Record Label: Hi Fli Records

Style: Jazz Vocals

Musicians:

Review: Producer/Arranger Frank Martin assembled an incredible collection of musicians to weave together a fantastic debut for singer Karen Blixt. Karen has been delighting audiences with her great vocals for many years and her first solo album, Spin This, does not disappoint. Heavier on standards than originals, Frank Martin’s arrangements really make this disc shine. It’s not often you hear a vocal version of Thelonious Monk’s “Well You Needn’t” accompanied solely by a pair of bass clarinets and drums, or a vocal duet of “When You’re Smiling” with Joey DeFrancesco that also features his stellar B-3 organ playing and Buddy Montgomery’s killer vibes. Other notable musicians on the album include Alex Acuna, Russell Ferrante, Brian Bromberg, and Darek Oles. Each track features a slightly different configuration of these talented individuals, providing tight, driving backdrops for Blixt’s tender vocal treatments on tracks as varied as the 11/8 arrangement of “My Favorite Things” and the original “Kitchen Blue”. The title track is a funky number that well represents a new vocalization movement in jazz today of unison vocal and instrumental lines, coupled with expanded harmonies. Spin This will take you for a great ride…“Spinning, twisting, turning”, as Karen says in the chorus of the title track. Definitely a disc to check out in 2006.

Tracks: 1. Swinging The Blues 2. Carefully Thought 3. My Favorite Things 4. You Don't Know Me 5. Night And Day 6. Spin This 7. It's Over Now (Well, You Needn't) 8. Now It's Over 9. When You're Smiling 10. Kitchen Blue 11. Four 12. I Thought About You 13. Something So True

Artist's Website: http://www.karenblixt.com

Listen: Buy on CD Baby

Reviewed by: Corey James Scribner

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