courtesy of Kari-On Productions
About a week ago Reaching Records released vocalist Linda Purl’s third album with pianist Tedd Firth. The title of the album is Taking a Chance On Love; and, as of this writing, Amazon.com is only distributing it through MP3 download. Firth leads a trio whose other members are David Finck on bass and Ray Marchica on drums. Reed player Nelson Rangell joins the crew for a few tracks towards the end of the album.
The advance material for this recording describes the content as “new takes on delicious classic pop tunes from the Great American Songbook.” I would probably quibble with this description. I am willing to grant that the “Great American Songbook” is an organically growing entity, rather than some monument cast in stone some time around the three-quarters mark of the twentieth century. However, given the rollercoaster ride of the pop repertoire during the second half of the twentieth century, I tend reserve the adjective “classic” to the first half.
As a result, I would be inclined to apply that adjective more to Purl’s approach to performance, rather than the particular tunes being performed on this album. From that point of view, as the album progressed I gradually built up the impression that Purl’s stylizations were more uneven than I had hoped they would be. Thus, on the very first track her delivery of “Pure Imagination” was as secure in both pitch and expression as it was when Gene Wilder first delivered it in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. (With regard to the preceding paragraph, while this is an appealing song it definitely cannot be numbered among those “classic pop tunes from the Great American Songbook,” particularly since both of the composers, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley are Brits!) On the other hand Purl never seemed to find the right groove for “Wave,” the bossa nova classic by Antônio Carlos Jobim (Brazilian, “for the record”).
The bottom line is that, as a serious listener, I doubt that I shall be revisiting this album very much; but there is a generally comforting rhetoric to the album that may be just what many need during these current hard times.
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