I don’t watch much on TV, so I can’t say much about Dan Olivo’s acting career, but his singing is quite impressive, taking on standards with Ian Robbins/g, Lyman Medeiros/b, Joe Bagg/key, Kevin Winard/dr, Kyle O’Donnell/ts-fl, Jamelle Adisa/tp and Garret Smith/tb. He shards the vocals with Renee Myara Cibelli and Medeiros on cozy ukelele’d “It’s Only A Paper Moon” while seeming most comfortable swinging the shuffle’d blues on the beefy “Come By Me” and “I’m Walking” with Bag at the humming keys. Adisa adds rich trumpet on the old timey “How Come You Do Me Like You Do” and O’Donnell’s tenor adds to Olivo’s croon on “It Had To Be You”. As well fitting as 5 year old Bass Weejuns with tassels.
Likewise, famed chef Alexander Smalls taps into his inner gospel/soul roots on a wonderous album with the Sunday Morning crowd of Joseph Joubert-Cyrus Chestnut/p-B3, Kevin Hays/p-key, John Ellis/ts-ss-bclj, Reuben Rogers-Ben Williams/b and Ulysses Owens Jr/dr. The album is divided into instrumentals ranging from a casual tenor’d reading of “St. Thomas” , a rich bass clarinet reflection of “God Bless The Child” and some pass the plate contemplations like deacon Chestnut’s “Rent Party St ride” and “Let Us Break Bread Together”. Smalls himself has a gloriously rich voice on a molasses t hick “Wade In The Water” while he speaks through the reverent organ on “Hush”. His vibrato shakes like a tambourine on “Poor Little Jesus Boy” and gives a spoken testimony on “Alexander’s Mood (Mood Indigo)”. A Sunday kind of love.