MISTY PERFORMS 6 NIGHTS - TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY FROM 6:30 TILL 8:30 AT "JOVANNA'S BISTRO GRILL" LOCATED AT 74-063 HIWAY 111 @ PORTOLA, PALM DESERT, CA. CALL FOR RESERVATIONS (760) 568-1315.
Contact Misty at Misty4jaz@aol.com
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DESERT ENTERTAINER OCTOBER 28, 2004 - MUSICIAN'S SPOTLIGHT
WRITTEN BY EDITOR ED MUNSON
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE NAMES OF THE MUSICIANS WHO ACCOMPANY MISTY BADE ON HER THIRD AND MOST RECENT CD, "SOLITARY MOON"
YOU GET SOME IDEA OF THE SINGER'S DEPTH EVEN BEFORE THE ALBUM BEGINS TO PLAY.
RELEASED THIS PAST AUGUST, "SOLITARY MOON" INCLUDES BOB RAMSDELL ON VALVE TROMBONE AND SELECTED VOCALS, ANDY FRAGA ON PIANO, JIM DE JULIO ON BASS AND HAROLD MASON ON DRUMS.
THEN YOU GET TO THAT VOICE. OH THAT VOICE. FIRST, THERE'S THAT DEEP, THROATY, SULTRY SOUND THAT GENTLY PULLS YOU INTO THE SONG AND CARESSES YOUR EAR.
THERE'S SOMETHING VERY ROMANTIC ABOUT THIS ALBUM THAT IS QUITE ENGAGING. MISTY HYPNOTIZES YOU AND TRANSPORTS YOU ELSEWHERE IN SUCH A RELAXING WAY THAT YOU CAN NOT RESIST.
IT IS ALSO A PLEASURE TO HEAR A SINGER WHO CLEARLY ENUNCIATES THE LYRICS WITHOUT MAKING IT SEEM LIKE AN EFFORT. SMOOTH AND SOULFUL.
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SOLITARY MOON
MISTY BADE with BOB RAMSDELL
Mellow, sultry jazz singer MISTY BADE features 13 songs on this her 3rd recording.
Released on August 3, 2004. There is a mix of romantic ballads and tunes with a latin beat, with a few duets and Bob Ramsdell on selected vocals, who plays valve trombone on this recording. It has been said that this recording is the best out of the 3 recordings to date!
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MISTY BADE vocals on Tracks 1,2,3,5,6,8,10 and 12.
BOB RAMSDELL vocals on Tracks 2,4,8 and 9.
Duets on Tracks 7, 11 and 13.
ANDY FRAGA, piano on all tracks and synthesizer on Tracks 1 and 13.
JIM DE JULIO, Acoustic Bass on all tracks except Tracks 5 and 10.
HAROLD MASON, Drums on Tracks 1,2,4,6,8,9,11 and 13.
BOB RAMSDELL, Guiro and Wooden Drum on Track 2.
MISTY BADE, Wind Chimes on Tracks 1 and 6, Triangle on Track 1.
Recorded on September 22 and 23 and December 8, 2003
Private Island Trax, Hollywood, CA USA
Mixed and Mastered by BRIAN FRIEDMAN.
Private Island Trax, Hollywood, CA USA
Produced by MISTY BADE
Assistant Producer, BOB RAMSDELL
Songs arranged and conducted by:
ANDY FRAGA, BOB RAMSDELL and MISTY BADE
Cover graphics by KOBI MC KENZIE, Los Gatos, CA.
Photo of Misty taken by TOM ROSSI, Fallbrook, CA.
Photo of Bob taken by KOBI MC KENZIE, Los Gatos, CA.
Photo of Misty performing taken by FRED ASBURY, Memphis TN.
Photo of musicians taken by KOBI MC KENZIE
Liner notes written by WHITEY MITCHELL.
Special Thanks to:
BOB CORWIN for his valuable contribution to the tunes Solitary Moon and Before You.
