Queen Latifah - The Dana Owens Album
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.82 You Save: $3.16 (23%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.75 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for The Dana Owens Album
Free Music Review: A Classic Ablum sung by a Classy Diva
Hit: 5 Stars
I have been following Queen Latifah ever since her Rap/Hip Hop days and have always admired her strength, poise, and positive outlook in life and in her music. She is an ideal role-model for the young generation of today not to mention she can sing without her voice being adjusted in pitch or tone in a recording studio to make her sound good, something that is unfortunately very rare in "singers" in the industry today.
I remember watching "Living Out Loud" and Queen Latifah appeared on stage and started to sing "Lush Life", I was floored by the cool, rich, velvety tone that came out of her mouth, at first I thought it was her but later found out that it was indeed Queen Latifah. I respected and admired her even more knowing that she was a true singer. These songs may be 20-70 years old but these are songs that take skill and musicianship to sing. Jazz rhythms and melodies are more complex and require a trained ear as well as trained vocal chords to perform. Ms. Owens/Queen Latifah performs these golden masterpieces with the skill and ease that reminds me of artists like Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald. Her phrasing and interpretation of these songs demonstrates her love and passion for jazz, blue, and standards. It takes skill and class to perform these pieces and she demonstrates both.
I cannot pick one song in particular to rave about because I love all of them. I myself am a singer and have been a student of voice for over 20 years, I have studied Jazz, Musical Theater, Pop, and Bel Canto(classical) technique. I studied music at the University of California, Santa Barbara and it is refreshing to hear a person sing a song the way it was written. She always approaches the song with the respect and intergity it deserves while adding her own touch to each piece without using excessive "vocal fireworks" as I call it like so many singers today. These are songs that separate the singers from the performers and there is not doubt in my mind Queen Latifah/Dana Owens proves herself to be a singer.
This transition is a bold and risky move for Queen Latifah. The musical style is very different from what most may be use to hearing her perform but if you take the chance and buy this brillant album, I guarantee you will fall in love with it. "The Dana Owens Album" gives people an opportunity to hear her rich, beautiful voice singing songs only a Queen could do with the grace and dignity she does. I applaud her for her artist integrity and bravery and look forward to hearing more of Dana Owen's beautiful voice in albums to come.
Free Music Review: Parts Nostalgia, Parts Pop Sensability, Wall-to-Wall Latifah
Hit: 5 Stars
Anyone who has heard Queen Latifah sing in her role of Mama Morton in 2003's Oscar-garnering motion picture knows that the multi-talented chameleon can beat the hell out of a tune like its no one else's business. She holds true to this recently established fact with her fifth full-length studio LP, "The Dana Owens Album," whose title reflects her given name. Covering a dozen pop, soul and jazz standards, the disc is her premiere full-fledged project as a singer. As all quality vocalists should, she infuses nearly every song with her own distinctive flavor, making them her own.
Exercising her privilege to choose producers, Latifah wisely settled on Arif Mardin (Aretha Franklin, Norah Jones) and Ron Fair (Counting Crows, Black-Eyed Peas). Together, the two laid down the album's foundation, and the result is a disc that is parts nostalgia, parts pop sensibility, and wall-to-wall Latifah. The smoothness and warmth of their production makes for the perfect CD to play while a roaring fire blazes in the fireplace.
Kicking off with a big-band track, the defiant "Baby, Get Lost," the album opens on a high note. Al Green's sensual "Simply Beautiful" soon follows, on which he duets with Latifah on her interpretation of his own song. Both selections being rich and vibrant, the only thing that hinders them is her spin on the Screamin' Jay Hawkins standard "I Put a Spell On You," which is sandwiched in-between. A duet with celebrated jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, the duo does not add anything original to the song.
One interesting number is her version of "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas. Slinky, downtrodden and satiated with Spanish guitars, the track actually finds its inspiration from Jose Feliciano's cover of the song that appeared on his 1968 album "Feliciano!"
Toward the end of the disc is "Hard Times," a joyous song where it is easy to see Latifah is having a grand old time. Almost as upbeat is the bubbly, percolating "Same Love That Made Me Laugh" by Bill Withers. Listening to both tunes on repeat is as pleasurable as eating an entire box of milk chocolate and getting giddy.
