The Abbey Road Sessions (Ian Shaw album)
Encyclopedia
The Abbey Road Sessions is a 2011 studio album
by Ian Shaw
. http://www.ianshaw.biz/
Well, not only his every word, although some of his will certainly feature - Somewhere Towards Love, perhaps, or She's Loaded - but usually a Shaw show will involve a visit to Joni Mitchell's lyrics or Johnny Mercer's, Hoagy Carmichael's, Randy Newman's.. The Great American Songbook, I suppose, with a few welcome gatecrashers. His audiences hang on whoever's words they are, simply because Ian is one of the country's greatest interpreters of songs of any provenance, a singer who takes care to look for the truth in their lyrics. Time and again I heard have him announce something I thought had been wrecked by careless drivers – Cry me A River, perhaps, or Send in The Clowns - and wheel it out, the bodywork polished to a high gloss, showroom-new once more. Because, not only does that peerless voice bring something fresh to the material vocally, Ian's attention to the words (and he chooses songs where they have a considerable heft) bleeds meaning back into what, in lesser hands, can become a mere sequence of syllables.
You can hear that on this album, in the yearning, delicate Skylark, the heartbreaking chimera of Through With Love/Day Dream and the urgent push-pull of Get Out of Town. However, this record, as you can tell from its title, brings something else to the usual Ian Shaw experience. Recorded among the benign musical ghosts of the hallowed Studio Two at Abbey Road, Ian gathered a cracking cross-generational band, from the impossibly young trumpeter Miguel Gorodi through the only slightly less improbably youthtful guitarist David Preston - a long-time collaborator - to the Godfather of the British jazz bass, Peter Ind, playing on the eve of his 82nd birthday.
Peter also goes way back with Ian, to the days when he was a regular performer at Peter's pioneering Bass Clef club. Listen to that big, fat, springy bass on the opening of The Lady's In Love With You and tell me that sounds like a man in his ninth decade - apart from the fact that his inimitable sound is the direct result of a long history of gigging with the likes of Lennie Tristano, Zoom Sims, Buddy Rich and Mal Waldron. Not that his partner in the drum chair was overawed: the Cassavetes-cool Gene Calderazzo is an anchorman with a C.V that runs from Steve Lacy to Radiohead. Nothing fazes him because he's heard – and played – it all. Alto man Zhenya Strigalev and Irish pianist Phil Ware might not have quite the same well-padded backgrounds, but that's simply because they haven’t got the years under their belts yet: they are both serious faces on home turf (New York and Ireland respectively).
I was there for part of that day at Abbey Road, so I find it hard to dissociate listening to this album from the electricity and excitement that sparked in both the studio and the booth as Ian and the band parsed the entire jazz-song lexicon in just 13 tracks. It was a joy to watch them dismantle and re-build well-known tunes, making them afresh, and to witness how seven highly individual musicians can meld into a single tight unit over the course of few hours. So if you ask me for my favourite track, I’ll struggle. Well, with my arm up my back, it's got to be Joni's Be Cool. Or Stairway to the Stars. Although that arrangement of Stuck in the Middle.. hold on, I’ll just press ‘play’ again. And so will you. Liner notes by Robert Ryan
.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Ian Shaw
Ian Shaw (singer)
Ian Shaw is a Welsh jazz singer, record producer, and former stand up comedian.Shaw was born at St. Asaph, Wales, and his career in performance began on the Alternative Cabaret Circuit, alongside such performers as Julian Clary, Rory Bremner and Jo Brand.In his music career he has recorded and...
. http://www.ianshaw.biz/
Track listing
- "Get Out of TownGet Out of Town"Get Out of Town" is a 1938 popular song written by Cole Porter, for his musical Leave It to Me!, where it was introduced by Tamara Drasin.-Notable recordings:*Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook...
" (Cole PorterCole PorterCole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
) - "Human NatureHuman Nature (Michael Jackson song)"Human Nature" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written and composed by Steve Porcaro and John Bettis, and produced by Quincy Jones. It is the fifth single from the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller . Initially, Porcaro had recorded a rough demo of the song on a...
" (Steve PorcaroSteve PorcaroSteven Maxwell "Steve" Porcaro is an American keyboardist and composer, who was an original member of the rock/pop band Toto....
, John BettisJohn BettisJohn Bettis is an American lyricist who has co-written many famous popular songs over the years. In 2011, John was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame....
) - "SkylarkSkylark (song)"Skylark" is an American popular song with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Hoagy Carmichael, published in 1941. Mercer said that he struggled for a year after he got the music from Carmichael before he could get the lyrics right....
