Year: 2003
Record Label: Telarc
Style: Jazz Vocals
Musicians: Janis Siegel (vocals); Joey DeFrancesco (Hammond B-3 organ); Peter Bernstein, Russell Malone (guitar); Houston Person (tenor saxophone); Buddy Williams (drums)
Review: As one of the founders of Manhattan Transfer, Janis Siegel has always contained too much curiosity and sense of adventure to keep those qualities bottled up within the confines of a single style. Even as she held down one-fourth of the duties for the well-known vocal, and sometimes vocalese, group, Siegel embarked on her own singing career as well, working in movies, recording solo albums or teaming up with musicians like Fred Hersch to approach music from yet another angle.
After her first Telarc CD, I Wish You Love, Siegel, to avoid repeating the concept of 1950’s/1960’s pop, came up with the idea of a vocalist/B-3/tenor sax conbination evoking a smoky nightclub atmosphere. As always, Siegel is the consummate storyteller, a talent that she has proven over and over again in the past. The stories that Siegel tells this time, though, involve those that club habitues identify with, such as lost love, emotional dependency, bad luck and flirtatiousness. And the backup group is one that has had years of work in jazz clubs and working class nightclubs, where the urgency and drama of the lyrics, expressed with a doo-wap or 6/8 R&B beat, combine for direct appeal.
Joel Dorn, who produced Siegel’s last Telarc CD, couldn’t suppress his interests in that sound, memories of his days on Philadephia jazz radio and his visits to Philadelphia nightclubs a constant in his career. Indeed, Dorn’s liner notes have a familiar ring for anyone who has bought any of the 32 Jazz , Label M or Hyena CD’s that reflect his tastes in music and the wackiness of his personality. He and Siegel knew exactly the sound they sought, and the employed the talents of like-minded musicians Houston Person, Joey DeFrancesco, Peter Bernstein, Russell Malone and Buddy Williams to realize it.
Thus, Friday Night Special assumes the direct and unpretentious feel of a late-night club where people go to be entertained in exchange for their hard-earned money. From the soulfulness of “My, How The Time Goes By” to the jump rhythm of “Misty,” Siegel obviously is having a good time, especially when backed up by a band possessing the same sensibilities. Houston Person, in particular, is a master at this sound after decades of touring with Etta Jones. He knows when to inject a soulful commentary on Siegel’s words or to repeat a phrase that she sings, his mirroring of her words a wordless reflection of Siegel’s depth of feeling or expression of wit. Occasionally, Siegel backs herself up with an overdubbed quartet called the Siegelettes (consisting of Sylvia Weinberg, Sylvia Weinstein, Sylvia Weintraub and Sylvia Weinglass). Joey DeFranceso’s a master at this kind of music too, and his solo on “My, How The Time Goes By” starts out as a tribute to Jimmy Smith, the originator of the jazz B-3 sound.
As ever, Janis Siegel has recorded a CD that reaches out to audiences, this time with a sense of bluesiness. And Friday Night Special recalls a time when the intimacy of a blue-collar club served as the catalyst for some memorable music.
Tracks: The Same Love That Made Me Laugh Made Me Cry, My How The Time Goes By, I Just Dropped By To Say Hello, My Love Is/My Babe, Let It Be Me, Ill Wind, You Don’t Know Me, There’s A Small Hotel, Make Me A Present Of You, Misty
Record Label Website: http://www.telarc.com
Reviewed by:
Don Williamson
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