never a matter of loud, wild noise. The excellent recording here also shows the good, clean sound he consistently produced from the drums. Muffled thuds, as of backstage mayhem, have never been a part of his stock in trade. His strong beat and accents have a positive definition that frequently brings to mind the work of one of his favorites, Buddy Rich.

For this session, he left the selection of tunes to Jane Jarvis and Jim DeJulio, who chose fine standards written between 1927 and 1949. Tempos and rhythms were mutually agreed upon before each performance, most of which were made in one take. Where there was second or a third, the first, as is so often the case, usually turned out to be the freshest, because the musicians were listening more closely to one another and not thinking of recreating what they had played before.

Eddie Graham Trio
Eddie Graham, Drums
Jane Jarvis, Piano
Jim De Julio, Bass

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