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Reaching for the Moon (album)

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Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
CD Reviewfavorable[2]
JazzTimesfavorable[3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
External audio
audio icon You may listen to "You Are There" here

Reaching for the Moon is the third album by jazz singer Roseanna Vitro.

Reception

2½ stars out of 5 were awarded by AllMusic's Ken Dryden in his retrospective assessment. While describing pianist/musical director Kenny Werner as "under-appreciated" and acknowledging that Vitro herself "is in good voice throughout," Dryden also bemoans both the "strange engineering" of vocals (causing "a slow fade which proves to be very distracting") and a perceived over-reliance on "bland synthesizer" on many tracks.[1]

Contemporaneous reviews by JazzTimes and CD Review were considerably less ambivalent. Proclaiming Vitro's attempt to emotionally engage her listener a "Bullseye," CD Review cites both "the supple power of her phrasing" and her voice's "sensual[ity] and intens[ity]."[2] JazzTimes states:

Roseanna Vitro does reach for the moon, and yanks the brass ring. Vitro introduces us to new tunes, sings deeply in many styles, scats refreshingly, and works with mobile combos under the aegis of agile pianist/arranger Kenny Werner. Vitro is full-voiced, good spirited, and abrim with a yearning grace.[3]

Los Angeles Times reviewer Zan Stewart gave the album 3 stars out of 5. Commending Vitro's relatively straightforward delivery (in contrast to a previously detected tendency towards sometimes distracting vocal flourishes), Stewart also makes note of the singer's "impressive Brazilian feel," as well as "Kenny Werner's ace accompaniment" and "vital saxophone solos from George Coleman and Joe Lovano."[4]

Track listing

  1. "I Bet You Thought I'd Never Find You" (Les McCann, Jon Hendricks) - 6:09
  2. "In a Sentimental Mood" (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Manny Kurtz) - 6:37
  3. "Canção do Sal" (aka "Song of Salt") (Milton Nascimento) - 5:44
  4. "Reaching for the Moon" (Irving Berlin) - 5:08
  5. "In the Name of Love" (Kenny Rankin, Estelle Levitt) - 4:14
  6. "The Island" (Ivan Lins, Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman) - 5:56
  7. "You Are There" (Johnny Mandel, Dave Frishberg) - 5:48
  8. "Gathering Stones" (Kenny Werner) - 5:57
  9. "Yesterdays" (Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach) - 5:30
  10. "Slow Hot Wind" (Henry Mancini, Norman Gimbel) - 6:19

Personnel

All information derived from Jazz Music Archives.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Dryden, Ken. "Roseanna Vitro: Reaching for the Moon (Overview)" Allmusic. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  2. ^ a b "Roseanna Vitro: Reaching for the Moon" CD Review. Volume 8, 1992. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  3. ^ a b "Roseanna Vitro: Reaching for the Moon, Chase Music Group (57:40)" JazzTimes. 1991. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  4. ^ a b Stewart, Zan. "New Releases" The Los Angeles Times. September 1, 1991. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  5. ^ "'Reaching for the Moon' Roseanna Vitro". Jazz Music Archives. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
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