Taking a chance with a live recording, Stella Cole has nailed it with no sign of nerves and giving nothing other than a flawless and heartfelt performance of some of her favourite songs.
Decca Records 0019995750947 (LP & CD)
Stella Cole (vocal); Michael Kanan (piano); Michael Migliore (bass); Hank Allen-Barfield (drums)
Bursting on the scene with her stunning debut album It’s Magic with arrangements by Alan Broadbent, it was immediately obvious that Stella Cole was something special and a talent worth watching.
With a selection of songs from the Great American Songbook impeccably arranged for trio and strings by Broadbent it was difficult to see how Cole could possibly follow that up. However, her record label Decca had faith in her, and any doubt that may have hung in the air regarding a second album is quickly dispelled with this lovely set.
Taking a chance with a live recording, Stella Cole has nailed it with no sign of nerves and giving nothing other than a flawless and heartfelt performance of some of her favourite songs.
Cole’s background and introduction to jazz and her preferred repertoire stems from her childhood love of films such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Sound of Music and Singing in the Rain among others. These timeless classics have been performed and recorded many times over the years, and it is much to the vocalist ‘s credit that she brings a feeling of joy and love for the songs that are truly infectious.
From the opening ‘Love Walked In’ taken at a gently swinging tempo, one is captivated by Stella’s full and expressive voice and impressive range. When singing a ballad, she has a natural story teller’s instinct on how best to convey the lyric, and this is captured beautifully on ‘Moon River’ and the wonderful optimism inherent in ‘Pure Imagination’.
Displaying the full range of her vocal gifts, Stella gives a fun reading of ‘Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps’, a tender and passionate ‘Till There Was You’ accompanied superbly by pianist Michael Kanan and closing with a reading of ‘Over The Rainbow’ that ranks alongside the very best.
My review copy as an LP and with a stylish cover featuring the Stella and full liner notes on the reverse took me back t the classic albums and the way in which they were presented and packaged. In his informative notes, Will Friedwald discusses many of the songs and the movies they were originally featured including ‘As Time Goes By’, ’Anything Goes’ and ‘When the Sun Comes Out’ none of which appear on the vinyl copy, and raises the thorny issue that there are five additional tracks on the CD.
This appears to be a common trend as the interest in buying vinyl continues to grow but not wishing to miss out on the additional material prospective purchasers face a dilemma. With the additional material on the CD being of such a high quality (just check out Stella’s impassioned vocal on ‘Cry Me A River’) it might have been a welcome bonus if Decca had included a download code of the songs not on the LP.
This is perhaps a debate for another day, and as I’m not a fan of either downloads or streaming, preferring to own a physical copy, I will be looking to purchase a copy of this wonderful album forthwith. However you choose to acquire your copy of Live at Café Carlyle, you will not be disappointed.
