MUSIC TO FALL ASLEEP TO*
* or for other nocturnal activities . . . .
Those of you who are familiar with Disc 2 of my 2017 album “Just Friends”, titled “Sensuous Scats on Timeless Tunes”, will recall what I’m up to here.
It has been my good fortune to collaborate with superb professional vocalist Annette Sanders on a number of albums. The idea for this venture came about while we were recording Disc 1 of the “Just Friends” album. I’m conscious of the fact that my best piano output occurs playing tuneful ballads pretty straight, without a lot of improvising (which isn’t my strong suit). But I’m a real fan of imaginative improvisation – and Annette has a rare ability to improvise on the melody – vocalizing wordlessly over the structure of the song – what the jazz world refers to as “scatting”.
And that’s how we combined on that Disc 2 of the “Just Friends” album – and that’s what we’re doing on the 10 unrelated songs of this blog entry. Here, I’m playing solo piano on very slow (put-you-to-sleep) ballads (don’t listen to this while driving or operating large machinery!), concentrating on the melody and chord structure, while Annette is scatting improvisations (without singing the actual lyrics) along the way.
The songs are the following standards (in the order they’re heard), with additional information contained in the liner notes you can access by the link below:
1. The Summer Knows
2. You’re Nearer
3. Time on my Hands
4. Then I’ll be Tired of You
5. The Masquerade is Over
6. It Never Entered My Mind
7. Theme from “Picnic”
8. Serenade of the Bells
9. I Get Along without You Very Well
10. Ship without a Sail
I hope you enjoy this unusual duet (which runs about 26 minutes in total).
Additional information on the eight songs is contained in a PDF, which you can access (before, after or while listening to the songs) by clicking on this link.