Product Description
On this album, jazz-cabaret singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway pays tribute to her hometown Chicago's best-known musical export, the blues—-though her take is largely devoid of that genre's pared-down grit, instead exploring two of its offshoots: a sophisticated, elusive melancholy and upbeat, horn-heavy swing jazz. Callaway's penchant for the latter is evidenced by the jumping opening track, "Swingin' Away the Blues" and the percolating "Lover Come Back to Me" (on which she integrates her trademark scat singing). A "blue" mood is evoked on, for instance, "Blue Moon" and a not-entirely-convincing take on Sondheim's "No One Is Alone." But Callaway is also among the rare performers in the cabaret scene to write some of her own material, and she obliges here as well, with good results on the humorous "The I'm-Too-White-to-Sing-the-Blues Blues" (on which she emulates brass instruments) and "Hip to Be Happy." --Elisabeth Vincentelli
- Track Listings : Disc 1
- Swingin' Away The Blues
- Blue Moon
- Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
- Lover Come Back To Me
- Stormy Weather/When The Sun Comes Out
- The I'm-Too-White-To-Sing-The-Blues Blues
- Willow Weep For Me
- Hip To Be Happy
- It's All Right With Me
- No One Is Alone
- Blues In The Night
- The Glory Of Love
