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The Guardian American bandleader Charles Tolliver's recent London jazz festival gig inevitably overshadowed the first-half performance by Scottish pianist Brian Kellock and his guest Liane Carroll. But Carroll's three vocals on that set packed in an instrument-like agility (she's a pianist herself), a soul diva's power, and the delicate intelligence she's now applying to a changed repertoire of pensive but penetrating mood-music. Carroll delivers 14 songs here, mostly by an A-team including Tom Waits, Hoagy Carmichael, Laura Nyro, Duke Ellington, and even Donovan - on a haunting version of Catch the Wind humming with a strength the original never had. She softens the Tom Waits rasp on the composer's Take It With Me, but keeps the rough nostalgia, brings a rare intensity to All the Way, and lights a fire under If I Loved You with the minimum of kindling - only very sparing delivery of the lyrics alongside guest Ian Shaw's minimal piano. Slowdown is this world-class singer's world-class record, and the expression doing more with less might have been written for it. John Fordham |
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THE TIMES SLOW DOWN **** In the perfect piano bar, you would have Leffe beer at £1.50 a pint, a decent selection of free nuts and behind the joanna the great Liane Carroll. Because she could never be mistaken for slinky Jane Monheit, Carroll has not been swept up in the “jazz babe” boom of recent years. But her deeply soulful, wonderfully honest style of singing has a loyal following. This album of 14 ballads, ranging from Duke Ellington and Laura Nyro to Tom Waits and Donovan, was recorded in four hours (with a break every three songs for a glass of wine and a cigarette). Highlights include a lyrical take on Catch the Wind, some fine scatting on Memphis in June, and a relaxed swing through All of Me. Same again all round, please. John Bungey |
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Liane Carroll - Slow Down **** There can’t be many more pleasurable ways of spending an hour than in the company of Slow Down, Liane Carroll’s latest collection of 14 hand-picked ballads. Including material recalled from her childhood and teenage years, the singer’s most personal recording to date features one spine-tingling song after another. From the insistent falling fifth which launches the gorgeous opener ‘Memphis in June’ to the moving tableaux of the Tom Waits-penned closer, ‘Take It With Me’, the singer delivers the set with an unswerving honesty and molten intensity. Whether burningly expressive in ‘All The Way’, playfully lyrical in Donovan’s ‘Catch The Wind’ or heartbreakingly sincere in the emotional tour de force of ‘If I loved You’ (featuring her great friend Ian Shaw in the piano chair), Carroll has you hanging on her every note. The singer’s inventive approach to standards is evidenced by the kaleidoscopic textures and varied moods of ‘Willow Weep For Me’ – slowly chiming chords one moment, a sinuous groove the next. One of the singularly most powerful records I’ve heard all year. This, you feel, is the album that Carroll has been waiting to record her whole life. Peter Quinn |
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THE SUNDAY TIMES - SLOW DOWN So, you like Amy Winehouse, but want something jazzier? Liane Carroll fits the bill perfectly. A charmingly no-nonsense singer-pianist who keeps a supply of beer and cigs close at hand during her sets, she has a mid-Atlantic vocal that combines swing virtuosity with the raw spirit of old-school R&B. This pensive, ballad-driven recording is her best yet, with heart-on-sleeve renditions of Laura Nyro’s Lazy Susan and standards as familiar as Ellington’s In My Solitude. The knockout punch is an aching treatment of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s If I Loved You, with a guest, Ian Shaw, sitting in on piano. Clive Davis |
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ESREVIEW - JAZZ JAZZ Jack Massari |
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THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY Sholto Byrne |
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| Liane Carroll Standard Issue SPROO3CD * * * * The recipient of not one but two gongs at the 2005 BBC Jazz Awards - proving beyond any doubt that not only is there a God, he's also something of a jazz fan - expectations for this release couldn't possibly be any higher. Well, if you're only going to buy one vocal jazz album this year, make sure this is it. Recorded in a single day at London's legendary Abbey Road Studios, this is the kind of disc that will have jaded reviewers nationwide blubbing over their laptops with gratitude. There are laughs, tears, adroit shifts between wistful reflection and joyous energy - and that's just the album opener. Including brilliant, imaginative reworkings of standards (They Can't Take That Away From Me'), a barnstorming centrepiece in the form of back-to-back Laura Nyro tunes ('California Sunshine Boys', 'He's A Runner'), 'Eleanor Rigby' like you're hearing it for the first time and the bittersweet 'I Wish You Love' to wrap things up, Carroll has never been caught in finer voice. While some vocalists can seem way too tentative on the mic, not getting too close for fear of getting a rash, Carroll gives it to you with both barrels. It's invidious to single out a particular track, for praise, but her arrangement of Janis Ian's 'At Seventeen' is close to musical perfection Peter Quinn |
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JAZZ UK MAGAZINE SINGER TO SINGER - IAN SHAW ON LIANE CARROLL UNFORGETTABLE, funny and often painfully honest, Liane Carroll's solo gig is now captured on Billy No Mates, a jewel of an album recorded live in the studio this summer. Closer to Nyro than Norah, this is a collection of American Songbook gems, brilliant originals and Greenwich Village confessionals by the likes of Tom Waits and the singers' favourite, Joni Mitchell. Incapable of the empty, glamorous vocal gestures that adorn many of her contemporaries' work, Liane's readings of standards such as 'In the Wee Small Hours' and the opener 'It Never Entered My Mind' are bluesy and honest, fairly prodding the listening heart with a voice that's tender, angry, shameful, hurt and always soulful. Liane's right hand often merges with her voice, producing (as George Benson did with the guitar) an exhilarating chorus of scat or, as on 'A Foggy Day', an entire chorus scatted without piano, reminiscent of some of the great '70s Sarah Vaughan live albums. Her improvising on her own 'Fly Little Bird' sounds like Sanborn. Joni's 'River' begins as a whispered conversation over unfolding hymnal piano and ends in self-reproach, the singer not afraid, at all, of showing how, like speech, the voice often cracks and falters. The album's emotive overall landscape is kept in check by some well-placed swingers: 'Don't Blame Me' would satisfy any Krallster with its playful phrasing and 'A Beautiful Friendship' is driving and insistent. Carroll's greatness is marked by the stand-out track, 'Picture In A Frame', where the spartan Tom Waits lyric is transformed into an urgent declaration of love, now lost, upsetting, honest, very beautiful and beyond all vocal category. I've waited years for this album Ian Shaw |
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