Beth's Loves And Lullabies

Beth’s Loves And Lullabies

Bruce Von Stiers

Mid-Atlantic jazz vocalist Beth McDonald has terrific pipes. Smooth and mellow when needed, or sultry and brassy other times, Beth is a pleasure to listen to. One of her latest ventures is an album filled with lullabies and love songs. The title for the album is At Last. The subtitle for the album is, no surprise, Love Songs & Lullabies.

As with her album Home, Beth has recruited some top musicians. In fact, there are the same musicians on both albums. These guys are Lou Rainone, Wayne Wilentz, Jay Miles, Tom Baldwin, Alan Dale, Jon Mathis, Tim Leahy and Jared Denhard. I recently reviewed Home, so I will use the same information on the musicians as I listed in the other review. Wayne plays piano and besides heading up his own trio, has performed and recorded with a bunch of Mid-Atlantic groups. Sharing piano duties is Lou, who besides performing and recording, teaches clinics in the U.S. and far away places like Taipei, Taiwan. Bassist Jay had worked with Beth as a member of the New Legacy Jazz Band. Also on bass is Tom, who has played for the likes of Eartha Kitt and has performed at venues like Wolftrap. Alan is on drums and has also played with some top tier musicians and vocalists as well as being the leader for the New Legacy Jazz Band. Alan co-produced the album with Beth. . I couldn’t find out much on Jon but he plays terrific guitar and trumpet on this album for Beth. On both flugelhorn and trumpet, Tim has performed at a lot of venues, including the Penn State Jazz Festival. On Celtic harp is Jared, who has record several Celtic styled albums and has had his music performed and recorded by such notable groups as the United States Air Force Band.

As with the album, Home, Chris Biondo and Marc Moss each recorded part of the album at their own studios. I don’t know much about Marc. But Chris did wonderful work with Eva Kennedy before her untimely death back in the mid ‘90’s.

Beth begins the album with a classic song that not only has been covered by a lot of vocalists but also been used in a lot of commercials The song is It Had To Be You, which Beth does a wonderful rendition of.

The love ballad At Last is the second song. The liner notes for this song tell us that the lyrics from this song are inscribed in her first child’s baby book. It seems that Beth and her husband had waited a long time to have a baby. So, even though this is normally a love ballad between adults, it really does fit for the love felt with the birth of a first child.

Beth then does a really decent job with Sylvia Fine’s tune, Lullaby In Ragtime.

Dancing With Wonder is the first of three original songs that Beth has on the album. The song is a light toe-tapper with a slight Country or folk influence. It is about babies and even has an infectious baby laugh in it.

Beth is a big fan of Peggy Lee, often using Peggy’s songs in her repertoire. On this album, Beth does an endearing rendition of Peggy’s LA La Lu. This song is one of the better love ballads from the Disney classic, Lady And The Tramp.

The second original song on the album is called Longer. Loving, longing and aching vocals combined with a stronger bass and piano make this a very endearing song.

Things lighten back up a bit with the great tune, The Way You Look Tonight. Although a lot of people from Fred Astaire to Michael Buble have done this song, I usually associate it with Frank Sinatra. Beth sings a great rendition of the song.

Then it’s on to the toe-tapping Irving Berlin tune, Always.

Moon Song kind of reminded me of a light and gentle Carole King piano laden song. It is the last original tune on the album.

A light samba touch was added to Can’t Help Falling In Love With You. Beth gives a wonderful performance on this song,

Great horn music opens What A Wonderful World. This song has been covered a lot. Beth does a nice job with it. Speaking of horns, there is a terrific horn solo in the middle of the song.

Moving the tempo up a bit, there is the Hammerstein tune, Because of You. Then there is the piano laden endearing tune Baby Mine.

A perfect song that Beth added to the album is The Rainbow Connection. Originally done by Kermit the Frog, people like Willie Nelson have sung it. Kermit even did the song as a duet with Debbie Harry on The Muppet Show. Beth adds her own special vocal touch to this great song.

There is a bonus track on the album; It is a terrific jazz take on You Are My Sunshine. What a great way to end a great album.

Beth McDonald has all the talent to make herself an international jazz sensation. Listen to At Last and I think that you will agree with me.

You can hear samples from At Last and Beth’s other albums on her web site. You will find that site at www.simplybeth.biz.

Back