Carla Cook - It's All About Love (1999) 320kbps

This is an Enhanced audio CD, which contains regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE is part of Max Production's MaxJazz vocal series.

IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance.

Carla Cook is a sweet-yet-sassy-voiced jazz singer who balances straight-ahead jazz with pop and gospel influences. Her voice is supple and clear, in the vein of Natalie Cole, Sarah Vaughn, and the underrated Marlena Shaw (with a touch of Barbra Streisand). She's backed by a crew of stellar younger players like violinist Regina Carter and pianist Cyrus Chestnut who, along with a tight, crisp rhythm team, can ride effortlessly on old-school funk grooves or bop-driven mainstream jazz.

Cook serves up a mature, varied set of tunes that embraces the jazz tradition ("September Song," "Where or When"), classic R&B (Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues"), folk-rock ("Neil Young's "Heart of Gold"), and gospel ("Hold on to God's Unchanging Hand"). She makes all the songs her own, with truly soulful singing (Cook doesn't feel the need to hit every note in the scale on every song) and uncluttered arrangement. Here, Cook makes "Heart of Gold" sound like a standard, and does the scat-singing tradition proud on "These Foolish Things."

She Was Lead Vocalist For Lionel Hampton Orch & Esp

Recorded at Sound On Sound, New York, New York on March 16 & 17, 1999.

Personnel: Carla Cook (vocals); Regina Carter (violin); Cyrus Chestnut (piano, Fender Rhodes piano); Andy Milne (piano); Kenny Davis (acoustic & electric basses); Darryl Hall (bass); Billy Kilson, George Gray (drums); Jeffrey Haynes (percussion).JazzTimes (12/99, p.152) - "...inspiring evidence that the art and soul of jazz singing is alive and well....shows the range of her musical tributaries in a repertoire that includes two of her own compositions....The radiance she achieves in this performance...lights up the entire disc..."