Jazzin' Things Up

I am not a huge fan of record companies teaming up old school crooners with current pop performers. But a couple of weeks ago, I saw Tony Bennett's latest CD featuring himself performing classic tracks with some of today's well-known names and thought "this might actually be good". So, it was a case of great minds thinking alike (or fools seldom differ) when my closest friend in the world bought me this CD as a birthday gift. I was thrilled.

This CD is definitely full of gems performed by the biggerst stars like Michael Buble, John Legend, Diana Krall (*woohoo*), James Taylor, George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Sting. The tracks are not "enhanced" to sound more modern so what you get is still the good ol' feel. I haven't stopped playing it since I got it.

My absolute favourite tracks off this collection are The Very Thought Of You, For Once In My Life, The Good Life, The Best Is Yet To Come, I Left My Heart In San Francisco and my buddy's favourite - If I Ruled The World.

And hearing how much trouble he went through just to find this special CD for me was especially heart-warming. Everyone should have a friend like that.

Thanks for the fantastic gift, W.

From This Moment On

Its been a really long while since I did a post on new albums I've purchased. Not that I have not shopped for any in the last few months but most of them were not worth mentioning. Last weekend while out shopping with my wife, I picked up Diana Krall's latest jazz offering together with two other CDs. Diana has never disappointed me before. Last Christmas, I found it very difficult to get into the spirit of the season but after buying her Christmas album, I was humming Christmas tunes till the new year.

Did she disappoint with her new album? Negatory! It seems that she keeps getting better and better with each new album produced. Tracks that'll keep playing in your head are "It Could Happen To You", "Isn't This A Lovely Day", "How Insensitive", "From This Moment On" and "Day In, Day Out". Oh heck... the entire album is fabulous!

More on the Princess of Jazz can be found here.