Search - JoJo David :: Small Hours

For his debut recording, Boston vocalist JoJo David teams up with extraordinary pianist Adam Birnbaum to create an intimate and timeless collection of classic and destined-to-be-classic ballads. David gets to the heart of every lyric, delivering each emotion and vulnerability as if experienced in real time. The context is masterfully set with Birnbaum's playing, always tasteful, and in captivating dialogue with the melody. From its title, "Small Hours" shares the same fabric of Frank Sinatra's innovative concept album "In the Wee Small Hours." The first track wraps the listener up in those "small" moments from the beginning of the CD and takes the listener on a tour of sublime throughout the album. David and Birnbaum take meticulous care with their arrangements and performances to get to the heart of the messages. In the standards "Imagination," "But Beautiful", and "In the Wee Small Hours", the oft discarded and rarely heard verses to theses standards are resurrected and made essential to the matter here. Birnbaum takes a fresh interpretation of the Beatles' "Golden Slumbers," stretching its time while David indulges his beautiful tone in the soaring melody. They take John Hiatt's "Have A Little Faith" to an inspired turn with the blues. Birnbaum presents a haunting rendition of "Here's That Rainy Day", and with the hidden gems "Colors" and "Little Prayer", David reveals his wide-open heart and musical grace. Sit back and indulge in "Small Hours". Paying homage to the lineage of Frank Sinatra with Nelson Riddle, Ella Fitzgerald with Joe Pass, Tony Bennett with Bill Evans, and Johnny Hartman with John Coltrane, JoJo David and Adam Birnbaum bring us up to date with this exquisitely crafted recording. This is as moving a ballad album as there is.