Great
author: Barry Cleveland
Loved the CD, felt like I was in an intimate club setting and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Great
author: Barry Cleveland
Loved the CD, felt like I was in an intimate club setting and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Great
author: Barry Cleveland
Loved the CD, felt like I was in an intimate club setting and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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...at the very top of her game.
author: Jerry Osterberg
What a great time I had listening to Sandy Sasso’s newest release on Charlie Boy Records - All My Men - for the first time ! Oh, and did I mention the second time ? Just as good. The third listen was even better, and on and on. What a treat ! As with her earlier recording Mixed Grill, she’s selected great material and the best musicians. It’s difficult to say which songs I enjoyed more, since they are all so delicious.
Much of All My Men was arranged by Sandy and Brad Mandigo who often plays piano as a member of her trio on jazz club dates. The album includes Onaje Allan Gumbs on piano, Marcus McLaurine on bass, Harry Allen - tenor sax, Bob DeVos - guitar, Desi Norman - vibes, Joe Ascione - drums, and the legendary drummer and vocalist Grady Tate. It’s hard to believe that she’s not worked with all of these talents before because the playing is so first class and a perfect fit with her breezy style.
The CD begins with a wide-awake and sexy rendition of Everything I’ve Got Belongs to You with Sandy having lots of fun with Lorenz Hart’s clever lyrics and Richard Rodgers’ melody. Latin rhythms are most evident in Michael Franks’ Antonio’s Song and especially in a bossa nova version of Love for Sale. Additional lyrics by Miss Sasso seem to suggest that this time the song’s protagonist might well be a boy. I think Cole Porter would have approved.
There’s an appropriately bluesy Black Coffee, a sweetly sentimental Song for My Father, and cheerful Dat Dere, written by Oscar Brown, Jr. and Bobby Timmons. Two of the compositions were written by Sandy Sasso - the title song All My Men and Just Whistlin’ Along, in which she both sings and whistles better than Bing Crosby ever could. Rounding out the superb collection is Louis Jordan’s rocking Saturday Night Fish Fry and a haunting treatment of Tin Man, a Neil Young classic which has never sounded better.
Finally there’s the old American Songbook standard Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, written by Harold Arlen and Ted Kohler for a 1931 nightclub review. It’s fitting that the centerpiece of Sandy’s newest effort is her wonderful duet with Grady Tate. Tate’s singing continues to be as graceful and harmonious as ever, creating an inspired pairing of two professionals at the very top of their game.
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