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CNY Jazz Orchestra Finds the Happy Medium
Andrea Brachfeld and Phoenix Rising are performing at the Long Branch Jazz and Blues Festival.
Half Note Records Releases Two Powerful Recordings
Peggy Duquesnel's Summertime Lullaby
- Genre: Jazz - Contemporary
- Personnel:
Peggy Duquesne (vocals, piano), Mike Higgins (guitar), Grant Geissman (guitar), Ernie Nunez (bass), Jim Dejulo (bass), Dave Owens (drums), Kendall Kay (drums)
- Tracks:
Summertime Lullaby, The Days Of Wine And Roses, My Romance, In The Quiet Hours, Promised Land, On Green Dolphin Street, Drivin’ Blues, Mack The Knife, Fly Me To The Moon, Satin Doll, Take The A Train, Stay As Sweet As You Are
Peggy Duquesnel rekindles a handful of standards such as Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s catchy ditty “The Days Of Wine And Roses” and Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers classic melody “My Romance” on her forthcoming CD Summertime Lullaby, complimented by a selection of original tunes that highlight Duquesnel’s fine vocal accoutrements and piano playing. With a repertoire arranged, produced and handpicked by Duquesnel, the album is dedicated to her husband and features some of the couple’s favorite love songs in addition to original works inspired by their time together. Gravitating to songs that reflect on the beauty of being in love, Summertime Lullaby’s mood remains dulcet throughout with warm guitar strolls and cozy grooves that exude sentimentality in every bend and strait.
Duquesnel’s mellifluous extensions are reposing as she places subtle nuances in Bart Howard’s “Fly Me To The Moon” and Mark Gordon and Harry Revel’s “Stay As Sweet As You Are.” Her piano style is delightful as one hand performs a phrasing that loops around the other weaving a quick-step stylized pattern in her treatment of Ned Washington and Bradshaw Kaper’s “On Green Dolphin Street” and comfy foxtrot glides in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “Mack The Knife.”
The album projects a nightclub ambience that goes down the proverbial wind-pipe smoothly, and tingles the palate with an elegant spritz of piano keys that electrify Billy Strayhorn’s iconic piece “Take The A Train.” Her interpretation of Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll” is flawless, but it is Duquesnel’s original tracks which are most alluring like the dreamy atmospherics emoting blissful ethers in the title track, and the pop infused lulling of “Promised Land.” Her song “Drivin’ Blues” makes excellent use of her nimble fingers and the jiggling guitar pizzicatos of Mike Higgins as Edo Guidotti’s Hammond B3 keeps in stride with them.
Coruscating moonlight textures mottled by breezy rhythmic strolls, Peggy Duquesnel delivers an album that is soothing on the senses and colonizes blissful landscapes. With an eloquent piano style comparable to Dena DeRose and finessed vocal lulls liken to Rondi Charleston, Peggy Duquesnel has all the accoutrements needed to make a lasting and positive impression on listeners minds.
