http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=21243



Boz Scaggs Revisits Standards This Fall with 'Speak Low' (Decca)

Posted: 2008-07-31

This fall, Decca will release renowned musician Boz Scaggs' Speak Low, the silken-voiced singer's newest collection of standards and first studio album in five years, available on vinyl September 30 and in all other forms October 28. Co-produced with GRAMMY award-winning producer/arranger Gil Goldstein, Scaggs interprets Ellington, Mercer, Rodgers & Hart, and other classic writers and composers. In addition to Goldstein on piano/keyboards, the line up includes Alex Acuna (drums), Bob Sheppard (woodwinds), and Scott Colley (bass).

Scaggs began his distinguished career as a teenager and over a dozen records later, when Scaggs released But Beautiful, the critical and fan response was tremendous, and the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Jazz charts. The Boston Globe hailed that Scaggs had “made one of the year's best albums of jazz vocals" (6/28/03), while Jazz Times noted that the release marked “an enticing new chapter in an already dynamic career" (September 2003).

Scaggs once told the LA Times (6/12/03), “I'm going to be around this music for awhile. I love its melodic and harmonic qualities, and it's going to impact what I sing and what I write. The door's been opened."



About the Artist
Singer/songwriter Boz Scaggs enjoyed considerable solo success in the 1970's with several Top 20 Hits including "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle" along with the top selling Silk Degrees album. Scaggs spent much of the 1980's in retirement, owning and operating the San Francisco nightclub Slim's and limiting his performances primarily to the club's annual black-tie New Year's Eve concerts. In 1988 he resurfaced and spent the years consistently releasing new material including Here's the Low Down, Fade Into Light, Dig and a collection of standards called But Beautiful.

Product Description
Speak Low, his 17th studio album; a follow-up to 2003's But Beautiful - "a sort of progressive, experimental effort ... along the lines of some of the ideas that Gil Evans explored" says Boz. Songs on the album include Chet Baker's "She Was Too Good To Be True," Johnny Mercer's "This Time the Dream's on Me," the often recorded "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and the Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash title track. "I'm a vocalist," Scaggs says. "I come more out of a blues/rhythm & blues background, but this is a different way of using my voice, and much more musically challenging and adventurous for me."

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[bigred]CD[/bigred]

1. Invitation - By Bronislaw Kaper
2. She Was Too Good To Me - by Rodgers and Hart
3. I Wish I Knew - By Mack Gordon and Harry Warren
4. Speak Low - By Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill
5. Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me - by Duke Ellington and Bob Russell
6. I'll Remember April - By Gene De Paul, Patricia Johnson and Don Raye
7. Save Your Love For Me - By Buddy Woodrow Johnson
8. Ballad Of The Sad Young Men - By Frances Landesman and Thomas Wolf Jr.
9. Skylark - By Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer
10. Senza Fine - By Cesarea, Paoli and Wilder
11. Dindi by - De Oliveria, Gilbert and Jobim
12. This Time The Dream's On Me - By Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EI5C0A/?tag=imwan-20

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[bigred]MP3[/bigred]

The Amazon.com exclusive edition of the [title]Speak Low[/title] MP3 album includes a bonus 13th track, "Some Other Time/We're All Alone".

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J10RLG/?tag=imwan-20

I wish Boz would revisit his blues roots or even do a release similar to "Dig." "Standards" releases are boring to me, they are standards because they've already been done repeatedly and there is nothing to add to them.

What's YACA?

Todd: Shorthand for "Yet Another Covers Album."

Found the tracklist:

`SPEAK LOW` TRACK LIST:
1. INVITATION (Bronislaw Kaper)
2. SHE WAS TOO GOOD TO ME (Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers)
3. I WISH I KNEW (Mark Gordon and Harry Warren)
4. SPEAK LOW (Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill)
5. DO NOTHING TILL YOU HEAR FROM ME (Edward Kennedy Ellington and Keith Sidney Russell)
6. I`LL REMEMBER APRIL (Gene De Paul, Patricia Johnson and Don Raye)
7. SAVE YOUR LOVE FOR ME (Buddy Woodrow Johnson)
8. BALLAD OF THE SAD YOUNG MEN (Frances Landesman and Thomas J. Wolf, Jr.)
9. SKYLARK (Hoagy Carmichael and John H. Mercer)
10. SENZA FINE (Campos Cesarea, Gine Paoli, and Alec Wilder)
11. DINDI (Aloysio De Oliveira, Ray Gilbert, and Antonio Carlos Jobim)
12. THIS TIME THE DREAM`S ON ME (Harold Arlen and John H. Mercer)

Some interesting choices from Boz, and most of these songs have NOT been done too death. I liked "BUT BEAUTIFUL" from Boz a few years back, so I'm sure this will also be terrific!

I'm of the opinion that artists such as Boz doing standards albums is a cop out. This is just an artist doing something he knows will make money because there is a market for it. I'm talking about you Rod Stewart. I knew Stewart was washed up, but I'm disappointed Scaggs has gone the standards route. He still has the chops and doesn't need to.

I do agree with you James as far as some artists, in particular Rod Stewart, recording standards is a cop-out. However, from the song titles and production by Gil Goldstein, I don't think Boz is going after the same audience that Clive Davis and Richard Perry went after with Rod. And honestly, as much as I love Boz, I don't think he's ever been the kind of "star" that Rod is!

However, I must admit that I am totally annoyed that the vinyl is being released a full month before the "other formats"! What is this -- 1984 all over again?

I had read that Boz was releasing a new album this fall, but I didn't know it would be a covers album. I'll get it, because I really like how he approaches and interprets a song. However, I am disappointed, because Boz is such a talented songwriter and craftsman (both musically and lyrically). Dig and Some Change are two of my favorite albums, and I really want to see him continue down that road. Did But Beautiful inform/impact his songwriting process? Show us!

Jim

i saw boz scaggs live last summer and he was outstanding.

i hope he does a rock and roll album again someday.

renny

"But Beautiful" for me was a tremendous snooze. I'm disheartened that he's releasing yet another standards album.

If he was inclinded to do another covers album, I'd rather see one like "Come On Home"...

Jeff

M4L--exactly. Do a blues covers, go back to your roots. I'm not dissing standards, but I think artists do them when they see another artist who previously hadn't sold squat all the sudden go Top 10 with a standards release.

I will not buy another Boz album until he returns to original music.

"Some Change" was a phenomenal record. I don't mind if artists come out with standards albums – especially if it's a stopgap between albums. But when you've been waiting for years for original music, it feels like a slap in the face.

An artist like Rod Stewart doing covers doesn't bug me because it's been years since he's come out with original material that was worth a poop.

RoyalScam, I won't buy any standards cds from any artist, and I'm not too fond of covers releases, either. I thought Scaggs' was weak, thought Joan Osborne's was weak, thought Hall & Oates' was weak and I am a fan of all 3.

Bump: added finalised cover art and tracklisting to the first post.

Amazon's CD listing is now showing a 13th track: "Some Other Time/We're All Alone - Exclusive Amazon MP3 Track". Whether that will be a free download link sent by e-mail to purchasers of the physical CD, or an MP3 file included on the CD as an enhancement, I don't yet know.

FYI

"speak low" is HDCD encoded.

and it is much better than "but beautiful" IMHO.

renny

This has been released in Japan with 2 bonus tracks: "Azure" and "Some Other Time/We're All Alone". There is also an SHM-CD version, which includes a DVD with a running time of 4:25 -- I haven't watched it yet, but I'm guessing it is the EPK.