Liane Carroll - The Right to Love

The Guardian 80

(Quiet Money)

Liane Carroll’s talents, as singer, pianist and all-round musical force of nature, seemed to defy all efforts to capture them successfully on record. Until, that is, she began working with producer James McMillan. This, their fourth album together, displays a characteristic mixture of deceptive simplicity and emotional depth. Following the loose theme of attitudes to love, Carroll calls on songs by, among others, Stevie Wonder, Tom Waits, Jacques Brel and Hoagy Carmichael, whose I Get Along Without You Very Well provides the most touching moment. The arrangements and playing, notably Mark Jaimes (guitar) and Kirk Whalum (tenor sax), are superb.

Sun Jul 23 06:59:00 GMT 2017

The Guardian 80

(Quiet Money Records)

Singer and pianist Liane Carroll occupies a curious position at the intersection of jazz, soul and the classier end of MOR. You’d expect her albums to serve as simple showcases for her exhilarating live shows, but her producer James McMillan has helped to turn each LP into an elegant song suite. Together with a fine band (including guitarist Mark Jaimes and pianist Mark Edwards) she recasts jazz standards as soul tunes: for instance, Skylark, one of three Hoagy Carmichael compositions here, is transformed into a quiet storm ballad, all slinky R&B guitar licks and lush Fender Rhodes chords, a trick she also pulls off with a slow-burning, Latin-tinged version of You Don’t Know What Love Is. Conversely, she reframes pop tunes by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Tom Waits and Dusty Springfield as weightless, drum-free pieces of chamber music, her elegant vocal improvisations eking new truths from familiar lyrics each time.

Thu Aug 10 17:00:35 GMT 2017