Jazz Improv Magazine (2004)
Volume
4, Number 3
If you've wondered what happened to promising pianist Travis Shook since
his brief time with Columbia Records yielded only one CD in 1993 before
the label cut him loose, here's a partial answer. He's now playing very
nice piano in the band of his wife, New York-based singer Veronica Nunn,
on her self-produced debut recording. And a very fine CD it is.
She sings with skill and confidence and swings mightily on a mix of
jazz chestnuts, popular show tunes and originals. The opener, with a
fine
supporting solo from Kebbi Williams on tenor sax, is a medley dedicated
to Nunn's niece. It combines a sweet and clever tune called "American
Lullaby," complete with an investments profession dad who works
perhaps too hard, with Stephen Sondheim's "Not While I'm Around." The
ensemble with full horn section shines on "Don't Be Blue" by
Michael Franks and John Guerin. The dandy "This Joy" features
Nunn's words to the Gerry Niewood instrumental. It features Shook on
a piano and Nunn's lyrical refrain, "champagne and lemonade was
how I began my yesterday." Vivid - and tasty. "I Loves You
Porgy" is a lovely extended piano and voice duet on which both Nunn
and Shook shine.
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"Living Room" is a classic Abbey Lincoln-Max Roach gem in
which a room in one's home becomes a metaphor for giving each other ample
space for a relationship to grow. There's also a hefty trombone solo
from Westray. "Green Finch & Linnet Bird," like "Not
While I'm Around," is another of the singer's favorites from Sondheim's
Sweeney Todd. Williams adds a fine, crisp solo to Nunn's interpretation.
Nunn's trio-backed version of "The Meaning of the Blues" is
the album's highest point, filled with nuance and knowing understatement
that celebrates the lyrics and intent of the tune by Bobby Troup and
Leah Worth.
The full band is aboard again for a fine interpretation of
the more recent Anthony Newley-Leslie Bricusse standard "On A Wonderful
Day Like Today" from The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the
Crowd. Nunn closes things out in fine fashion with the rhythm section
on another
Broadway gem, Rodgers and Hammerstein's,"It Might as Well be Spring."
–
Ken Franckling
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