Pretty Blues
Antoinette Montague
Blues/Straight Ahead, LLC
Antionette Montague’s Pretty Blues is a CD of old time jazz & blues standards; songs that a lotta folks might thing “who needs to hear them again?” But as you know, the older a song gets, the more people are inclinded to play with it. The writer’s done gone so they play with the tune, the phrasing, and before you know it, it’s a whole different song.
Not so Montague, who makes her case by returning to the writer's intention... singing the songs as written, without embellishment. That way you can actually understand what she’s singing about.
If is, in fact, a bit of a shock. It’s like… where’s the growling, where’s the wavering, and I heard a voice in my head saying “this isn’t Billie Holiday.” Well, duh. It’s not.
Montague delivers with a clear-channel voice, and one that effortlessly hits its notes, almost like she’s talking and it just happens to have a melody to it.
On the other hand, there are times I’d like to hear her let loose a little more… a little more sex, a little more “feelin’ it!” We know she respects the notes, now… love them!
The band—and these guys are hot—has the sound that many might associate with Vince Guaraldi, the guy who wrote the music for the Charlie Brown TV shows. This quartet of piano, drums, tenor sax, and bass is tight: light on the keys, cool on the sax, not too busy on the drums, they fly along effortlessly, they exist to back up the singer yet you can still hear how good they are. They’ll slip in a virtuosic lick that adds to the music but doesn’t take away from the vocals, and enough instrumental solos to let them shine alone. Kudos to the mixing too, which keeps it all evenly balanced and doesn’t overwhelm the singer.
I think my fave is the opening number “Id Rather Drink Muddy Water,” by Eddie Miller & Peter Chatman, there’s also songs on here by folks ranging from Irving Berlin to Quincy Jones to Johnny Mandel. All in all a nice new look at some old standards.
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