Based in New York but originally from Detroit, Carla Cook is an earthy yet sophisticated jazz singer who has strong R&B leanings. For Cook, being a jazz singer doesn't mean being a jazz purist or a jazz snob—there are elements of R&B, blues and gospel in her singing, and she is willing to put a jazz spin on songs that weren't written by jazz, traditional pre-rock pop or Tin Pan Alley composers. When it comes to popular music, some jazz vocalists limit themselves to the great Tin Pan Alley standards of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Cook, however, has been able to find the jazz potential in songs from the rock and R&B worlds—songs that have included Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair," Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues," Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" and Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". Cook doesn't exclude Tin Pan Alley standards—as a rule, she will offer a few of them on her albums and live performances—but she isn't the sort of artist who believes that worthwhile popular music ended with composers like Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.

In her native Detroit, Cook started singing when she was a child. Growing up, the Midwesterner sang in a Protestant church—which explains the gospel influence—but her family did not discourage her from listening to secular music, and the secular music that she enjoyed ranged from R&B, rock and country to European classical. Cook, in fact, has been quoted as saying that her favorite artists range from John Coltrane to Chaka Khan to Johann Sebastian Bach. Nonetheless, jazz eventually became Cook's primary focus. After leaving the Motor City, Cook moved to Boston to attend college and earned a degree in speech communication. Then, in 1990, she moved to New York, where she became active on the Manhattan club scene but paid her bills with various "day gigs" that included working in a book store and teaching social studies in a junior high school. By the late ‘90s, however, she was singing on a full-time basis and had given up her "day gigs." It was in 1998 that Cook signed with MAXJAZZ, a small independent jazz label that is based in St. Louis and has been very singer-friendly. In 1999, Cook recorded her debut album, It's All About Love for MAXJAZZ; the CD enjoyed generally favorable reviews and received a Grammy nomination in the Best Jazz Vocal Performance category. In 2000, Cook recorded her second album, Dem Bones, for MAXJAZZ, and her third MAXJAZZ album, Simply Natural, was recorded in 2002.



Vocalist Cook took a beeline from her native Detroit to Boston, where she received a degree in speech communications, then to N.Y.C. She's influenced by the gospel and Motown music of her home, as well as jazz. Using an expressive, wide-ranging, utterly clear voice, Cook is also unafraid to scat as she does on several of these selections, sometimes in between lyrics. She's a warm, soulful singer, easy to enjoy and well aware of her capabilities, of which show a nice diversity, and the maturity of a more seasoned professional.

Cook's musical assets are greatly enhanced by the presence of pianist Cyrus Chestnut on eight of the 11 tracks. He truly can do it all, taking liberties with the song form on the Count Basie/Joe Williams evergreen "Corner Pocket," digging deep into soulful resources in tandem with percussionist Jeffrey Haynes for the spiritually oriented "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand," listening intently and responding to Cook and violinist Regina Carter during the heart melting "September Song," or simply laying out a lustrous melody as on "These Foolish Things." Andy Milne also plays piano on three selections, but is especially poignant as an arranger for Neil Young's "Heart of Gold," a midnight blue approach that is a stark contrast to the harmonica-spiked cowboy mentality of the original — quite a showstopper. Cook's funkier persona is on the toned-down side as opposed to P-Funk; her "Inner City Blues" has an economical scat line sprinkled on top of the classic lyric. She wrote the pop blues title track and a samba-inflected "Can This Be Love?," Carter again accenting on violin. There are two versions of the standard "The Way You Look Tonight," one a bonus CD-ROM video track, the strictly audio version a vocal-bass intro that allows Cook flights of fancy that show how she's got it going on from a pure improvisers standpoint. She also does Milton Nascimento's "Salt Song" and, with Milne, a wonderful version of the patient Rodgers & Hart show tune "Where or When." This debut shows much promise, and though the theme in the title would suggest it, these are not all sappy torch songs. Her abilities are impressive, certainly enough to warrant the notion that this is a career in the making for Cook, and not a hobby. Recommended.


Download (Rapidshare):

Carla Cook - it's all about love (I)
Carla Cook - it's all about love (II)
Carla Cook - it's all about love (III)
Carla Cook - it's all about love (IV)



RapidGet friendly links:
WAV
http://rapidshare.com/files/484822/Carla.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/484670/Carla.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/485068/Carla.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/477104/Carla.part4.rar

Password: www.AvaxHome.ru


From the first lyric notes struck by Carla Cook on this album, it's clear that the word 'versatile' barely begins to describe her talents as a vocalist. Cook has a smoky voice that relishes the lower ranges, where flurries of lyrics get spooled together only to come rolling out in a variety of quick and slow paces, brief and elongated durations, and more. Her educational training is apt for her talents: she studied speech communication and makes exactness of phrase sound downright artful, frequently dropping in tiny scat elements that keep the music skipping and full of bounce. Cook's band expands around the sublime piano work of Cyrus Chestnut (or the more rambunctious piano of Andy Milne) to include violinist Regina Carter, who has a prodigious fullness of tone. Cook tackles tunes by Milton Nascimento, Marvin Gaye, and even Neil Young. And it all works flawlessly. A 1999 Grammy Award nominee, Cook is destined to make high marks...