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Collaboration (Helen Merrill and Gil Evans album)

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Collaboration
Studio album by
Helen Merrill
Released1988
RecordedAugust 18, 25 & 26, 1987
StudioClinton Recording Studio, New York, NY
GenreJazz
Length44:01
LabelEmArcy, Nippon Phonogram
ProducerKiyoshi "Boxman" Koyama, Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill chronology
Music Makers
(1986) 		Collaboration
(1988) 		Helen Merrill Sings Cole Porter
(1988)
Gil Evans chronology
Live at Sweet Basil Vol. 2
(1987) 		Collaboration
(1987) 		Bud and Bird
(1987)

Collaboration is a 1987 studio album by Helen Merrill, arranged by Gil Evans.[1] With the almost identical repertoire of recorded songs –though in another order– and following Evans' original scores it is a celebratory re-recording of their previous collaboration from 30 years ago for Merrill's album Dream of You, released in 1957 also on EmArcy. The one exception is the opener, "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, that Evans recorded with Miles Davis in 1958, it replaces "You're Lucky to Me". Like Dream of You Collaboration was recorded on three consecutive recording sessions each with a different line-up, one with woodwinds and trombone for most songs, featuring soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy on two tracks, one session with brass and another with a string section and woodwind.

Reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[2]

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album four and a half stars and said "This inspired outing, one of the most rewarding sets of Helen Merrill's later years, was also one of Evans' last great dates and one of his few post-1972 classics. 57 at the time, Merrill is in superb form on such numbers as 'Where Flamingos Fly,' 'A New Town Is a Blue Town,' 'By Myself' and 'Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home.'"[1] The Penguin Guide to Jazz described the album as "One of the strangest singer-and-orchestra records ever made", and highlighted the slow tempos, "barely moving textures" and "long, carefully held tones of the vocalist".[2]

Track listing

[edit]
  1. "Summertime" (George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) – 4:27
  2. "Where Flamingos Fly" (John Benson Brooks, Harold Courlander, Elthea Peale) – 3:07
  3. "Dream of You" (Sy Oliver, Jimmie Lunceford, Michael Morales) – 2:51
  4. "I'm a Fool to Want You" (Joel Herron, Jack Wolf, Frank Sinatra) – 4:30
  5. "Troubled Waters" (Arthur Johnston, Sam Coslow) – 3:26
  6. "I'm Just a Lucky So and So" (Duke Ellington, Mack David) – 3:09
  7. "People Will Say We're in Love" (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) – 2:49
  8. "By Myself" (Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz) – 3:38
  9. "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) – 4:55
  10. "I've Never Seen" (Don Marcotte) – 4:19
  11. "He Was Too Good to Me" (Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 3:15
  12. "A New Town Is a Blue Town" (Jerry Ross, Richard Adler) – 3:35

Personnel

[edit]

The Gil Evans Orchestra

Tracks 1, 2, 6, 9 and 12, session of August 25, 1987

Tracks 3, 7 and 8, session of August 26, 1987

Tracks 4, 5, 10 and 11, session of August 18, 1987

Production

  • Kiyoshi "Boxman" Koyama, Helen Merrill – producers
  • Tom Lazarus – recording and mix engineer
  • Rebecca Everett – second engineer
  • Dan Morgenstern – liner notes

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "Collaboration". Allmusic. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (1992). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette (1st ed.). Penguin. p. 734. ISBN 978-0-14-015364-4.
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