2013 Julie Lyon Quintet - Julie (2017) [24-88,2]

Julie Lyon is an extraordinary jazz singer. Classically trained and reared on pop, rock and blues, the draw of the vocal jazz greats, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and others, opened the door to a world in which Ms. Lyon is now at the top of her game. On "Julie", whether it’s the robust swing of Dr. Lonnie Smith’s “Too Damn Hot” (lyrics by Julie Lyon), the deeply felt “Every Time We Say Goodbye” or the Parisian cafe as speakeasy atmosphere of Tom Wait’s “Temptation”, Julie’s voice is glorious and the band is in full flight.
Perhaps the most interesting element in this recording is the 'live in studio' nature lending a great deal of atmosphere and beatnik cafe society vibe to the affair. Well, actually, I'm assuming it was thus live 'cause it sure as hell sounds it—if not, if there are overdubs and such, then Tom Tedesco possesses some supernatural talents as an engineer. Singer Julie Lyon exhibits a large element of the happy-go-lucky in her swinging recitations, perhaps most vividly shown in her take on Dindi, about the snappiest version I've heard yet in a song that's been undergoing quite a renaissance in revisitations recently. Then there are the laid back, casual, way hip quotations from the quartet backing her, sounding as though just returned from a break in the back alley where the subject of 'discussion' was muggles, Jack Daniels, and maybe a nip or two of Romilar. I mean, everything here is so strongly reminiscent of one of those way cool Shag (Josh Agle) paintings that I practically hear the painter's vivid mono- and multi-chromatics and urbane exotica in the CD. Then come all the off-the-cuff incidentals the band adds in—catch especially Matt Levelle's throaty bass clarinet fog in Every Time We Say Goodbye, so husky it's almost aromatic—alongside Lyon's friendly counter-culture intonations, a college girl matriculating in Hip 101. Bobby Brennan has the band nailed in with his solid bass work, and Tom Cabrera's drumming evokes mental images of Maynard G. Krebs standing by, fingers snapping, grin wreathing Fu Manchu'ed face, while Jack DeSalvo's guitar is a mercurial presence, dashing in for a doo-wop quotation, then sliding back out again. Levelle, though is oft striking, as present and in the pocket as Lyon, he blazing (as in the trumpet work in Too Damn Hot) while she smile-sings seductively, caught between wanting to gambol in the sun, grab that martini on the sidebar, and/or wink at the guy who just strolled in, tan, lean, and mysterious. All or Nothing at All undergoes a modern art treatment, pointillistic and fragmentary, Lyon holding everything together while the guys get jagged and rambly. Then she clarifies and espanola-izes Tom Waits bizarre Temptation, turning it from a near-inchoate schizophrenic blues into something the Asylum Street Spankers would've produced. And if I pen any more paeans here, I'm going to have to check into Keroauc Rehab and have my typewriter re-tuned, so why not just glom the CD and just dig what's goin' down, gator.

foobar2000 1.3.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-08-20 09:59:43
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Analyzed: Julie Lyon Quintet / Julie
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DR         Peak         RMS     Duration Track
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DR13      -0.25 dB   -16.97 dB      5:26 01-Love For Sale
DR13      -0.25 dB   -15.03 dB      4:08 02-Bye Bye Blackbird
DR13      -0.25 dB   -16.49 dB      4:16 03-Dindi
DR15      -0.25 dB   -17.40 dB      5:21 04-Comes Love
DR12      -0.25 dB   -14.34 dB      4:35 05-Everytime We Say Goodbye
DR9       -0.25 dB   -11.33 dB      4:45 06-Too Damn Hot
DR13      -0.25 dB   -15.95 dB      6:54 07-All Or Nothing At All
DR12      -0.25 dB   -14.94 dB      8:21 08-Born To Be Blue
DR13      -0.25 dB   -15.90 dB      4:10 09-Strollin'
DR11      -0.25 dB   -13.35 dB      3:36 10-Temptation
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Number of tracks:  10
Official DR value: DR12
Samplerate:        88200 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   24
Bitrate:           2688 kbps
Codec:             FLAC
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