Christopher Loudon
Christopher’s Contributions
01/02/13 Vox
Loverman
Barbara Cook
Aged to perfection—such is Barbara Cook. The doyenne of New York cabaret has, at 83, never sounded more appealing than she does across this 15-track set almost entirely arranged and orchestrated by Ted Rosenthal. The lyric soprano that propelled Cook to...
12/29/12 Vox
Aurora
Sara Serpa & Ran Blake
Though classically trained, vocalist Sara Serpa’s musical education really began when she discovered Hot Clube Jazz and its offshoot school in her native Lisbon. Moving Stateside, she earned her master’s at New England Conservatory, where her teachers included...
12/26/12 Vox
Viva Duets
Tony Bennett
This is Tony Bennett’s third trip to the Duets well, and he’s come up rather dry. The original Duets , released in 2006, included a pairing with Colombian vocalist Juanes. Last year, one selection on Duets II featured Bennett with Spanish singer-songwriter...
12/22/12 Vox
Release Me
Barbra Streisand
Though the title rather terrifyingly suggests an album of Engelbert Humperdinck covers, it actually refers to 11 tracks, languishing for various lengths of time in the Columbia vaults, handpicked by Streisand for belated release. Though such initiatives...
12/19/12 Vox
Notes From the Frontier
Jacqui Sutton
Her career has taken her from Madison to San Francisco to Portland to Manhattan, but it wasn’t until Jacqui Sutton arrived in Texas that she found just the right setting for the boldly unpredictable meld she calls “frontier jazz.” The Houston-based Sutton...
12/16/12 Vox
1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project
Kurt Elling
Manhattan’s most famous music address remains best known for the brief period during the late 1950s and early ’60s when young songwriters like Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Barry Mann and Burt Bacharach were churning out the pop...
12/15/12 Vox
(Re) Generet(ion)
Gregory Generet
For most of his artistic life, Gregory Generet has toiled as a post-production editor for various CBS news and sports programs, netting three Emmys for his efforts. An ardent jazz fan with a latent desire to become a vocalist, Generet established a wide...
12/13/12 Vox
Black Orchid
Malia
When Malawian vocalist Malia first broke through in the mid-aughts, it was with the dense, production-heavy albums Yellow Daffodils and Young Bones . Overflowing with pop-soul sass, they were filled with both slick originals like “Mr. Candy” and “Richer...
12/11/12 Vox
Soul Shadows
Denise Donatelli
Wisely adhering to the if-it-ain’t-broke adage, Denise Donatelli follows up 2008’s What Lies Within and 2010’s Grammy-nominated When Lights Are Low with a third partnership with musical director, arranger and pianist Geoffrey Keezer. The title is taken from...
12/09/12 Vox
Soul Flower
Robin McKelle & the Flytones
Not since Dusty Springfield invaded Memphis has a white female singer dished up so flavorful a bucket of soul. Robin McKelle’s passion for classic American R&B—not the pasteurized pop produced by Motown, but the raw stuff that poured forth from Stax and...
12/06/12 Vox
Night
Holly Cole
Though Canadian chanteuse Holly Cole and her longtime trio mates, pianist Aaron Davis and bassist David Piltch, released their first live album a few months ago, five years have passed since their last studio session. In the interim, Cole seems to have shifted...
12/03/12 Vox
Espresso Manifesto: The Songs of Paolo Conte
Daniela Nardi
The title of Toronto-based singer Daniela Nardi’s latest album alludes to the dark richness of singer-songwriter Paolo Conte, one of Italy’s most beloved artists, his nation’s answer to Jacques Brel or Leonard Cohen. But the title is equally evocative of...
11/29/12 Vox
I Carry Your Heart
Alexis Cole
Earlier this fall, a mammoth labor of love by Gary Carner, sax giant Pepper Adams’ biographer and discographer, finally came to fruition with Motéma’s digital release of the five-volume tribute Pepper Adams’ Joy Road Project , featuring contemporary recordings...
11/26/12 Vox
A Ghost in Every Bar: The Lyrics of Fran Landesman
Ian Shaw
Among lyricists, Fran Landesman was a master of mise en scène , framing immaculate, insightful playlets that could be witty, wicked, joyous or heartbreaking, often all at once. Landesman always delivered the unvarnished truth, simply yet eloquently stating...
11/23/12 Vox
Love Lost and Found Again
LaVerne Butler
A full decade has passed since LaVerne Butler’s previous album, yet her voice remains impeccably beautiful, her phrasing still pristine and her tone invitingly warm. Also intact, however, is her nagging lack of interpretive imagination. Like the MaxJazz...
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ReportAbout Christopher Loudon
When the rest of the baby-boomers were wrapped up in the Beatles and the Stones, Christopher Loudon was discovering Sinatra, Fitzgerald and Bennett. Since 2003, Loudon has critiqued upwards of 700 vocal albums in these pages and shaped about a dozen profiles, including Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Harry Connick Jr., Roberta Gambarini, Jamie Cullum, Nancy Wilson, Curtis Stigers and Dianne Reeves.