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Diane
Marino - Soul Serenade, The Gloria Lynne Project |
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In what may
be her best album to date, Soul
Serenade the Gloria Lynne Project, Nashville based pianist and Jazz
singer Diane Marino brings to life the songs of Gloria Lynne whose
career spanned a phenomenal six decades.
Marino talks about her decision to delve into Lynne’s catalogue, “I
wasn’t too familiar with her, but I heard the name years ago. While I
was doing a gig up in New York my drummer was Vince Ector and he was
Gloria’s drummer for the last fifteen years of her life. He knew all of
the material very well. We
were doing a tune called “I Am Glad There Is You,” which I recorded on
another album many years (earlier) and I didn’t realize it was one of
her signature songs. When we played it on the gig Vince told me that.
Then he said her big song was “I Wish You Love,” and that I know and I
sing it too.
As for why this particular selection of songs she says, “It is a
combination of the song and how she sang them. It is great stuff. How do
you put your finger on how it struck you emotionally? When I listen to
her versions, I go wow. She
was very dynamic and very soulful. I sang from the heart and the soul
and it just went right through me. That is what brought me to these
particular songs and in listening to more of her music I came to
appreciate who she was and what she did.”
As for this album she says, “The music is all over the place. You have
Irving Berlin (“Let’s Take An Old Fashioned Walk,”) from a musical that
he wrote so many years ago and then you have “Somewhere In the Night,”
which is a theme song for a TV show in the sixties (written by Billy May
and Milton Raskin). Some of the tracks are more smooth Jazz stuff now
versus the swing things such as, “Sweet Pumpkin” (Dr. Ronnell Bright)
and “Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You” (Jack Segal, Marin Fischer
and Fred Fischer). It is about my interpretation of how I feel these
songs. Likewise the
arrangements had to suit them also. We did what we felt would do justice
to these types of songs.
With a growl in her voice Diane Marino gets the room swaying, as she
sings “Happy Shoes.” With soul tinged vocals Marino leads us through a
fun romp, backed by the splendid horns of trumpeter Scott Ducaj, Roy
Agee on trombone and Don Aliquo on saxophone, who engage in a playful
call and response with Marino’s vocals.
“Happy Shoes,” was a fun song (to record). I really dig the arrangement.
The horn lines are so cool.
“Happy Shoes,” what do you call it, a Pop song or a Blues song? I don’t
know. That is where Gloria Lynne came from too. She started out as a
Soul Jazz singer, Soul R&B and then she got more appreciated as a Jazz
singer. Some of her material was labeled Pop. I don’t like putting
labels on songs. It is just good music and they are fun songs to listen
to and to record.
There was so much more material, but this is what I zeroed in on. I knew
I wanted someone else’s input on (the songs) as well and that is when we
asked Brad Cole to come onboard with the project. I think he elevated
the arrangements to a higher level. What he wrote for strings and for
horns is just amazing,” she says.
The lights are dimmed and a solitary figure is illuminated on the stage,
as she reflects upon the one she loves. One imagines it is late at night
and now alone with her thoughts she knows he needs her, as much as she
needs him. Elegantly accompanied by Brad Cole’s piano and Deanna
Loveland’s harp Diane Marino serves up a soulful and tender “He Needs
Me.” Don Aliquo’s saxophone solo adds exquisitely to the reflective
mood, without being intrusive.
Brad Cole who engineered “He Needs Me,” at ColeMine Studios, gave Diane
Marino a foretaste of what a harp would sound like on this song when he
first worked up a demo with harp samples.
“We took the samples off and Deanna replaced them with real harp. That
is one of Brad’s favorite arrangements. He wanted to make it very lush.
I think it adds a lot. It is really pretty,” says Marino.
Who better to sing a song about New York City than a New Yorker or in
this case a former New Yorker now living in Nashville and Diane Marino
makes “That’s No Joke,” swing and her hubby Frank Marino lays down a
great groove on upright bass. You can hear the smile in Marino voice, as
she paints images for the listener and sings with gusto “my hometown.”
“It (“That’s No Joke”) was fun to record. The whole idea of having a
horn section was Brad’s idea and it sounds like a good theme song for
New York City. It is a song that talks about how New York is a fun town
and I can relate to that of course. He made it swing. I love the horn
section,” she says.
