“Swing That Music!” CD Review
Danny Bacher burst onto the American scene like a meteor, however, a meteor quickly burns in the dense layers of the atmosphere. But as for Danny Bacher and his career , on the contrary, is steadily going up, which is confirmed by the warm reviews in the pages of leading American publications. For example, The New York Times. It can be heard in Danny Bacher’s debut album, Swing That Music! issued by Whaling City Sound, that there is something he possesses that deeply affects the souls of Americans, causing them to love and take a nostalgic pleasure with what he is doing.
At first I did not quite understand the announcement, in which the album, “Swing That Music!” which was presented as a compilation of “new classics”. At first I thought that it was about a symbiosis of classical music and jazz, modern arrangements of European musical classics. However, after listening to the album, I agreed that in fact these are classics, but with a new feel presenting the American music of Louis Armstrong, Prima and Jordan – Danny Bacher revives these tunes for the contemporary listener. His program – is a tribute to the above-mentioned three Louis. And if you remember the career of each, the main thing that unites them – all three were great entertainers. It’s hard to pick an adequate Russian translation of this term. Danny Bacher is a musician, singer, comedian, actor, showman – all in one package! A native of New Jersey, he, unlike many contemporaries, was fascinated since childhood in such music through a record collection of his grandparents. Danny studied music starting in childhood, and soprano saxophone became his main instrument. When in college, where there was a very strong jazz program, He was able to study both his music, and theatre. Already a professional comedian and writer out of college, Bacher, in conversation with his former teacher Roseanna Vitro came to the idea of this project that we are presenting today.
The Program, “Swing That Music!” is made up of compositions from the repertoire of three Louis. The earliest thing here – the traditional interpretation of the St James Infirmary Blues, Armstrong recorded for the first time in 1928, where Bacher is reasonable without trying to imitate the vocal style of Satchmo, it’s as if giving a new luster to this old diamond. The latest composition – “I Wanna Be Like You” from Disney’s 1967 animated film “The Jungle Book”, was sang by Louis Prima. The new version of the tune features a scat duet with Bacher and trombonist/singer/arranger Pete McGuinness. A great scat at that!
All the other tracks of the album are located in the interval between these two dates. And each of them, Bacher interprets in a modern way, not excluding even the fragments in the Rap,“If It’s Love You Want Baby, That’s Me” from the repertoire of Jordan. However, the basis of his music – still swing, and perhaps not coincidentally, the name of the album, an Armstrong hit in the 1930s, “Swing That Music!” has a great team of musicians, which are all names in the jazz world. Cornetist Warren Vache, one of the best masters of traditional jazz, and also tenor saxophone Titan, Houston Person! There are two songs in which Danny sings a duet with Cyrille Aimee, the French singer, who lives in Brooklyn. She gives a special charm to the famous, “Old Black Magic” (from the repertoire of Prima) and also on the medley, “La Vie En Rose / A Kiss to Build a Dream On.”
Yes, of course the Americans may call this music “new classics”, but for jazz lovers from our continent, this is more than Neo Swing. (This term was in fashion about fifteen years ago, but has since gone out of fashion and is all but forgotten.) However, If you like this cheerful, call to dance, music inspired by genuine jazz swing, Danny Bacher’s, “Swing That Music!” is for you!!!
Translated from Russian by Julia Tokareva