This is one of those albums that has something for everyone.
author: Jonathan Frank
Another eagerly anticipated album was Purpose Of Love, Tim Di Pasqua's long-awaited follow up to one of my favorite albums, Monster Under These Conditions. The album was inspired by a benefit in 2000 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that featured Di Pasqua's songs (and won him a 2001 Backstage Bistro Award for Special Cabaret Event). Purpose Of Love features eleven songs performed by a dozen performers and encompasses a variety of styles. There's the anthem to Broadway belting ("My Favorite Note, performed by the iron-lunged Alix Korey), an ode to the fantasy of closing time ("Big Hairy Man," tenderly and beautifully sung by Scott Coulter), a rollicking blues number ("You Got No Style," performed by the incomparable Baby Jane Dexter), and the warped high comedy song ("You Make Me Nuts," delightfully sung by Tom Andersen).
With all those styles and performers, this is one of those albums that has something for everyone (and conversely has a song or two that won't match a person's individual taste). As, to my ears and heart, Tim Di Pasqua is a songwriter with a unique and evocative voice that is at its best when describing yearning, be it desperate or fulfilled, my favorite numbers are the haunting "So Good" (beautifully sung by Ann Marie), the heartbreaking "It Shouldn't Have Happened" (sung by Jessica Hendy, who plucks every heartstring like a maestro) and a number celebrating a person's true accomplishments in life, "You" (performed by Tim himself). The last number is by far the best on the album, sparking the only complaint about this album: Tim Di Pasqua is as good a performer as he is a songwriter and the album would have been even more magical (to this listener at least) if he had preserved more of his interpretations.
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Tim writes from a heart full of wisdom and love
author: Craig Oldfather
Few people can endure long enough in this business to be successful, and still get back to where they started-hopeful, humorous, loving-but now with wisdom, and something important to say. Tim writes so sublimely the thoughts we need to hear, and the listening is oh so pleasurable as he and his supremely talented friends tell us of life and love.
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