Women with stories to tell
Vocalist Dawn Derow creates a concept album around songs that became popular during the year leading up to America’s involvement in WWII, namely 1941. What? No songs about Joe Dimaggio’s 56 hitting streak or Ted Williams’ hitting .406? Well, you can’t cover everything, but Derow does a yeoman’s work with her Broadway-toned voice to mix nostalgia with modern musing with a core team of Ian Herman/p, Tom Hubbard/b, Daniel Glass/dr, Sean Harkness/g and a rotating horn and string section.
She agonizes with Aaron Hieck’s tenor sax on “Lover Man” and is fun with his soprano sax and Hubbard’s bass line on “Let’s Get Away From It All/How About You?”. She lets out her sass on “Blues In The Night” while getting cozy with Herman on a delightful Ellington medley, while the two chime well on “Baby Mine”. She swings hard on an Andrew Sisters-ish medley that includes “ Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (yes, that WAS written before Pearl Harbor) and gets down and R&Bish for “At Last”. Two score years still sounding fresh.
Husky voiced Dee Bell mixes a wide swath of covers with some originals, arranged by Marcos Silva/p-key, along with guests including Romer Lubambo/g, Phil Tompson-Celso Alberti-Zack Mondlic-Colin Bailey/dr, Scott Thompson-Tyler Harlow/b and Houston Person/ts. The arrangements are mostly in the pop-soul vein, peppy on Abbey Lincoln’s “I Got Thunder (And It Rings)” and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” with a dash of Brazilian on “Ivan Lins’ “Boa Nova” and “By Chance”. Some Latin salsa is tasty on “The Face I Love” and the team is artsy on “Beijo Partido”, with Lubambo giving some gorgeous guitar work on “I’ll String Along With You”. Polished like ’61 Chevy fins.