Yorkshire lass Clare Teal gets happy with a covers album, bar two, on her eighth album.
Teal’s creative juices have been abandoned for a dip into the past, with songs
ranging from 1920, the '30s, 1940s, the '60s and 1970s.
The new First Lady of Jazz’s silky smooth vocals are very adaptable, from the
swing numbers to the ballads, switching with consummate ease.
By definition, this is essentially an exercise in interpretation as we only
get two self-penned songs, which are excellent and sit neatly amongst the
classics from way beyond, as they seamlessly blend together. Teal’s knack is
to handle the original material with great respect and sensitivity capturing
the essence of the writers’ intentions, though a couple don’t pop my cork.
Her Latino-inflected All For One has a Buena Vista Social Club mood,
conjuring styles of Cuban ‘Son’.
Love Hurts, popularised by Jim Capaldi, is more secular than Jazz,
which a bit disappointing, whereas Love For Sale (Ella Fitzgerald/Simply
Red) is absolutely sublime capturing the true sensuality of the original by
Cole Porter. Thankfully Van Morrison’s classic Moondance has kept its
format and vibrancy with Teal on typical form.
The oldest song here, Irvin Berlin’s standard Cheek To Cheek, is renditioned
with all the gutsy thrust that Berlin intended, texturised by some thumping
upright bass and dazzling drums. Doing a ballad version of Neil Sedaka’s smash
hit Breaking Up Is Hard To Do is a brave move. This doesn’t work because
it sounds too much like Crystal Gayle’s Don’t It Turn Your Brown Eyes Blue.
She doesn’t come up trumps however on co-written Get On It Sam, one of
the best songs ever by Teal, and Amanda Field.
Even though most of the songs are by other people, this is still very much a
Clare Teal album, bringing her trademark warmth and sincerity across the
collection.
1. All For One
2. Cheek To Cheek
3. Love Hurts
4. Moondance
5. Get Happy
6. Begin The Beguine
7. Get On It Sam
8. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
9. The Very Thought Of You
10. High Love
11. Love For Sale
12. Time after Time
13. All The Things You Are
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
