NEW JANET SEIDEL CD RELEASE

Charade

This CD was released last month in Japan and now in Australia. It entered Swing Journal Jazz Vocal Charts at No. 2 and has been described there as “jazz vocals masterpiece”.

Janet Seidel has been described as “first lady of Australian jazz singing” in the “Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD” (UK). Though perhaps not a typical jazz singer, in the clichéd sense of the word, she is a stylist and interpreter and is regarded in Japan and some other countries as ranking in the Top 10 female jazz vocalists in the world today.

The songs by Mancini are timeless. The recording is audiophile quality. The sublime vocals are matched with the brilliant piano of Melbourne’s Joe Chindamo, and the deep, spacious backgrounds provided by Chuck Morgan, David Seidel (and Fabian Hevia on several tracks), enhance every move.

Track List

1. Dreamsville 4.11
2. Slow Hot Wind 3.26
3. Straight To Baby 3.31
4. Whistling Away the Dark 3.31
5. Days Of Wine and Roses 4.14
6. Charade 3.28
7. Nothing To Lose 3.57
8. Dear Heart 3.26
9. The Loss Of Love 2.33
10. Mr Lucky 4.49
11. Moment To Moment 6.28
12. Crazy World 6.11
13. (I Love You) Don’t You Forget it 2.24
14. Two For the Road 6.09

Janet Seidel - vocal,
Joe Chindamo - piano,
Chuck Morgan - guitar,
David Seidel - bass,
Fabian Hevia - drums/bongos.

Recorded by Richard Lush
Produced by David Seidel
High Resolution mastering by Rick O’Neil

Distributed in Australia by The Planet Company (MGM)

AVAILABLE NOW AT SPECIALIST STORES AND ALL BORDERS BOOKS AND JB HIFI STORES OR ONLINE DEALERS.

1 A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
2 My Attorney Bernie
3 But Not For Me
4 Your Feet’s Too Big
5 Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend
6 Cry Me A River
7 They Can’t Take That Away From Me
8 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
9 Brenda’s Request (dialogue)
10 Johnny Guitar
11 Why Don’t You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)
12 A Foggy Day
13 The Look of Love:
14 I’m an Old Cowhand
15 Them There Eyes
16 All The Way
17 You Do Something to Me
18 My Baby Just Cares for Me

JANET SEIDEL: VOCALS / PIANO
CHUCK MORGAN: GUITAR
DAVID SEIDEL: DOUBLE BASS

Moon of Manakoora

Janet Seidel's "Moon Of Manakoora" was originally produced for a Japanese record label and released there in July 2005, where it reached Number 1 on the prestigious jazz vocal chart of Japan's Swing Journal.

In November 2005, La Brava Music issued it for the Australian market and what a delightful album it is.

It features Janet Seidel's warmest ever vocals in a dreamy jazz repertoire, with the amazing Chuck Morgan on ukulele and guitars, David Seidel on bass, with Billy Ross and Laurie Bennett sharing duties on drums and percussion.

THE MOON OF MANAKOORA
Janet Seidel and combo
FOUR STARS

Guitarists who can double on banjo are often reluctant to admit it in case they are actually asked to play the damn thing. That goes double if you mention the word "ukulele." But just listen to the hotter white dance bands of the 1920s - Roger Wolfe Kahn, Jean Goldkette and so on - and you'll find the uke strumming away sweet and hot under the vocals. It was the primary social instrument of the young middle-class during that roaring decade, as the piano had been in the 1890s and as the guitar would be from the 1950s. Its return to the world of the jazz ensemble is long overdue.

So it is actually timely and indeed beautiful that Chuck Morgan, the erstwhile guitarist in Janet Seidel's trio, should argue the case for the uke on Ms Seidel's newest album, The Moon of Manakoora. Morgan is a superb artist and brings his considerable skill and subtly to this neglected instrument, drawing from it the gentle, sweet, syncopated colour it can display in the hands of a sensitive musician. This is a song collection for long summer nights, for Pims and lemonade, the spray of Aerogard and the sizzle of the barbeque. So for Janet's re-conception of Twilight Time, for example, shorn of its bright 50s apparel and slipping into something more comfortable, Morgan's uke is made to measure.

In fact it's tempting to regard this as Janet's finest album for some time. On almost all the tracks here, she is at her most relaxed and swinging, while the settings for each number are felicitously tropical. Till There Was You, a kind of reduction sauce of the celebrated Peggy Lee version, is effortlessly relaxed, as is the opening track, the Benny Carter classic When Lights Are Low. Delicado apart - which sounds somewhat forced and unlikely in such company - everything comes together so well that it seems surprising the ukulele has been absent from small group swing for so long: let's hope Chuck Morgan features it permanently in the Seidel ensemble. I'm only sorry that the entertaining story of how this CD came into being is told only in the press release that comes with the recording, not in the disc notes themselves.

Phillip Sametz has performed and recorded with the Janet Seidel trio.

Delovely - Live at the Woodfire

The Music of Cole Porter - live CD

Delovely is Janet's new cabaret CD recorded at Sydney's rare and intimate venue The Woodfire. The recording by Sydney musician and engineer John Morrison beautifully captures the atmosphere of the venue not to mention the easy and natural performances of Janet and her trio. The repertoire consists of both the well known Cole Porter songs along with some rarer items from his catalogue.

The CD is one night's performance just as played on the night, no overdubs, no fixes - just the music - one take only. The show generally runs close to 90 minutes, so for the sake of brevity much of the dialogue was edited out. On the night before the recording, the audience included one Warren Mitchell, who approached Janet backstage at the end of the show describing her performance as "a tour de-f____ing-force!".

Concert Review of Delovely at the National Gallery of Australia

â??Her unadorned crystal clear voice and infectious humour and patter it is a winning combination. Featuring the very best of Cole Porter, Janet and her band perform memorable favourites like, I Get a Kick Out of You, Night and Day, Love For Sale and many more…..

Janet offered us a uniquely personal, classic and sophisticated take on the greatest American lyricist and composer in one, Cole Porter. Porter's output of 800 songs is a rich booty to plunder, but Janet made it her own. Its hard not to compare her to Doris Day, Peggy Lee or even the more eccentric Blossom Dearie, all of whom she has performed tributes to in her career, and it's definitely fair to say that her understanding of the classics is equal to that of those legendary greats……

Reviewed by Greg Marginson (City News, Canberra)

more info to come...

Someone should send Janet Seidel flowers for her delicate and engaging tribute to a truly eccentric music talent, the ageless Blossom Dearie. She takes a repesentative sample from her catalogue and sings with a touch of the breathy feyness that characterises a Dearie song.

She sings the politically charged I'm Shadowing You and finds the erotic subtext in a simple song about the number eight. She's Down on Love and has an unfortunate and very funny encounter at the Pro Musica Antiqua.

Along the way, we learn a little of ....... her continuing love of the witty and offbeat, the tender and the not too sentimental.

We also learn that Seidel is a very fine singer in a very cool way with a light touch on the keys.

- Ewart Shaw THE ADVERTISER June 18th 2004

A review on the Cabaret Hotline of the Sydney 2000 Cabaret convention by David Schwartz, which was published 11 July 2000, said:

"...her singing voice, warm, mature and confident does wonders"