A solid straight-ahead album
Written: Feb 15 '06 (Updated Feb 15 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Juli Wood is a solid tenor players and sings well, too
Cons: Needed more cuts and more sax
The Bottom Line: if you like straight ahead jazz quartets with tenor sax and vocals, this CD is a worthy buy
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| Saxguy's Full Review: Blues for Earma Jean - Juli Wood and Earma Thompso... |
Many thanks to user Lambchops for adding this CD to the database.
I’ve seen Juli Wood’s name around town as a busy tenor player. I figured she was solid, based on who she was appearing with and where, although I’ve never had the pleasure of listening to her live. So, when I noticed she had a couple of albums available at www.CDBaby.com, I checked out the online samples and chose to buy this CD, Blues for Earma Jean By Juli Wood and Earma Thompson.
From the start, I was surprised not only by Juli being a singer as well as a tenor player, but also because of the enjoyability of her vocals. She has a nice range, a pleasant but earthy voice with lots of power when belting out the blues. It’s not surprising. I learned from Neil Tesser’s liner notes that Juli played baritone sax and sang in a Milwaukee-based R&B band for 7 years. On tenor, she plays great, with a bright yet gruff sound rooted in Coleman Hawkins, straight-ahead licks rooted in Dexter Gordon’s laid-back approach and honed through practice and an ability to improvise compelling yet accessible improvised lines. I love exuberant players – I enjoy hearing a player tell me musically messages like “I love this horn” “Playing is the greatest joy in the world”, etc. When a sax player has that vibe happening, I never fail to notice it and be thrilled by it. Juli has it. Her vocals have that as well, and that also contributes to my enjoyment of her enjoyment.
Her co-leader, Earma Thompson is a veteran Chicago-Area pianist, with plenty of technique and a style that tends toward appropriate understatement, not only when accompanying Juli’s vocals and tenor, but also during Earma’s own solos. Earma’s solos also show a bit of exuberance every now and then.
The remaining players are also well-regarded Chicago-area veterans, if not as veteran as Earma. Dennis Carroll is well known around town as a versatile and tasteful bassist; Mike Schlick has the same reputation on drums. I worked with Mike a couple of times several years ago. He’s a great player and a very nice guy.
For me, the joy of Juli’s sax and vocals were tempered a little bit by the shortness of the album (less than 42 minutes) and the fact that some of the songs with vocals had no sax solos.
Her solos on the blues cuts, SKJ and Blues for Earma Jean are wonderful: well-constructed and funky, not too short, not too long, very appropriate. They left me wanting more. I suspect her ability to say a lot in a relatively modest number of choruses was developed during her R&B stint as well. I’m pretty sure she can stretch out, too – she’s been appearing as a duo with the outstanding pianist, Kelly Brand. I’ll have to check them out. Juli has other CDs available and I plan on acquiring them.
On balance this is quite an enjoyable CD and I’d like to hear more from the band. I can recommend this CD. It is available from www.cdbaby.com.
Sure it’s short, sure there should be more sax, but what’s here is worthy of 5 stars.
Cut list (*indicates vocal; &indicates sax solo)
Gravy Waltz*&
The More I See You*
Evil Woman Blues*
Three Little Words*
It’s Easy To Remember*
SKJ&
Speak Low*
We’ll Be Together Again (trio piece – piano, bass, drums)
Blues for Earma Jean&
Thanks for reading. God bless!
You might enjoy some of my other music and music-related reviews:
A Man and a Half (Rhino Retrospective) by Wilson Pickett
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How I grab an audience
My Top Ten Favorite Jazz Albums
Our Favorite Romance Mix
Impressions by the John Coltrane Quartet with Eric Dolphy
Mark Colby (sax) Speaking of Stan album
Joe Henderson (sax) Lush Life album
Dean Evenson (flute) The Tao of Peace album
Sheetmusicplus.com web store
Activemusician.com web store
My worst gig
What music has helped me learn about myself
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Recommended:
Yes
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