More highlights include a laid-back reading of Barbara Lewis' "Hello Stranger," "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," where she namedrops her hometown of Newark, NJ, and the elegant "Lush Life," a self-examining selection by Billy Strayhorn that ends the disc on an even higher note that it began.
Free Music Review: Queen Dana Rules!
Hit: 5 Stars
I always liked Queen's personality, but knowing she was a rapper didn't impress me. Then one morning it happened; a morning after when I didn't want to get out of bed, my local jazz station debuted her rendition of "California Dreamin'." Impressed that she could actually carry a tune, I sort of blew it off, then saw a video of her in the studio working on the album. BAMMO, that was it!
What a delight to discover the Queen not only used her real name on this outing, but also proved she can sing. Can she ever! What a sultry, sophisticated, easy-on-the-ears set of pipes the lovely Queen has!
While it's all good and worth the money, I have to admit I don't care all that much for "I Put a Spell on You," "Simply Beautiful," or the aforementioned "California Dreamin'." The rest, however, is a sublime treat for the ears, particularly:
The sexy brass bombshell of jazzy "Baby Get Lost" in all its boldness and attitude.
The down and dirty powerhouse blues of the chugging "The Same Love that Made Me Laugh."
The cool, erotic, mysteria of "Close Your Eyes."
Absolutely fun and thouroughly enjoyable treatment of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy."
The sweet, nostalgic innocence of "Hello Stranger."
Simply beautiful and charming "If I Had You."
The pitch perfect phrasing and attitude old jazz classic "Lush Life." (If you think Linda Ronstadt can sing that song so well, listen to this, and I guarantee you'll laugh your buns off!)
If you like your music on the nostalgic side with a spoonful of sass, an equal measure of honey, and a generous helping of sophistication, get your hands on Queen Dana's album. The lady seriously rules!
Free Music Review: Dana's Put A Spell On Me
Hit: 5 Stars
Queen Latifah. Dana Owens. Whatever you want to call her, the woman is a gift. She is elegance, she is grace, she is class. And now with "The Dana Owens Album" she has proved it once again, this time to the music world. The Queen has entered the building, and she ain't never gonna be leavin'. Ya hear?
Her sass is still there, on the upbeat tracks such as "Baby Get Lost" and "The Same Love That Made Me Laugh" and "Mercy Mercy Mercy." She won't let you forget that she IS still the Queen. Don't be fooled.
But we also get the exquisite treat of her more sensitive and mature side, on "Close Your Eyes", "I Put A Spell on You," "California Dreamin'" and of course the absolutely perfect "Lush Life," from "Living Out Loud," which was the first time I realized that this lady, while already immensely talented, was much more multi-talented than anyone initially thought. How wonderful that her career has blossomed so well since this initial outing.
There are not enough superlatives and not enough exclamations in the dictionary to represent how I feel after listening to this album over and over again. I will never tire of it, and I will never tire of her magical voice. I can't wait to see what she does next. If Queen Dana Latifah Owens has reinvented herself before--and she has--she just might do it again, and I will be anxiously awaiting the next move. Will she rap again? Possibly, but as a non-rap fan, I am hoping that she continues along this path and continues to grace us with that velvety smooth voice for years to come.
Free Music Review: NOT ENOUGH STARS FOR THIS ONE!
Hit: 5 Stars
I am SO hooked on this cd...and my 16yo son is enthalled with the very first song..especially the part where the trumpets are blaring & it sounds like something straight outta the big band era (yea, he's a budding trumpet player!) Until this cd, he'd only been familiar with her acting talents - which are equally impressive - never heard her rap until I played one of my old cassettes where I had recorded U.N.I.T.Y. from the radio!
I wish I could find the song that she & T.C. Carson (as Khadijah James & Kyle Barker) sang on 'Living Single' at Sinclair & Overton's wedding somewhere...now that was *my* first time hearing her sing...and I knew then, the girl has a dynamite voice.
Her performance in "Living Out Loud" made me buy not only the movie, but the soundtrack as well! Then there was her performance at the Academy Awards a few years ago (No, I don't think it was the nite she was nominated for the Chicago Best Supporting Actress); it was a couple of years before that...anyway...everyone I worked with was ranting & raving about her performance (one friend in particular..well, let's just say he was absolutely mesmerized by the sight of her in "that red dress")...she gives absolute credence to the fact that size 2 ain't all that's beautiful baby!
OK, she made us wait quite a while..let's just hope that this is not the last we've heard from this genre from the Queen!