Regina Belle - Lazy Afternoon
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Free Music Notes for Lazy Afternoon
Free Music Review: A delightful shift from predictable jazz singing fare.
Hit: 5 Stars
Few R&B artists can balance class with emotional honesty like Grammy-winner Regina Belle. Musically, however, Regina's seventh solo album leans heavily in favor of subdued, soulful and jazzy tracks.
The result is an exciting and sometimes moving experience.
"Lazy afternoon" is a sonic m?lange of jazz, classic R&B, and scat, all fused with rib-thumping bottom notes of unadulterated funk and gospel, and Regina moves fluidly between these genres, mixing it up to create a flavorful aural Gumbo that is melodically lush, lyrically appealing and unabashedly soulful.
Her latest album, which was was produced by Grammy-Nominated Artist George Duke, continues Regina's journey through the worlds of jazz, soul, and the blues.
This selection of mainly Jazz standards is delightful and showcases just what a fine voice she possesses.
"Lazy Afternoon", "Why Do People fall In Love", the spiritual "If I Ruled The World" and "If I Should Lose You" are all gorgeous slow numbers, whilst "Moanin'" and "There's A Love" are lively upbeat cuts.
Once again, she embraces a sultry and saucy mix of fabled vocalists who've inspired her : Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee...
While exploring the American songbooks, she adds her warm vocals and playful personality to a hand-picked mix of familiar classics and forgotten jewels.
The album features contributions by a number of stellar artists. Regina is joined by piano and keyboard pioneer George Duke and bass virtuoso Christian McBride.
The album also features Gordon Campbell (drums), Ray Fuller (guitar), Lenny Castro (percussion), Alex Al (electric bass), Everette Harp(tenor sax), Oscar Brashear (trumpet) and the Perri Sisters (bg vocals).
Organic and earthy yet also fluid and flexible, this fantastic album showcases Regina's renowned phrasing, vocal ability and powerful pipes in a delightful shift from predictable jazz singer fare.
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Free Music Review: Regina's inventive approach.
Hit: 5 Stars
There can't be many more pleasurable ways of spending over one hour than in the company of "Lazy Afternoon", Regina Belle's latest collection of twelve hand-picked jazz standards and Broadway tunes. Including material recalled from her childhood and teenage years, the singer's most personal recording to date features one spine-tingling song after another.
From the the gorgeous opener "Lazy Afternoon" to the stunning, colloquial closer, "Try a Little Tenderness", the singer delivers the set with an unswerving honesty and molten intensity. Whether burningly expressive in "Why Do People Fall In Love", playfully lyrical in "For The love of You" or heartbreakingly sincere in the emotional tour de force of "If I Should Lose You" (featuring her great friend George Duke in the piano chair in his best performance ever), Regina has you hanging on her every note.
The singer's inventive approach to standards is evidenced by the kaleidoscopic textures and varied moods of "Corcovado" - slowly chiming chords one moment, a sinuous groove the next. One of the singularly most powerful records I've heard all year.
This, you feel, is the album that Regina Belle has been waiting to record her whole life.
Baby Come to Me: The Best of Regina Belle
To Grover, With Love
Ladies' Choice
Free Music Review: Perfect.
Hit: 5 Stars
It is an album for your senses and emotions, sometimes it's fast, sometimes slow.
There are upbeat tempos and bluesy rhythms.
There's lots of romance, some humor and even a few heartbreaks.
It's the type of album that could sit in the player for years and you'd never get sick of it.
Regina and her musicmates are phenomenal, as usual.
The talented group creates a full sound on their own.
Check out "If I Should Lose You" for an amazing piano solo by George Duke.
Next time you feel happy, sad, romantic or lonely, this album is perfect.
Free Music Review: Unique and quite compelling listen.
Hit: 5 Stars
What else could I write that has not already been written ?
The opening song, "Lazy Afternoon", is sung with such gusto, that it immediately draws the listener in till the very end.
Pick yourself up, the concluding song nicely wraps up this fabulous album of jazz jewels that one would ask: when is her next being released?
It's her touch, her formidable voice and her phrasing skills that make "Lazy Afternoon" an album that is subtly and (often quite beautifully) unique and a quite compelling listen.
The choice of covers seems to be more discerning than the usual trawl through the so-called Great AmericanSongbook.
Regina's delivery is warm, urbane and relaxed, The mood is intimate and late night; a chanteuse in a little club somewhere with a piano trio augmented by sax, vibes and guitar.
Ms.Belle has the knack of giving straight, unadorned readings of well worn standards with a freshness that's rare and sweet.
She doesn't reinvent on a grand scale or dazzle with vocal pyrotechnics but draws you in with the clarity of her delivery.
It's subtle, unforced stuff.
She can be cute without cloying, sassy without being smug and handles ballads with an assured delicacy and depth.
What could easily become cliche is never in danger of being so.
Check the sensual treatment of the title track, the sophisticated tone of "Why Do People Fall In Love" or the heart-wrenching pathos of "If I Should Lose you".
Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: This album stands as a moment of sheer brilliance and exuberant triumph.
Hit: 5 Stars
Let's be fair: she's one of the few industry-saviours with soul and class.
This wondrous vocalist has been a staple in my musical diet for more than a decade and she continues to astound and delight me with each album she puts out.
What a pleasure it would be to be able to open your mouth and make a sound like the voice of Regina Belle: soulful, sensuous, sweet, high, pure, fluty, and quite beautiful.
Considered one of the leading female vocalists on the scene today, vocalist Regina Belle is an award-winning stylist with an intuitive feel for the mood and flavour of a song.
Often compared to Nancy Wilson and Billie Holiday, she's the modern, updated version of the classic jazz singer.
Blessed with exquisite delivery, sensitivity to melody and a lyrical imagination, Regina Belle's singing is as natural as breathing.
The production is spare yetlush, elegantly underscoring the presiding moods as they turn. The sound seems to defy context, gracefully blending the nostalgic and the contemporary, the organic and the improvized into an immensely palatable, and wholly consistent.
Joining Regina there are Everette Harp (tenor sax), George Duke (piano), Christian McBride (bass), Lenny Castro ( percussion), Alex Al (electric bass), Oscar Brashear (trumpet), Ray Fuller (guitar) and the Perri sisters on vocals.
Let's be fair: she's one of the few industry-saviours with class, style and soul, and is indeed being herself, no trouble.
On "Lazy Afternoon", she fully explores all the textures of her vocal instrument like never before and flashes all the unseen colors of her intriguing voice! The songwriting and song choices are of a more mature quality than before.
This is a first rate Jazz recording from the very first note played to the very final one.If you don't like a cd album when you first play it, put it on the "repeat mode", let all the sounds surround you and LISTEN to WHAT the record is all about.
This is Regina Belle's VOCAL TOUR DE FORCE...an excellent, superb performance by a still improving, growing and maturing artist in her prime.
The slow dazzle and smooth subtlety of her seventh album is sure to win her more converts. Reworking Broadway and torch songs and jazz standards shows her incredible ability to make them sound absolulety new and refreshing, in a unique, brave way which is miles away from the saccharine trend on many new jazz albums currently on the market.
Her vocals don't dominate the mix, which highlights the interplay between her and her guest musicians.
George Duke, as producer and arranger, lends a hand, but it's the whole that makes the astonishingl and engaging deal here.
So, hold on. Why hasn't Regina got more Grammies and platinum discs coming out of her ears? Why is she such an unsung singer? Why is she so neglegted by talk-shows and celebrities' celebrations?
At least this conspiracy means that we haven't lost her to the impersonal gigs that megastardom brings...yet.