HOWIE GOLD for his input on the tunes Only Trust Your Heart and We've Got A World That Swings.
TONY BAYAOA for her loyal support.
This recording is dedicated in loving memory to trombonist
CARL FONTANA.
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The following Liner Notes written by WHITEY MITCHELL
People have been trying to nail down MISTY BADE'S singing career with mere words for many years now, and have not been able to do it. Adjectives like sultry, steamy, & moody are good as far as they go, but Ms. Bade is a lot more. You could use the word eclectic in Misty's case because of her passionate and unusual ability to find good singing material from all kinds of unexpected sources. If she were to discover a never-recorded, never-performed love theme from Gilligan's Island and if fit her musical taste, she would immediately learn it and put it into the act. The only thing that saves us is there was no love story on Gilligan's Island (and hardly any other story either, but that is another matter). But eclectic does not sound too exciting, would not look good on a marquee, and still does not go far enough. So let us add the word "romantic" to our collection of adjectives, because Misty's selections on this, her third CD are those of a hopeless romantic.
Fitting nicely into this groove her friend, assistant producer, and singing partner BOB RAMSDELL offers his unique voice and gorgeous valve trombone sound (along with bass trumpet) to the proceedings, and the result may start a whole new movement in the music world called romantic jazz. And let us hope it replaces smooth jazz, which may be smooth, but is definitely not jazz.
Misty has emerged as a jazz singer with her own distinctive style, and though you may hear traces of her early influences such as Chris Connor (who in turn was influenced by June Christy and Anita O'Day), she is confident and comfortable with the way she sings today. And so are the fans who came into to see and hear her perform on weekends with jazz pianist MARILYN SPENCER at JOVANNA'S BISTRO GRILL in Palm Desert, California.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, or at least back east a couple of time zones, friend and collaborator Bob Ramsdell, the pride of Madison, Wisconsin, brings his own talents to the table. In his vocals, I do not hear any particular influences, and he just sounds the way most good musicians sound when they sing. Trombone-wise, you can tell he has always admired great players like Jack Teagarden, Bob Brookmeyer, and the late Carl Fontana. And I personally believe that when his mother was carrying him, she must have listened to a lot of Stan Kenton, and real loud! When Misty and Bob get together musically, along with musicians Andy Fraga (piano, keyboards, and synthesizer),
Jim DeJulio (acoustic bass), and Harold Mason(drums), well...let's listen okay?
I own five fake books all of which claim to contain lead sheets for every tune ever written. apparently every tune but SOLITARY MOON, with a gorgeous melody by Johnny Mandel and great lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman. Misty is lucky those two wrote the words, because in the hands of less gifted songwriters the title might have come out as Isolated Spheroid ...and what rhymes with spheroid? But SOLITARY MOON it is, a classic romantic ballad sung soulfully by Misty, with musical bookends provided by Ramsdell with his warm valve trombone, and in between his bass trumpet work.
Next comes a medley of two familiar latin favorites DANSERO and BESAME MUCHO. It is easy to see why they both have been popular for so long. Let's hear it for Misty and her accurate spanish pronunciation, and for my five fake books, all of which have both tunes.
I SEE YOUR FACE BEFORE ME is the next romantic ballad candidate, complete with verse, a golden oldie used in the film the Bridges of Madison County. It is a lovely song and fortunately we have Misty singing and Bob playing the valve trombone for us, and not Meryl Streep singing and Clint Eastwood playing the trombone!
BABY BABY ALL THE TIME, written by the late and very much missed Bobby Troup is the next cut, and I ever knew there was a verse, because absolutely nobody sings it, except Bob Ramsdell! I like the 12/8 feel and the stop time chorus.
See what I mean by eclectic. Because now we have a Hoagy Carmichael tune with one of his less explored ballads I GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU VERY WELL. And Misty's soulful interpretation of this tune let's us know that she's not getting along very well without whomever!