" (Hoagy CarmichaelHoagy CarmichaelHoward Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
, Johnny MercerJohnny MercerJohn Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
) - "Obsession" (Danilo Caymmi, Tracy Mann, Gilson Peranzzetta)
- "Stuck in the Middle with YouStuck in the Middle With You"Stuck in the Middle with You" is a song written by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan and originally performed by their band Stealers Wheel....
" (Gerry RaffertyGerry RaffertyGerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working-class family in...
, Joe Egan) - "Since I Fell for YouSince I Fell for You"Since I Fell for You" is a jazz and pop standard. The blues ballad was composed by Buddy Johnson in 1945 and was first popularized by his sister, Ella Johnson, with Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra. The biggest hit version was recorded by Lenny Welch in 1963, reaching number four on the U.S...
" (Buddy JohnsonBuddy JohnsonNot to be confused with Budd Johnson.Buddy Johnson was an American jazz and New York blues pianist and bandleader, active from the 1930s through the 1960s...
) - "The Lady's In Love With YouThe Lady's in Love with You"The Lady's in Love with You" is a popular song.The music was written by Burton Lane, the lyrics by Frank Loesser. The song was published in 1939. The song was a major hit for the Glenn Miller orchestra, featuring a rare spoken interlude by Miller and vocal by Tex Beneke.The song has become a...
" (Burton LaneBurton LaneBurton Lane was an American composer and lyricist. His most popular and successful work is the musical Finian's Rainbow, "the score for which Lane will always be most remembered."-Biography:...
, Frank LoesserFrank LoesserFrank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and scores to the Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for...
) - "I'm Thru with Love/Day DreamDay Dream"Day Dream" is a 1941 song composed by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, with lyrics by John La Touche.Saxophonist Johnny Hodges first recorded this tune with Strayhorn on piano in 1941.-Notable recordings:...
" (Gus KahnGus KahnGustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...
, Fud LivingstonFud LivingstonFud Livingston was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, arranger, and composer. He co-wrote the jazz and pop standard "I'm Through With Love".-Career:...
, Matty MalneckMatty MalneckMatty Malneck was an American jazz violinist, violist and songwriter.Malneck's first professional gigs as a violinist began when he was age 16. He worked with Paul Whiteman from 1926 to 1937, and also recorded in the same period with Frank Signorelli, Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, and...
)/(John La Touche, Billy StrayhornBilly StrayhornWilliam Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".-Early...
, Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
) - "Be CoolBe CoolBe Cool is a 2005 crime-comedy film adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1999 novel of the same name and the sequel to Leonard's 1990 novel Get Shorty about mobster Chili Palmer's entrance into the film industry.The film adaptation of Be Cool began production in 2003. It was directed by F...
" (Joni MitchellJoni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
) - "I Get Along Without You Very Well" (Carmichael, Jane Brown Thompson)
- "Darn That DreamDarn That Dream"Darn That Dream" is a popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Eddie DeLange, published in 1939.The song was introduced in the Broadway musical Swingin' The Dream.-Recorded versions:...
" (Jimmy Van Heusen, Eddie DeLangeEddie DeLangeEddie DeLange was an American bandleader and lyricist. Famous artists who recorded some of DeLange's songs include Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman.-Biography:...
) - "Today I Sing the Blues"
- "Stairway to the StarsStairway to the Stars"Stairway to the Stars" is a popular song composed by Matty Malneck and Frank Signorelli, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish.-Notable recordings:* Glen Miller and His Orchestra, vocals by Ray Eberle...
" (Mitchell ParishMitchell ParishMitchell Parish was an American lyricist.-Early life:Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old...
, Malneck, Frank SignorelliFrank SignorelliFrank Signorelli was an US jazz pianist of the 1920s. He was a founder member of the Original Memphis Five in 1917, then joined the Original Dixieland Jazz Band briefly in 1921. In 1927 he played in Adrian Rollini's New York ensemble, and subsequently worked with Eddie Lang, Bix Beiderbecke, Matty...
)
Personnel
- Ian ShawIan Shaw (singer)Ian Shaw is a Welsh jazz singer, record producer, and former stand up comedian.Shaw was born at St. Asaph, Wales, and his career in performance began on the Alternative Cabaret Circuit, alongside such performers as Julian Clary, Rory Bremner and Jo Brand.In his music career he has recorded and...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Peter IndPeter IndPeter Ind is a British jazz double-bassist and record producer.Ind began playing professionally in the late 1940s, including being part of the 'house band' on the ship Queen Mary from 1949 to 1951. He relocated to New York City in 1951, where he played with Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz , Buddy...
- double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
(all tracks except track 5) - David Preston - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Phil Ware - pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
- Gene CalderazzoGene CalderazzoGene Calderazzo is an American jazz drummer, born in New York, but currently residing in the United Kingdom where he is a visiting tutor at the Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity and the Guildhall...
- drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Zhenya Strigalev - alto saxophoneAlto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
- Miguel Gorodi - trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
- David BeeBee - double bass (on track 5)
Liner notes
Over the years, I have seen Ian Shaw in many settings, from fronting a lush big-band-with-strings in a concert hall to late nights in a Soho basement, when someone should have stopped serving booze to that piano hours ago. Most commonly, though, it's been in a jazz club, just Mr. Shaw at the keyboard, along with the most expressive voice in British jazz, keeping the audience (be it at Ronnie Scott's, the Pizza Express, 606, The Vortex or any one of the scores of places he plays around the country each year) hanging on his every word.Well, not only his every word, although some of his will certainly feature - Somewhere Towards Love, perhaps, or She's Loaded - but usually a Shaw show will involve a visit to Joni Mitchell's lyrics or Johnny Mercer's, Hoagy Carmichael's, Randy Newman's.. The Great American Songbook, I suppose, with a few welcome gatecrashers. His audiences hang on whoever's words they are, simply because Ian is one of the country's greatest interpreters of songs of any provenance, a singer who takes care to look for the truth in their lyrics. Time and again I heard have him announce something I thought had been wrecked by careless drivers – Cry me A River, perhaps, or Send in The Clowns - and wheel it out, the bodywork polished to a high gloss, showroom-new once more. Because, not only does that peerless voice bring something fresh to the material vocally, Ian's attention to the words (and he chooses songs where they have a considerable heft) bleeds meaning back into what, in lesser hands, can become a mere sequence of syllables.
You can hear that on this album, in the yearning, delicate Skylark, the heartbreaking chimera of Through With Love/Day Dream and the urgent push-pull of Get Out of Town. However, this record, as you can tell from its title, brings something else to the usual Ian Shaw experience. Recorded among the benign musical ghosts of the hallowed Studio Two at Abbey Road, Ian gathered a cracking cross-generational band, from the impossibly young trumpeter Miguel Gorodi through the only slightly less improbably youthtful guitarist David Preston - a long-time collaborator - to the Godfather of the British jazz bass, Peter Ind, playing on the eve of his 82nd birthday.
Peter also goes way back with Ian, to the days when he was a regular performer at Peter's pioneering Bass Clef club. Listen to that big, fat, springy bass on the opening of The Lady's In Love With You and tell me that sounds like a man in his ninth decade - apart from the fact that his inimitable sound is the direct result of a long history of gigging with the likes of Lennie Tristano, Zoom Sims, Buddy Rich and Mal Waldron. Not that his partner in the drum chair was overawed: the Cassavetes-cool Gene Calderazzo is an anchorman with a C.V that runs from Steve Lacy to Radiohead. Nothing fazes him because he's heard – and played – it all. Alto man Zhenya Strigalev and Irish pianist Phil Ware might not have quite the same well-padded backgrounds, but that's simply because they haven’t got the years under their belts yet: they are both serious faces on home turf (New York and Ireland respectively).
I was there for part of that day at Abbey Road, so I find it hard to dissociate listening to this album from the electricity and excitement that sparked in both the studio and the booth as Ian and the band parsed the entire jazz-song lexicon in just 13 tracks. It was a joy to watch them dismantle and re-build well-known tunes, making them afresh, and to witness how seven highly individual musicians can meld into a single tight unit over the course of few hours. So if you ask me for my favourite track, I’ll struggle. Well, with my arm up my back, it's got to be Joni's Be Cool. Or Stairway to the Stars. Although that arrangement of Stuck in the Middle.. hold on, I’ll just press ‘play’ again. And so will you. Liner notes by Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan (writer)
Robert Ryan , also known as Tom Neale, is an English author, journalist and screenwriter. Born in Liverpool, he moved to London to study natural sciences at university and began his writing career in the late 1980s for The Face, Arena and the US edition of GQ, and then Sunday Times.Ryan published...
.
Reviews
- "Shaw was positively fizzing with excitement. It must have also been the launch of his lushly arranged latest album The Abbey Road Sessions... he's in danger of becoming a national treasure" Mike Flynn, JazzwiseJazzwiseJazzwise Publications Limited is a UK-based specialist jazz music publisher and education company. It was founded in 1984 as a mail-order company promoting jazz and improvisation through catalogues and short courses and workshops for musicians...
- "Shaw is at the peak of his powers, especially here alongside Brit-jazz royalty Peter Ind" Time Out
- "his voice has never sounded better . . . Shaw's take-no-prisoners approach carried the day". JazzwiseJazzwiseJazzwise Publications Limited is a UK-based specialist jazz music publisher and education company. It was founded in 1984 as a mail-order company promoting jazz and improvisation through catalogues and short courses and workshops for musicians...
- "a singer in confident form at the top of his game." Sandy Brown Jazz