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Another year, another Red Hot project of unlikely musical bedfellows, this time paying tribute in their divergent ways to George Gershwin in the year of his centennial. All kinds of styles are tossed about, from a full symphony orchestra to the latest hip-hop and retro-electronic techniques. The tracks that work the best are those that seem to use Gershwin simply as a point of departure for their own agendas: to cite a few, Smoke City's odd combination of electronica and Brazilian rhythm on "They Can't Take That Away from Me," Michael Franti's interpolated ghetto raps in the middle of Spearhead/Ernest Ranglin's cool, hip-hop "I Got Plenty O' Nuthin." As a pocket sampling of the differing approaches, Morcheeba's ultra-sultry vocal teams up with Hubert Laws' flute on a most effective "Summertime," while an aging Bobby Womack successfully fuses rap and '70s funk on the same tune. On the other hand, while it's nice to hear performers from the ranks of Generation X and thereabouts taking enough interest in Gershwin to try and interpret his tunes straight on, many of them simply do not have the expressiveness in their voices to get much out of the songs. Either that or their deliberately ironic stances preclude emotion; nothing seems to touch them, they sound disembodied and vacant. Rock veteran David Bowie turns out to be the most affecting balladeer of them all in "A Foggy Day," accompanied by film composer Angelo Badalamenti's brooding strings. The only standalone jazz personality is Clark Terry, who growls a brief "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" in his "mumbles" voice while blowing a bit of muted trumpet overhead. Though backloading the CD with sustained ballads drains much of its energy, the album is never less than absorbing. Yet there is little fusion of eras and attitudes, nor a sense of passing the torch as there is on the thrilling Red Hot + Rio package.
CONDITION: NEW Promotional Imprint on Back Cover
TRACK LISTING
1 Summertime – Morcheeba + Hubert Laws
2 It Ain't Necessarily So – Finley Quaye
3 But Not For Me – Natalie Merchant
4 They Can't Take That Away From Me – Smoke City
5 I Got Plenty O' Nuthin' – Spearhead + Ernest Ranglin
6 Summertime – Bobby Womack + The Roots
7 I Was Doing All Right – Davina
8 Embraceable You – Duncan Sheik
9 Let's Call The Whole Thing Off – Clark Terry
10 I've Got A Crush On You – Luscious Jackson
11 Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin – Money Mark
12 Nice Work If You Can Get It – Majestic 12 (7)
13 The Man I Love – Sarah Cracknell + Kid Loco
14 Rhapsody In Blue – Skylab 'S Wonderful /
15 Someone to Watch Over Me – Sinéad O'Connor
16 Bess, You Is My Woman Now – Baaba Maal
17 A Foggy Day (In London Town) – David Bowie + Angelo Badalamenti
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