TITLE: BY REQUEST: The Best of Karrin Allyson
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1. Night And Day
   
2. Moanin'
   
3. What's New?
   
4. O Pato
   
5. Sous Le Ciel De Paris
   
6. Life Is A Groove (Jordu)
   
7. Everything Must Change
   
8. A Felicidade (Happiness)
   
9. Sweet Home Cookin' Man
   
10. Nature Boy
    
11. And So It Goes
    
12. Cherokee
    
13. Next Time Around (Soultrane)
    

From the Liner Notes

“Best of ” CDs often seem to be issued at the end of an artist’s life or career. Well, not so here! So far I have released 11 albums as a leader with Concord Jazz (not including this collection)—something to celebrate, and very unusual nowadays—such a long-standing and healthy relationship with a record label. Carl Jefferson “signed me” after hearing my first recording, ”I Didn’t Know About You” (which I self-produced with the help of my colleagues, family, and friends while living in Kansas City), and Concord and I have been making recordings together ever since.

Here’s a quick story: Before that first CD was even pressed, I was “pre-selling them” from the bandstand at local gigs (my “business plan”). A wonderful, enthusiastic woman attending one of the gigs ordered two. When they were pressed, I sent them to her; she said she wanted to try to get me airplay in San Francisco where she lived. I thought “great!” then I forgot about it. She sent it to a popular DJ, Stan Dunn, at KJAZ in the Bay Area, who liked it, and played it a lot on his morning show.

Stan had a devoted listenership and when they started calling him, asking where they could find it, Stan gave the phone number of Soundtrek, the K.C. studio where we’d recorded the album. Soon the secretary there called me and said “We’ve got a lot of people calling about the CD. Should I give them your number?” I started doing transcontinental business on the phone. I also called Stan Dunn to thank him. It turned out Stan was also the West Coast radio promoter for Concord Records and he told me he’d like to play it for the “man himself,” Carl Jefferson, founder and president of Concord. I said great and forgot about it again. (Okay, not totally).

“Jeff ” called me and we had a very funny conversation on the phone. He reminded me of some of my family members—rasty, up front, and funny, so I could really relate to him. “Why don’t we just get you out here to talk?” he asked. I did go out to Concord, California, took my sweetie Bill (McGlaughlin) for the big negotiation, and we signed a three album contract at the time, with Jeff buying my first one from me and re-releasing it as a Concord Jazz album. That was a first for both of us. Jeff never bought anyone’s album.

I feel so lucky to say that I am still dear friends with both of those lovely people now… thank you to Susan Hogeland and Stan Dunn. And to the dear departed Carl Jefferson—we still miss him! We had some lovely times with Jeff and his wife Nancy.

So, a quick memory or two about these tunes we chose for this project—and before I go any further, I’d like to thank my producer Nick Phillips for all of his TLC in everything he does.

LABEL: Concord Jazz
CJA-31459-02

Credits:

Compilation produced by Karrin Allyson and Nick Phillips
Mastered by Joe Tarantino (Joe Tarantino Mastering, Berkeley, CA)
Project assistance—Abbey Anna, Rikka Arnold, Chris Caswell, Chris Clough, Evelyn Haddad, Tim Langridge, Bill McGlaughlin, Anna M. Sala
Package design—Andrew Pham
Photography—Randee St. Nicholas

TITLE: Imagina: Songs of Brasil
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Song Titles:

Click on song titles to hear the samples. Please close each recording window before playing the next recording.

1. A Felicidade (Happiness)
   
2. Correnteza
   
3. Sò Tinha De Ser Com Você
   
4. Medo De Amar (Surrender The Soul)
   
5. O Morro Não Tem Vez (Favela)
   
6. Estrada Branca (This Happy Madness)
   
7. Outono (Stay)
   
8. Double Rainbow
   
9. Imagina
   
10. Desafinado (Slightly Out Of Tune)
    
11. Pra Dizer Adeus (Time To Say Goodbye)
    
12. Vivo Sonhando (Living On Dreams)
    
13. Estrada Do Sol
    
14. É Com Esse Que Eu Vou
    

Click here to download a pdf of the Concord Imagina Biography

From the Imagina Liner Notes

I began this recording project as I do all others, wanting to sing songs I love with players I love. Since there are far too many songs and players I love to put them all on a single album, one has to choose, of course. During this process, my dear friend and "Brazilian mentor," Lúcia Guimarães, was coaching me on my Portuguese pronunciation for the various songs I had already chosen. At the time, I had been reading a lot about Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes and was lamenting the fact that I had not chosen more songs that were penned by them-there are so many great ones. One particular day that Lúcia and I were together, I expressed this idea to her and she proceeded to show me several lesser known (at least to me) gems by Jobim (such as "Imagina" and "Correnteza"), de Moraes (such as "Medo de Amar"), and Jobim/de Moraes collaborations (such as "Estrada Branca")-songs that I immediately fell in love with.

So, although the concept of recording an album of Brazilian songs wasn't changing, many of the song choices were-and this was less than three weeks before we were scheduled to record! For me-a non-native speaker of Portuguese-this presented a real challenge: learning all that Portuguese and new material in such a short amount of time. But, as Leonard Bernstein said, "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a great idea and not nearly enough time." Also it has been said that "revelations take time." Ha! With this in mind, we went a step further as I was also very keen on making this recording "user friendly" to non-Portuguese speakers/listeners. I wanted folks to get these songs no matter what language they speak, while trying to remain as true to the Brazilian feel and sound as possible.

Enter Chris Caswell. On our previous recording project, Footprints, Chris wrote beautiful lyrics to well-known jazz instrumental standards. Why not tap his talents for this project too? He was (of course) game, and I am delighted to be the first to record his new English lyrics to Vinicius de Moraes's "Medo de Amar" and Edu Lobo's "Pra Dizer Adeus." It's hard for me now to imagine these songs without his lyrics. Along with Chris's new lyrics, I've also included a very sensual English lyric by Paul Williams to Rosa Passos's song "Outono," lovely English lyrics by Susannah McCorkle ("A Felicidade" and "Vivo Sonhando"), Jon Hendricks's classic English lyric to "Desafinado," and the sweet English lyrics of Gene Lees to "Estrada Branca" and "Double Rainbow." So, while many of the songs on this recording feature the alluring beauty of the original Portuguese lyrics only (what a gorgeous, poetic sounding language!), I am pleased to be able to present several of the songs with wonderful English lyrics too.

But truly the most important language in this project, and easily the most universally understood, is that of the Brazilian music-that evocative, intoxicating combination of unforgettable melodies, rich harmonies, and infectious rhythms. Whatever your native language is, I hope that these Songs of Brasil speak directly to your heart, as they have to mine.

LABEL: Concord Jazz
UPC: 888072304284
CCD-30428

Credits:

Produced by Karrin Allyson & Nick Phillips
Associate Producer: Bill McGlaughlin
Recorded and Mixed by Josiah Gluck at Sear Sound, New York, NY, June 29-July 1, 2007
Assistant Engineer: Ethan Donaldson
Additional Recording and Mixing at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA
Assistant Engineer at Fantasy Studios: Jesse Nichols
Mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios
A&R Administration: Mary Hogan
Portuguese Coach and Consultant: Lúcia Guimarães