It’s tricky to predict which new musicians on the scene will continue making music for a long time and who will fade away.
But everything about singer Shay Estes’ first CD, “Despite Your Destination,” suggests that she’s in for the long haul. The recording, done with Trio ALL (drummer Zack Albetta, pianist Mark Lowrey and bassist Ben Leifer), mates old songs and new in contemporary fashion, but also demonstrates an old-fashioned commitment to quality…
...The songs extend from the old (“Hello, Young Lovers,” “The Night We Called It a Day”) to the much newer (Tom Waits’ “Little Drop of Poison” and “Under the Milky Way” by the Church). Old songs get new twists: “But Not for Me” sports a changed set of lyrics that remove any trace of self-pity, and “’Round Midnight” gets pushed to a risky tempo…
…The whole thing was captured on old-fashioned analog tape.
“No place to hide,” Estes said. “No digital pitch correction, no digital monkeying with anything.… We wanted to make something that sounds like a ’60s Blue Note record.”
Her commitment shows in the details.
JOE KLOPUS - The Kansas City Star (Dec 3, 2009)
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Shay Estes & Trio ALL’s frothy new delight of a debut record, Despite Your Destination, applies the jazz-combo treatment to a variety of standards we all know by heart. It’s the right way to revisit these popular songs: familiarly soothing on one hand, but packing enough new twists to keep the listener interested and engaged from the first cut to the last.
The Kansas City group’s debut doesn’t sound tentative in any regard. In fact, it’s easy to imagine these four musicians have been together for ages, so relaxed and in a groove their playing can be.
Estes keeps her singing smooth and restrained throughout the album, wisely adhering to Michael Feinstein’s dictate that it’s practically impossible to under-sing this type of repertoire. Her voice often recalls the easy, conversational diction and tone popular among ’40s songstresses — direct, soulful, girly and pretty, but not plain.
The three men making up Trio ALL are hardly slouches, either. Pianist Mark Lowrey and bassist Ben Leifer share a remarkably symbiotic relationship, sometimes sounding like a single, four-handed player. Drummer Zack Albetta follows Estes’ lead of letting the performance serve the song, not call attention to itself — though he’s certainly up to a little solo here or filigreed fill there.
The model for Despite Your Destination becomes clear from the outset, with a brisk “Where You At” leading into “Little Drop of Poison,” which takes on a Latin accent.
“Hello, Young Lovers” turns the “King and I” show tune ballad’s usual tempo and rhythm on its ear, skipping along briskly with a rollicking piano performance matching a subtly racing drum line.
“The Night We Called It a Day” is slow and torchy, while “’Round Midnight” gets a refreshing, spare and upbeat arrangement full of drumstick ticks and tocks.
Estes turns Gershwin’s “But Not for Me” into “But Not for You,” transforming a weepy lament into a gleeful kiss-off to a former lover. The lyric, “Although I can’t dismiss/The memory of his kiss/I guess he’s not for me” becomes “I hope you can’t dismiss/The memory of my kiss/Although you’re not for me.” It’s a very clever recast, giving an appropriately 2009 attitude update to a song written nearly 80 years ago.
The album contains plenty of other bull’s-eyes. “Across the Universe” is a gloriously free-form jumble, a rattling meditation on The Beatles’ oft-covered singsong catalog staple. Arthur Hamilton’s “Cry Me a River” gets the speed treatment, with Lowrey’s nifty, dissonant piano sneaking up from the low end and counterbalancing against Albetta’s sputtering snares.
The biggest impression comes from a song that’s achieved classic status only in recent years: Shay and Trio stretch out the melody of The Church’s hypnotic “Under the Milky Way” into a country-tinged ballad that stands fittingly alongside every other tune on the album…
…Shay Estes and Trio ALL have created a new take on a clutch of songs audiences might think are played about as far out as they can go. Despite Your Destination’s effortless jazz updates couldn’t possibly be a more enjoyable listen.
DEREK DONOVAN – INK Magazine (Dec. 16, 2009)
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The serious pop and casual-jazz listener may wonder where Shay Estes & Trio ALL — an acronym of the last names of drummer Zack Albetta, pianist Mark Lowrey and bassist Ben Leifer — are going on Despite Your Destination. It's the arrangements; they take risks with well-known songs. But the risks are rewarding. Besides the usual standards ("Cry Me a River," "'Round Midnight"), the album includes songs such as Tom Waits' "Little Drop of Poison," which gets the Latin treatment, and the Beatles' "Across the Universe," which has a like-it or don't-like-it-so-much sound, thanks to some chord substitutions that throw the listener off. But between Estes' vocal delivery and Lowrey's piano solo, it works on its own merits. The Church's "Under the Milky Way" gets Estes' torch-song treatment and shows the song's adaptability. Guests sax man Mark Southerland and bassist Jeff Harshbarger need something to do, so Southerland gets a chancy arrangement of "How Deep Is the Ocean" to showcase his solos, and Harshbarger adds vocals to "Milky Way." Not everyone may like where Estes and ALL are going, but one thing's for sure: They arrive in style.
ROBERT FOLSOM - The Pitch (Dec 1, 2009)
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