Linda Calise - La Vie My Life (2015)

Collective Personnel: Linda Calise ( vocals )with
Joe Carrier ( pno / kybd ) Vinny Pagano ( drs ) Greg Loughman ( acoustic bass ) Booby Cord ( gtr ) Pat Cardeiro ( gtr ) Lee Dynes ( gtr ) Alex Krepkikh ( gtr ) Ben Powell ( violin soloist ) Eric Bloom ( tpt soloist ) Trevoe Kellum ( sax soloist ) Ben Albert ( pno / vocals ) Joe Calise ( bass ) Pete Levesque ( sax solo ) Garrett Levesque ( violin ) Mauro Colangelo ( drs / bass / kyb ) Plus String Section & Horn Section
Recorded USA, 2015

Linda Calise studied voice at at the McClosky institute for voice in Boston, she has appeared at a number of jazz clubs including the prestigious Scullers Jazz Club.

This is a difficult album to categorise with it’s mixture of styles and material, it is definitely not an all out jazz album. The is one track, “La Vie En Rose” repeat of the same number but classed as a re-mix Which isnot something you expect to see on a jazz album. There are also tracks which have multi-tracking which is hardly conducive to a jazz performance.

Having said all that Miss Calise a strong and listenable voice and uses it to good effect particularly on numbers such as “I Wish You Love” which also has some multi tracing in places.Two tracks “Sunday Kind Of Love” and “Since I Fell For You” could have come direct from a Dinah Washington album but Linda Calise does have the vocal equipment to carry it off and the backing group combine to make these two successful performances.

The Scottish folk song “The Water Is Wide”is a completely change of style and approach but is just as successful and the violin solo adds to the atmosphere.
Another complete change of style for Miss Calise is the Phoebe Snow composition “Poetry Man” which is different again as anything else on the album.
On paper this is a release I would dismissed at first glance but putting aside my personal prejudices I rather enjoyed listening to the album.If you fancy something with a variety of styles you may enjoy this album as I did.