A Great Singer
Galen G. Quick | Bloomsburg, PA USA | 11/17/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Bob Dorough and Frank Sinatra are my favorite singers. Millions worldwide adore Sinatra, but why Dorough? Well, listen to Nob's most recent composition, the lovely and poignant ballad "Baby Used to Be". Note how he stretches "easy" out to suggest a woman slowly lying down, how "out" seems to be in verbal quotation marks, giving the word an extra layer of meaning, and how he makes "weird" sound onomatopoetic. This is wonderful singing--and songwriting.
Pianist Dorough, guitarist Steve Berger, bassist Steve Gilmore, and drummer Eddie Ornowski are a classy quartet. Each member of the group has many shining moments. Listen, for example, to Ornowski's drumming during "Three Is a Magic Number".
The songs, eight written in part or in whole by Dorough, are first-rate. Of those written by others, Bobby Troup's "You're Looking at Me" may be my favorite. Singer-pianist Daryl Sherman"s collaboration with Dorough on his "Without Rhyme or Reason" is charming.
I highly recommend this recording to anyone who loves jazz or American popular song. It will sound progressively better with each listening."
It's the Songwriting, Man
Rick Cornell | Reno, Nv USA | 04/21/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I wish it were possible to give split ratings sometimes. As a singer, Bob Dorough sounds like sandpaper in his lower range, like a seal in pain in his upper. He is an anti-singer, and becomes more and more of one, the older he gets.
But as a songwriter, he is without superior--and that has been true for the past 50 years. He has written such classics as "Devil May Care", "Nothin Like You" and "Comin' Home Baby" (for Ray Charles, which he sings here with two singers named Laura Amico and Roslyn Hart, aka "The Bobettes.") And as an entertainer, he is so affable and generally hip that you may miss that his songs, from the '50's "You're the Dangerous Type" to the current "Baby Used to Be" are quite sensitive, heartfelt, even introspective.
He is also well known as the composer for "Schoolhouse Rock" (although, as Dorough points out in this live album, recorded at the Iridium in New York City, his "Schoolhouse Rock" fans are now 30 years old). Here, he performs two of his most famous numbers from that show, "Three Is a Magic Number" and "Electricity, Electricity", and shows himself as a showman who really should be heard live to be appreciated. He gets the audience going as well on more sophisticated fare, such as "Down St. Thomas Way." This is the best version of this song since Sonny Rollins on "Saxophone Collosus", and is made so by the drummer, Ed Ornowski.
So, what rating to give? Hint: what more famous singer do you know of who sounds like a combination of sandpaper and an injured seal, but is without peer as a songwriter, has had his songs covered by others but does the definitive version of his own songs, and was recently voted by "Rolling Stone" as the second most influential musician in the entire history of rock and roll?
Like Dylan, Dorough gets 5 stars. Every time. It's the songwriting, man. RC"
Track Listings (21) - Disc #1