Search - Chris Connor :: London Connection

The ghost of Chris Connor.

Mary Whipple | New England | 04/15/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In this 1990 recording, produced in 1995, the great Chris Connor, aged 63 when the recording was made, conjures up some of the songs she recorded forty years earlier. At this stage of her life, her voice has lost its range. It's lower and much more limited, and her soaring upper range is gone. Her lower range is not fully developed, however, and she cannot depend on hitting her lowest notes. Though her sense of rhythm and timing have not diminished, she has lost the sweetness of her voice, and she is no longer able to call up notes from several octaves. Like Rosemary Clooney at the end of her career, her range limits her selection of songs.



With an unerring sense of production, however, she alternates swing and ballads, providing variety in her performance, done live from Pizza on-the-Park, in London. "Strike Up the Band," a stirring rendition, uses different tempos, and features a sax and bass as accompaniment. "Lover," also very fast, and "Everything I've Got" keep the pace upbeat. "My Heart Stood Still, a ballad, is slower, with a fine piano accompaniment, but "Gone with the Wind" and "Angel Eyes," both also slow ballads, are mournful, almost turgid.



Connor's smoky voice still reminds the devoted fan of what it was like in the fifties and sixties when she was one of the best jazz singers in the world, but the flexibility and her several-octave range are gone, and the songs and the limited range she now requires grow dull over time. Chris Connor is one of the great ladies of jazz, and I never thought I'd ever hear a CD by Connor that I wouldn't like. This proves the exception, however, even for a big fan of several decades. n Mary Whipple



At the Village Gate

Sweet and Swinging

Sings Lullabies of Birdland



"