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Lisa
Stansfield
Swing!: Motion Picture Soundtrack
 Her
1990 top 40 hit “All Around the World” boasts a lush
orchestration more reminiscent of 1970s Philly Soul architects
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff than George and Ira Gershwin. But Lisa
Stansfield’s recent big band detour won’t surprise anyone
who’s heard her interpretation of “They Can’t Take
That Away From Me” on the 1994 tribute disc The Glory of
Gershwin, or her live covers of Billie Holiday classics.
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AUDIO |
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Hear
Samples of
Swing:The Motion Picture Soundtrack
(Requires Windows
Media) |
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With
Swing, the soundtrack to her motion picture debut, the British dance/soul
diva evinces brass on classic jazz and swing standards ranging from
“Mack the Knife” to “Our Love Is Here to Stay.”
Her sensual smile of a voice is at turns gritty (a swingified take
on the Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Lovin’”)
and giddy (the nonsensical “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens”).
Even when a dash of her old strings-and-things approach creeps up
in the stunning nouveau jazz ballad “Two Years Too Blue”
(one of four tunes she co-wrote for the film), it only serves to
enhance the proceedings.
And
if Stansfield’s other three original songs lack the infectious
hooks of the standards she essays, the seasoned vocals of mod-jazz
legend Georgie Fame on two of those tunes go a long way toward
masking any deficiencies. Add the driving horn of E-street saxman
Clarence Clemons, and you have a soundtrack worthy of its name.
-
Jeff Bell
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