| All Artists: Helen Merrill, Gordon Beck Title: No Tears No Goodbyes Members Wishing: 0 Total Copies: 0 Label: Universal Release Date: 3/6/2001 Album Type: Import Genres: Jazz, Broadway & Vocalists Styles: Cool Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Traditional Vocal Pop Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPC: 044001343520 |
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Search - Helen Merrill, Gordon Beck :: No Tears No Goodbyes
 | Helen Merrill, Gordon Beck No Tears No Goodbyes Genres: Jazz, Broadway & Vocalists With Helen Merrill on Vocals and Gordon Beck on Piano. |
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Album Details With Helen Merrill on Vocals and Gordon Beck on Piano. Similar CDs
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CD ReviewsLackluster Merrill paired with exciting, vibrant piano soloi Mary Whipple | New England | 06/22/2008 (4 out of 5 stars) "(3.5 stars) Thirty years after Helen Merrill set the world afire (in Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown) at the age of twenty-five, Merrill is still going strong. A consummate jazz performer with a great sense of how to take a standard into new and exciting dimensions, Merrill has had a long and illustrious career. In this 1984 CD, with British pianist Gordon Beck, however, her solos are slow, mournful, and uniformly dirge-like, a characteristic which gets emphasized when she sings in counterpoint to the spritely, enthusiastic piano work of Beck. They are an unusual combination of talents and styles here, which makes Beck's piano solos particularly welcome for the listener. Though the song selection is terrific, I'm not sure why Merrill has chosen to show so little energy in her efforts. "I Love Paris" sounds so sad that I found myself wondering, when she sang about how her "love is here," if she meant that she was there in Paris and that he had passed away. Even "Bye, Bye, Blackbird," a song in which the tempo really gets going on most recordings, remains a lament here. In "The Thrill is Gone," the thrill is truly gone. Beck saves many of these songs with his jazzy, rhythmical variations and happy feet, an effort that is so outstanding that I checked and was delighted to see that there are many CDs of his solo work. Vocally, Merrill often slides up to her notes and then cuts off them off, instead of holding them for three or four beats as she continues with the melody, and she seems uncertain of some of her lower register. Though I have been a huge fan of Merrill for many years, this is a CD to which I am unlikely to return, except to hear Gordon Beck, whose work in "I Got it Good"--among other tracks--is especially brilliant. An outstanding pianist, full of vibrant energy, Beck's work is well worth pursuing for its own sake. n Mary Whipple Just Friends Dream of You Reflections Appleby Blues " Good but not her best Max-Factor | Los Angeles, CA USA | 01/21/2007 (4 out of 5 stars) "I haven't heard anything mediocre from the artist. It is not in the class of Music Makers and Helen Merill with Clifford Brown as far as musical content and audio quality. Gordon Beck's piano work will keep the listener's attention. I think it's a worthwile recording for my collection that I decided to keep it. The audio quality is somewhere between 7 and 8. It's only a piano and a vocalist but I hear that piano can be a tricky instrument to record." The best of albums between pianist and vocalist judithkish@hotmail.com | England | 01/20/2003 (5 out of 5 stars) "rarely does a pianist (one who in his own right is a superb jazz soloist (you should hear Gordon Beck with Phil Woods on their Wigmore Hall concert) completely gell with a vocalist. In Helen Merrill there is a perfect marriage between the two of them. I would encourage anyone to give this a try. Apart from this CD
Gordon Beck is one of the unsung heroes of British Jazz. Try to hear his 'Experiments with Pop' recorded back in the 60's with an unknown (then) John Mclaughlen). Gordon then went on to work with Phil Woods and Alan Holdsworth as well as many other international jazz giants. Alan is currently seeking to do an album of straight-ahead American jazz with Gordon this year." |
