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Paulette McWilliams & Tom Scott - Telling Stories (2012)

Posted By: mark70
Paulette McWilliams & Tom Scott - Telling Stories (2012)

Paulette McWilliams & Tom Scott - Telling Stories (2012)
MP3 320 kbps CBR | 57:41 min | 131 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz, Smooth Jazz | Label: Reviver Records

All music lovers have experienced the pleasant surprise of hearing an unknown artist impress. The final rounds of most of the singing contests on television have singers quite good in various genres. But when you are totally blown away by an artist, it’s an experience that revives one’s original passion for the power of music.
That’s what happened to me when hearing Paulette McWilliams. Having been marinated in the greatest jazz singers of the century — Ella, Sarah, Billie, Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, et al. — I’m kind of hard to impress. But McWilliams, a music industry veteran as a backup singer and jingle artist, truly has it all.
She veers from jazz to R&B on this date featuring producer Tom Scott on saxophone, Nat Adderley Jr. on piano, and other fine musicians. But whatever the genre, her quality of voice and nuance of rendition excite.
The first cut, “New York on Sunday,” begins ambling along at a strolling pace, while describing a Sunday in the Big Apple. The pace increases slightly while reflecting on the dreams of the week. Suddenly, a big-city tempo and an arranged section with McWilliams scatting with the horns take over.
Now she has your attention. She draws you closer with her rich, velvet voice on “Trav’lin Light,” a tune associated with Billie Holiday. By “Tangled in Between,” with her subtle Luther Vandross/Al Jarreau-styled melisma connecting passages, and the bluesy “Live the Life I Love,” she’s got you.
Two duets shine. The first, “You Go to My Head,” pairs her with vocalist Bobby Caldwell, just okay as her partner. McWilliams’ interpretive acumen is at a peak, not just telling the story of the lyrics, but tapping her lower register in places that tickle your ears. On Kool & the Gang’s “Too Hot” she meets her match in the dulcet tones of Will Downing.
Some have said that McWilliams sounds like Nancy Wilson, and the influence is there for sure. But on “Don’t Go to Strangers” — known for classic versions sung by Wilson, and the original by Etta James — McWilliams demonstrates with clarity that she is her own woman.
Thank goodness she has come home to jazz. ~ Greg Thomas, New York Daily News

Tracklist:

1. New York On Sunday
2. Traveling Light
3. Tangled In Between
4. You Go To My Head
5. Live The Life I Love
6. Life Is The Fountain
7. Stuck On You
8. Too Hot
9. Don't Be On The Outside
10. Don't Go To Strangers
11. You Fascinate Me So
12. Ode To Billy Joe