MUSIC REVIEWS

I Remember You
Tuck & Patti | Self Published (2008)
BY TOM GREENLAND, ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM

I Remember You, from guitar/vocal duo Tuck & Patti, is the first in its catalogue to exclusively feature songs from the Great American Songbook. Originally inspired by the duets of Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald, the pair has been a marital and musical team for 30 years, evolving a crossover sound that draws on jazz, R&B, folk, pop and new acoustic music. Jazz fans will appreciate the sensitivity and consummate craftsmanship they bring to these oft-roasted chestnuts from the standards repertoire, seamlessly blending voice and guitar, making much with minimal means.

Patti Cathcart's rich contralto, at times earthy, at others ethereal, lifts and lilts with warmth, fluidity and spiritual immediacy. While her readings of the melodies are fairly conservative, her scatted solos over "The Very Thought of You," "A Foggy Day" and "Old Devil Moon," and her bouncy riffing over the intros and outros reveal a fertile imagination.

Tuck Andress' playing combines walking bass lines, midrange chords, chunky backbeats and treble melodies that together create a remarkably lush and swinging ensemble; through delicate variations in volume, plucked harmonics, legato fingerings and a grab-bag of extended techniques, he has developed an original and highly effective style, the ultimate complement to Cathcart's voice. His work on "In a Sentimental Mood," "'Deed I Do," "When I Fall in Love" and "It Might as Well Be Spring" will be revelatory to the uninitiated. >>MORE

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Ane Brun - Changing Of The Seasons
BY ALAN PEDDER, MUSICOMH

Like an elegiac cheesecake baked to perfection, Ane Brun's third album is simultaneously rich and enriching, insanely moreish, and deliciously indulgent. Frosted with a resilient pathos that never seems to rub off even when ravished with greedy attention, Changing Of The Seasons is orchestrated ear candy for grown-ups.

Too old to be hailed as a wunderkind, Brun seems an almost matronly figure of battered wisdom among some of the more headline-grabbing artists emerging out of Scandinavia. She'll still peel your skin off, but she'll do it with the precision of her glassy notes and uncommon control of her tremulous, but never timid, phrasing. "It's hard to be safe, it's difficult to be happy," she breezes with such considered acquaintance on the title track, it's hard to resist being swept up in her pretty, doleful reverie. >>MORE