I know I will never hear LOVE DANCE on american idol (aside from the fact that I have never seen it and hope to keep things that way) because LOVE DANCE is an actual song, musical, subtle, beautiful, with very good lyrics by Paul Williams. Misty does a great job with this one, and Bob's trombone solo is a standout!
From the Australian songwriting team of Alwyn & Laurie Lewis, comes MISSING YOU, a terrific lost-love ballad sung with warmth and precision as a duet by Misty and Bob.
Followed by a medley of ONLY TRUST YOUR HEART and ONLY TRUST YOUR HEART, two different songs with the same title. And, weirdly, both lyrics by Sammy Cahn. I wonder if he sued himself? Anyway, ONLY TRUST YOUR HEART number one sung as a ballad by Bob, is from the movie Ten Thousand Bedrooms, and ONLY TRUST YOUR HEART number two which is sung with a latin beat by Misty, was written by the late and legendary Benny Carter, who wrote and performed well into his nineties, and this was one of the favorite tunes of Carl Fontana, to whom this CD is dedicated.
And now comes Gus Kahn's humorous classic MAKIN' WHOOPEE, which 97.5% of american males readily identify with. (the other 2.5% also identify, but their wives won't allow them to say so.) Bob sings this one, as well as play in the excellent trombone section. By the way, all the other trombones are Bob, courtesy of the miracle of multi-tracking.
IF YOU LOVE ME REALLY LOVE ME is the approximate english translation of an emotional ballad co-written by Edith Piaf. Since I speak a little french i understand what Misty is singing in the first chorus and I must tell you that a better translation might be "If you love me, love me somewhere else because your snoring always wakes the neighbors"... Please disregard that silly joke as you listen to Misty and pianist Andy Fraga tell Mlle. Piaf's story musically.
BEFORE YOU is from the jazz-laden music score of the motion picture Sharky's Machine, a Burt Reynolds shoot-em up, and is a musically pleasing tune which makes a great duet for Misty and Bob. It's impossible to know why some movie songs make it into the charts and into our lives, and others simply disappear from the radar. But thanks to this CD, BEFORE YOU will get another chance to be heard.
Bart Howard of Fly Me To The Moon fame, has another winner in LET ME LOVE YOU. In this unpretentious straight-ahead performance by Misty, with a tasty interlude reprising the first sixteen bars thrown in by Andy Fraga and Jim DeJulio.
For the final piece in this set, Misty and Bob chose WE'VE GOT A WORLD THAT SWINGS, a jazzy tune from the original movie The Nutty Professor. I have always maintained that Jerry Lewis was a musical half of Martin & Lewis and Dean Martin was the funny half, and Jerry himself sang this tune in the movie, backed by one of my old bosses, Les Brown and his band of renown. Not a bad combination. With an intro made up little tastes of Give Me The Simple Life and Take the A Train, (but not enough to get sued) Misty and Bob do their version of Jackie and Roy (complete with scat singing) and end this CD on an upbeat. what a showcase for both of them!
As for Misty, we still have not pinned her down very specifically. We can still call her sultry, steamy, moody, sexy, swinging, and all those other over-used descriptions. After hearing this CD we can definitely add "romantic", and that word I keep coming back to "eclectic", but even that does not narrow things down enough.
Maybe we will discover that elusive adjective in her next CD to be recorded in late 2007 titled "PURE IMAGINATION".
Liner notes by Whitey Mitchell.
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Misty's next recording titled "PURE IMAGINATION" will be
available early 2008. The 18 song recording will have:
Pure Imagination
At Last
Sway
Autumn Leaves - French and English lyrics
So Many Stars
Night Lights
Two For The Road
Why Should I Care
Pieces of Dreams
The Meaning of the Blues
I Will Wait For You - French and English lyrics
What'll I Do
I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
Sabor a Mi - Spanish & English lyrics
Midnight Sun
La Vie En Rose - French and English lyrics
Twelfth of Never
All The Things You Are
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