For this album Diane Marino is a very accomplished pianist did not
accompany herself and one gets the sense that it allowed to her explore
more depth and more breadth to her vocals, as well as giving her the
freedom to just let loose on some of these fun songs.
“My vocals have been married to my piano playing for all of my other
projects and I always said I wanted to do something with somebody else
playing, so I could just focus on (singing) and more importantly feed
off of what they might bring to it. You can’t separate the singing and
the playing. Even if I record the vocals separately, the piano is down
already. It is there already and it dictates to some extent the feeling
that I get out of the melodies and certainly the phrasing. With someone
else’s input it takes me in a different direction and it gives me a
freedom that I didn’t have before.
With this project, because it is so varied and the songs are all over
the place it made it even more interesting and more fun for me to
approach each song as I saw fit rather than having my piano playing
dictate how I would sing the song,” says Diane Marino.
As for the
musicians who appear on Soul
Serenade the Gloria Lynne Project she says, “I have known all of the
musicians (for years), except the bassoonist Tom Moore and Deanna
Loveland who plays harp for “He Needs Me.” Brad (Cole) I have known for
many years and he is an amazing pianist, composer and arranger. He is
also Phil Collins’ musical director. They are doing all kinds of things
all over the world right now. They just came back from a tour in South
America and Mexico. He has been a good friend over the years and we
brought him in on this.
Chris Brown has played drums on all of my CDs. The first CD was 2003 and
we had been playing dates around here in Jazz clubs from a couple of
years before that.
(She
starts to laugh)
we won’t talk about Frank Marino (her husband and bass player). He is
always lurking in the shadows (she
is still laughing). You would think after thirty-six years… (Her
voice trails off) We have been playing together since 1981, so there
you go.
Mark Christian I have known over the years and he played guitar. We have
not done a lot of work together, but we have played together. He is a
really good player. His forte is Brazilian music. He did a really nice
job on “Serenade in Blue.” He played on all of the tracks except for
“Nothing Ever Changes My Love For You,” and “For You.” Doug Munro played
on those tracks. He went to school with Frank many years ago to study
music and we kept in touch over the years.
Dann Sherrill the percussionist has been with us for many years and he
played with us in our Brazilian group.
Don Aliquo is a great sax player who teaches at Middle Tennessee State
University (Professor of
Saxophone and Jazz Studies). He is very in demand and he had his own
projects out that did very well. He played all of the saxophones on this
album. We just did a gig with him and he is a wonderful player.
Scott Ducaj (trumpet) I have known for many, many years.
Harry Kim (trumpet on “For You”) and I went to the High School of
Performing Arts together in New York (Editor’s
note: The school served as the inspiration for the 1980 film Fame).
He moved away, before our last year in high school. He went out to LA
and he established a great career for himself. He has played at the
Grammy Awards and at the White House. He also plays with the Vine Street
Horns who play with Phil Collins. We had two Phil Collins players on
this CD. While we were doing the rhythm tracks Brad Cole said it would
be really cool if we could get Harry to guest on one of the tracks.
Roy Agee plays trombone locally and he was with Prince for a few years.
We have done a lot of gigs with him.
David Davidson, David Angell and Monisa Angell, are the strings section
and they are friends of ours whom we have used before. They did all of
the strings on my Just Groovin’ CD in 2008. Carole Rabinowitz (cello) is
part of that section too and I had not met her until this CD.
Tom Moore is the bassoonist that we pulled in and he plays in the
Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra, the same one that Frank has been doing
some concerts with.
Deanna Loveland who plays harp was highly recommended by Doug Holmquist
who recorded my vocals and he did wonders with this CD. He mixed it and
mastered it.”
Doug Holmquist did a magnificent job. He was so meticulous with this
project. It’s great, because he is a close friend of ours.
Soul Serenade the
Gloria Lynne Project
is absolutely a
gem that you will want to add to your musical collection, not just if
you are a Jazz fan, but for anyone who truly appreciates good music.
Riveting Riffs Magazine says if you were a fan of Diane Marino before,
you are going to be an even bigger fan now, after listening to this
beautiful album.
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It
got the wheels turning and I investigated her catalogue of music. I
thought these are really cool tunes. I had not heard a lot of them. She
also recorded a lot of standards, but the songs that we picked out for
this CD I had never heard before.”