Pauline London - Under The Rainbow (2010)

After the important international appraisal which resulted from her first album “Quiet Skies” (2004) Pauline is back with a new cd which tastes like Jazz, Nu-Jazz, Latin-Jazz with hints of authorial pop. Whereas the mentioned first album had an electronic-jazz stamp to it, “Under the Rainbow” represents an evolution towards more acoustic and orchestral sounds. The title of this works calls to one’s mind the famous standard, finding continuity between the important traditional Northern American music and her own personal stroke in composing and interpretation. Staying “under” the rainbow is a way of being in present times, here and now, enjoying the inspirations and creativity this multi-coloured spectrum can offer to us. Thanks to the rainbow we can find once more shades of light after a darker hour, we may regain life blood. This work hence represents continuity with the “musical colours” of “Quiet Skies”, but makes them turn out more maturely and homogeneously. A refined combination of acoustic and digital instruments are the central thread of this album. The whole of it is cleverly constructed by the arrangements here more essential and there cunningly architected inspired by great Italian maestri Morricone, Trovaioli, Piccioni. This parcours is characterized by Pauline’s voice, which moves with adaptability from samba / bossa-nova inspirated atmospheres, towards more introspective and rarefied moments, passing by pop rock accents and sounds. The album’s thirteen songs unwind offering us original compositions, interpretation of a few standards and pop covers. Amongst unpublished pieces one catches sight of I still miss you with a latin-jazz taste, nostalgic tone, and its constant pitch modulating crescendo.Colors, bright and solar, towards an absorbing and dynamic up-tempo, recalls through composition and lyrics the feeling beheld by the album’s title, the rainbow inside and outside ourselves.”Amor para sonhar” owns the vivid mood of samba with bilingual portuguese and english lyrics. In Black and White represents a more introspective moment marked by an electro-swing style.”Walking on the sand” retro beat. “Meu amor meu curacao” is pure soft samba with a singing chorus to it. So I is an episode with a pushful rock impulse to it, recalling the tradition of Northern American songwriters.

Peace (is the only way) this song also has a poppy essence to it, but with deep contents. It claims peace, as mentioned in the title, to be the only way. Moment of magic- soft rocking acoustic pace of rythm and strings. Pauline offers a tribute to authors and artists which are part of her background by choosing four “classical” songs each of their own kind. The famous The Shadow of your smile with orchestral interventions in Ennio Morricone’s style, Change Partner a piece in Brasilian style made famous by Sinatra, enriched here by the polyphonic arrangement of 4 guitars. Breakout, a song written by the “Swing Out Sister” which comes from the Anglosaxon 80s pop panorama, is revisited in a latin-samba key which keeps your feet moving. Senza Fine, an emblematic title, both for its last position in the track list, recalling a kind of ciclicity, continuity between an end and a new beginning, and for its celebrity in Italian traditional music. This three quarters is redone as a sophisticated nu-jazz standard Pauline London, singer, songwriter and composer, started performing live at the beginning of the 90s in numerous Italian and European jazz-clubs and festivals. Her versatility brings her to mix efficaciously different styles and sounds. She moves with ease amongst classic and modern standard jazz, proposes pop songs rearranged according to jazz style, and finally composes her original tracks which mix jazz, nu-jazz, latin-jazz, pop and rock suggestions together. Her influences cross from Latin American music through great jazz singers like Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Mel Tormé, Dianne Reeves, to reach refined and elegant pop such as that of artists like Sade, Seal, Noa, and nu-bossa tendencies similar to Bebel Gilberto. She is also a vocal improviser who reaps from traditional scat singing enriching it with phrasings which come from ethnic, rock and pop music. Her constant research and curiosity on different aspects of vocality also brings her to study extra-European musical systems (particularly, singing in Nothern India and Karnataka singing) as well as Italian popular music. Her first solo album is produced by Funky Juice Records in 2004. The “Quiet Skies” cd meets great appraisal at an international level and is licensed to Sony Columbia Japan. In 2008 she’s a guest at Nu Note Lounge Fest in Moscow. Pauline has worked with many different artists as songwriter and performer. In 2002 her voice features in Barrio Jazz Gang’s “Spectrum” CD, released in different European and extra- European countries among which Australia and Japan. In 2004 she is a guest vocalist on “My favorite Beats” album by Dynamic Four.In 2009 her voice features on some of the tracks of Barrio Jazz Gang’s new album “vol. 2” as well as her lyrics.