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Music CD - Patti Austin: Avant Gershwin
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Music CD: Avant Gershwin
Artist: Patti Austin
List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $6.99
Your Save: $ 10.99 ( 61% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Rendezvous
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Medley: Overture/Gershwin Medley
2. I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise
3. Who Cares
4. Funny Face
5. Medley: Love Walked In/Love Is Sweeping The Country
6. Swanee
7. Porgy & Bess Medley
8. Lady Be Good
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0881284512324
Label: Rendezvous
Manufacturer: Rendezvous
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Rendezvous
Release Date: 2007-03-06
Studio: Rendezvous
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: This Is A Grammy Winner for "Best Jazz Vocal Album" - 50th Annual Grammy Awards
Comment: "When you look at the body of work from the Gershwins, it is kind of frightening. It is like they were sent by God to drop off a package and send them back in another two hundred years to do something magnificent. We just scratched the surface of their body of work, and isn't that fascinating?" ~ Patti Austin, All About Jazz ~
Recorded live and released in March of 2007, "Avant Gershwin," won the "Best Vocal Jazz Album" at the recent 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Congratulations to Patti Austin and everyone involved in this great CD for a well-deserved recognition. I am a long-time fan of George and Ira Gershwin's music and lyrics and who could do more than justice to their ingenious works than a fine jazz singer and also one of my all-time favorites, Patti Austin? I've been a long-time fan since the early eighties and have collected some of her best recordings most notably her collaborations with George Benson, James Ingram, Bob James and Quincy Jones.
This is a great tribute to the exceptional songwriting and composing talents of the Gershwin Brothers. Some of their well-loved gems are featured in this CD starting off with "Overture/Gershwin Medley," a Grammy-nominated-track for the "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist," down to "Lady Be Good." For someone who has been singing since age five, Patti Austin made her renditions more special with her wealth of experience in jazz singing and scatting. She brings freshness of style to these time-tested standards thereby making this album as one of the best Gershwin tributes ever recorded. The beautiful chart arrangements by Michael Abene and excellent musicianship of WDR Big Band (same band who backed her on for Ella) are contributing factors that made this album worthy of a Grammy nomination and the much-coveted award. Each song is taken to a higher level of appreciation for she has the ability to turn a timeless standard into a remarkably impressive gem of a song with a new twist. I'm sure the Gershwins in Heaven must be beaming with joy!
My choice cuts include a medley of "Love Walked In/Love Is Sweeping The Country" and a less-famous and seldom-recorded song but is surely a beauty, "Who Cares?" I first heard it from Kate Smith on one of my late father's collection of records. Tony Bennett also recorded it with Ralph Sharon Trio on Essential George Gershwin and ditto with Michael Feinstein on Nice Work If You Can Get It: Songs by the Gershwins. Her smooth take on "Summertime," one of the songs from "Porgy And Bess Medley," is simply gorgeous.
This Grammy-winning CD in its entirety is a sheer beauty and pure perfection. I wholeheartedly recommend it for a lovely listening experience.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Sorely Disappointed!
Comment: I think Patti Austin is one of the great talents of our time. However, this offering is terribly disappointing. For me, Gershwin is an icon, and I have heard Ms. Austin render Gershwin before (with Gregory Hines at the Hollywood Bowl). At that venue, she soared, and gave fresh meaning to the words and music of the Gershwins. At that time, I longed to have her do a complete album of Gershwin standards. Sometimes, what one wishes for can be a disaster. Such is the case with this album. The music is compromised by the overly "creative" jazz interpretations, and as a result, the lyrics are equally compromised. The Gershwins were genius. Why do some musicians believe they can "improve" upon that brilliance, simply because George and Ira are not here to challenge such sordid interpretations of their creations? Ms. Austin is lost in the shuffle, and her talent is rendered, for this listener, useless. Wouldn't it be nice if Austin has stayed with the script and done the Gershwins justice? This offering?...an injustice to Austin, George and Ira Gershwin, and to aficionados of the standards. Better luck next time, if there is one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Could have been better.
Comment: Given that it's Patti Austin it's not unfair to expect a lot. Unfortunately, she misses the mark here. As expected there is nothing technically wrong with the album, it's just that the arrangements are lackluster, and the song pairings don't really work.
Incredible voice though.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Austin may have just found her niche!
Comment: A performer for over thirty years, Patti Austin has done it all: pop, R & B, a little gospel, standards, and even a highly sought after jingle singer. It wasn't until 2002's Grammy-worthy "For Ella" that it appeared that the singer was now getting recognition for her singular vocal style as she paid tribute on that album to one of jazz's greats, Ella Fitzgerald.
Now, five years later, Austin takes on the music of the Ira and George Gershwin, who along with Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, were possibly the greatest songwriters of all time, not just the twentieth century. Backed by a full band and recorded live last year in Germany, Austin lets it all out as she interprets songs that will stand the test of time long after the current chart-toppers have turned to dust.
Austin's vocal instrument is so flexible that she is able to be poignant yet sassy, seductive yet saintly, trashy yet classy, and provocative yet conservative.
She can do it all and really pours it on thick with the opening twelve-minute long "Gershwin Medley" and the equally impressive "Porgy and Bess Medley." Even the remaining songs are lustrous and provide a venue for one of the great songstresses of the last and this century.
Austin is just hitting her prime and, besides her singing, she has a new look, having shed some pounds and getting a makeover.
When one looks at the singer, glamorously decked out and coiffed on the back cover, one can only exclaim, "D**N! She looks just as good as she sounds."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gershwin done right!
Comment: I've been a fan of Patti Austin's magnificent voice since the time she was doing great songs in the pop/R&B vein like "Baby Come to Me." Since she released the fantastic "For Ella" - and now this one - I am in love all over again.
Using the Gershwin songbook as a springboard, Patti and the amazing WDR Big Band/Orchestra (under Michael Abene's brilliant direction) compliment each other all the way. I loved the unique approach taken by both vocalist and arranger, and the live audience recording was right on the mark!
Patti, the music was amazing - and so were the photos!
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Editorial Reviews:
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In this decade of twin musical obsessions--for fond revisits to classic American composers and for all things '80s--it's a wonder Patti Austin hasn't stolen the show with a Great American Songbook set sooner. Her '80s duets--"How Do You Keep the Music Playing" and "Baby Come to Me" among them--remain indelible, and she's already proved she's a worthy interpreter with 2002's justly praised For Ella. Plus, her voice on Avant Gershwin, rich and to the rafters, suggests she's been ready to give this material a spin for decades. From the first moments of "I Got Rhythm," part of the opening "Overture/Gershwin Medley," Austin swings through these songs with the ease and exuberance of a born showman; you can practically see her onstage in a slinky evening gown, arms outstretched, head back, eyes squeezed shut, surges of electric sound all around her. Her "Porgy & Bess Medley" benefits from a manufactured breeziness that suits "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing" and "Summertime" especially well, and her "Swanee" saunters closer to modern sensibilities by replacing the "mammy" of the original with a simple "momma." In addition to Austin's energy, the spirit of jazz gives these numbers juice. The WDR Big Band, which Austin has worked with previously, comes at a tune with a blend of boisterousness and sophistication, and Austin has a way of melting right in. She convincingly makes a case that she may have been born a bit late, but she was made to sing these songs. --Tammy La Gorce
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