Janine's Song For You
Bruce Von Stiers
Some vocalists come out of the Gospel world to become wonderful singers. One such vocalist is Janine Gilbert-Carter. I recently listened to Janine's fourth recording, a CD called A Song For You. It is recording of a live performance at the 15 th Annual FMJA East Jazz Festival. The album was released on the Jazz Karma Records label.
The great Mary Symes tune, There Is No Greater Love, starts out the album. Fairly fast paced, this is nice way for the listener to get introduced to Janine's vocals.
The band that backs Janine is pretty darned good. One surprise I found there was Paul Carr. I reviewed this saxophonist's album, Just Noodlin', about a year ago. Paul plays wonderful saxophone background music for Janine.
Along with Paul Carr, there is Steve Abshire on guitar, Chris Grasso on piano, Gavin Fallon on bass and Clyde Adams on drums. Fallon contributed bass for the Carr album I just mentioned.
Janine performs a nice rendition of the great song, What A Difference A Day Makes.
Soft and subtle, Janine changes things up a bit with Don't Go To Strangers.
Toe tapping, with some great sax, Janine gives the listener a nice performance of Candy.
Things slow back down once again with Here's To Life.
A longtime favorite of mine is Green Dolphin Street . Janine does a really good job with the song.
All of Me follows, mellow and fluid.
Heartfelt emotions come forth in Janine's version of the Leon Russell tune, A Song For You.
Piano and guitar laden blues give a solid backdrop for a terrific rendition of Percy Mayfield's Please Send Me Someone To Love.
Toe tapping begins again with Someone Else Is Steppin' In.
Janine gets a laugh from the audience as she introduces When I Fall In Love. She brings a nice, melodic lilt to the song.
Janine ends the album with the Harry Warren song, At Last.
A Song For You is a nice way for Janine Gilbert-Carter to showcase her music. The listener gets to hear that Janine's vocals are pure and solid, not enhance by studio magic. And the songs that she chose here make for a decent cross section of jazz vocal music.
Check out www.janinecarter.com to learn more about Janine and A Song For You.
© 2007 Bruce E Von Stiers