|
|
Diane Marino - Romance In the Dark |
|
Jazz vocalist and pianist Diane Marino spoke to us recently from her
home just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, about her current album
Romance In the Dark, a collection of six remixed songs from some of
her previous records and four recently recorded songs. The album’s
theme, as the title suggests is romance and the songs feature some of
the most prolific lyricists and composers, such as, Harold Arlen and
Johnny Mercer (Out of this World), Cole Porter (So In Love), Lillian
Green with the titular song (Romance In the Dark), and Al Kooper (I Love
You More Than You’ll Ever Know).
“Four tracks were recorded when I recorded, I Hear Music. I just
had too many songs to go on it, so we put those tracks aside. I had not
yet done the vocals and I did them sometime after that. When it came
time to release something else, we went to those songs. The rest of the
tracks are all remastered from several CDs that I have (previously)
recorded and fit the mood of this album. That is why you see so many
musicians (in the credits),” Diane Marino explains.
The songs, as one might suspect, since they span several years, were
recorded at three different studios. The ColeMine, owned by Brad Cole
(Phil Collins), The Piano Den and Mastermind Studios, and released on
M&M Records / Barking Dog Productions. All arrangements are by Diane
Marino, with string orchestrations by Brad Cole (tracks 1, 2 and 6) and
Jeff Steinberg (tracks 7 and 10).
Noting that co-producer Doug Holmquist, has worked on several of her
albums, Diane Marino says, “He lives in the same neighborhood here. He
has done all the mixing and mastering. He started with the “Groovin”
album. He gets very involved with the project as well, so we will spend
hours over there. We will go back and forth trying different things. We
will put this and take that out. He is really an instrumental part of
the producing also.”
During COVID days Frank and I did a demo here. That is how our music was
recorded. Frank and I did bass and piano and electric and then sent it
to our drummer and he sent back different tracks. Brad Cole came up with
this very haunting feel to it and he sent a demo of the song to me. I
was blown away by it and it just complimented the melody. You can’t go
wrong with Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.
It is a love song, when you look at me and I look at you. That is why we
selected these songs. Most songs, not all are about love. (These songs)
have very sentimental messages. It is not necessarily a positive message
and not a negative message, but also speaking about love, and that
eighth song, “Speaking Of Happiness.”
Accompanying Diano Marino (piano) were Mark Christian (guitar), hubby
Frank Marino (bass), drummer Chris Brown, and Don Aliquo on saxophone.
In fact, the trio of Frank and Diane Marion and Chris Brown appear on
all of the songs.
The song “Trust In Me,” which comes in at 4:40 in length, is a Jean
Schwartz and Ned Wever composition, featuring Joel Frahm on saxophone
and Pat Bergeson on guitar. Frahm’s saxophone beautifully introduces the
song and Diane Marino’s vocals remind one of just what a gifted singer
she is. Think of any of the iconic Jazz singers past or present and she
rivals them in a heartbeat.
She talks about the song, “This is an old standard and I didn’t want to
do it as an old standard type of ballad, so we put a contemporary feel
to it. This is a song that was sung by Etta James. In the genre that she
did it is like an old school ballad. We wanted to contemporize it and so
we put a little rhythm to it like a R & B type of feel. It is getting
some airplay. The whole album is.
Frank is really good. Nobody is going to care about the CD more than
Frank is going to care about it. Professional promoters may go out and
they have a half dozen records that they are promoting at the same time.
There is a lot of stuff out there and they can only put so much
new music in every week. It is turning out to be very successful.
Frank has established a rapport with these radio programmers and he enjoys
doing it. Every time that
we do a new (album) not only do they know me, but now they know him too.
It is a lot of work, but it is satisfying when you are accomplishing
something, especially on your own like that. “Trust In Me,” is one of
the tracks that they are playing.”
“Trust In Me,” is one of the new songs that Diane Marino recorded.
“Romance In the Dark,” the third track, created by Lillian Green, is
another one of the newly recorded songs, and it is amazing how as the
years go by, Diane Marino’s vocals get even better. There is a smoky
edge to both her voice and Leif Shire's trumpet. The tempo and melody
meander, caressing the listener gently, dare we say, it much like two
lovers in the dark.
The Don Raye and Gene de Paul song “You Don’t Know What Love Is,”
features Rusty Jessup on sax.
“I am glad we put that song on the album for several different reasons.
That is one of the first songs that we recorded. It is from my very
first, well not the first one I recorded, but the one that (got the most
attention). That CD did really well. It is a beautiful song and (we)
recorded it in 2003. It was released on the album A Sleepin’ Bee.
We were just a quartet working around town and I put more tracks down to
get more gigs, not thinking anything further than that. [They were
living in Nashville by then, originally from New York City] It was done
on a much simpler recording device than we have here. The recording came
out so well. It was on a Yamaha mixing board.
We were a quartet just looking to do a demo type of thing and it came
out a hell of a lot better than a demo. Chris Brown is on all of these
CDs and he is our drummer. Rusty Jessup is the name of the sax player
that we work with all around here. Unfortunately, right after we
manufactured those CDs and we got them we found out that he had passed
away. We were very close. That is him that you hear on the A Sleepin’
Bee CD. I am really glad we put this particular track in with it
also,” says Diane Marino.
The seventh track, “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” a John Loudermilk
tune has been recorded by numerous artists from Country to Doo Wop to
Pop, but perhaps the best known version was by The Casinos charted at
number six as a Pop hit in 1967. It is a song with the man singing to
his love interest and basically saying hey give me a chance and if it
doesn’t work out, then you can tell me goodbye.
Diane Marino says, “It is a beautiful love song. Houston Person is on
this one and it is part of the Just Groovin album. Fifties songs
are close to my heart. It is another one I took out of the oldie’s genre
for the chords. We went in a little different direction for that and it
still sounded like the same song. We put some interesting changes into
it and it just fell into place. Then we added Houston’s sax to it and it
took a life of its own. I always liked the song from back when.”
She describes the Al Kooper song “I Love You More Than You Will Ever
Know,” another newly recorded song, as, “We rocked it up a little bit,
but not much. It is a little more contemporary sounding than what Gloria
Lynne had done.”
Please take time
to visit
Diane Marino’s website and you can follow her on
Instagram here.
#DianeMarino #DianeMarinoJazz #NashvilleJazz #RivetingRiffs #RivetingRiffsMagazine #NewJazzMusic #JazzInterview #JazzEntrevista #EntrevistaMusica
|
As
for the song “Out Of this World,” she says, “It is a beautiful song and
I don’t remember who I first heard singing it. I remember hearing it
with Mel Torme and I don’t remember who was playing the piano. What
struck me was its haunting, beautiful melody.