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This was Joe Beck's last project -- an album of duets with the throaty-voiced Laura Theodore devoted to the repertoire of singer Peggy Lee and her onetime husband/guitarist Dave Barbour. It could have led to a much more ambitious project, a musical theater production on the life of Lee featuring just Beck and Theodore. But shortly after this album was completed, Beck was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to drop out (the musical went on to open in Cleveland with a conventional full band in Oct. 2007). As it stands, the Lee-Barbour project finds Beck in terrific shape, darting around in several styles, always inventive, always supportive of Theodore. Beck divides his time equally between a Martin acoustic guitar and a custom-designed Martin Joe Beck alto guitar that effectively combines the characteristics of a bass and a guitar. If truth be told, the difference in sound between the two instruments is not that great because Beck's clear-cut timbre and touch stamp an indelible signature on whatever he does. The main difference is in how the instruments are used, for Beck often seems to go with the acoustic whenever he wants to chonk away with rhythmic urgency while the alto lends itself to more intricate work. Theodore's voice and delivery only faintly resemble Lee's, but that's OK, for she imposes her own, deeper-voiced, more overtly dramatic creative personality on Lee's material. The most interesting transformation occurs on, of all things, the covered-to-death standard "Fever" -- now reharmonized and revitalized, capped with a wonderfully weird avant-garde ending in which Beck makes his guitar sound like a CD player skipping on a defective disc. "Manana" is an interesting case -- a period piece in which Theodore dares not mimic Lee's original faux-Mexican accent in the politically correct 21st century, but instead interprets it cheerfully without apologies. Given the sometimes questionable commercial zigzags that Beck's career took, it's heartening to report that his final recordings were so classy.
© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo
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Johnny Guitar: Johnny Guitar (Victor Young)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Peggy Lee, Lyricist - Victor Young, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Why Don't You Do Right?
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Joe McCoy, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Take a Little Time to Smile
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Fever
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Otis Blackwell, Composer - Eddie Cooley, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
My Small Senor (with the Sonriente Eyes)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Don't Smoke In Bed
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Willard Robison, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
I Get Along Without You Very Well (Hoagy Carmichael)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Hoagy Carmichael, Composer - Jane Brown Thompson, Lyricist
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
You Was Right, Baby (Dave Barbour)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Lyricist
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
I can't believe that you're in love with me (Jimmy McHugh)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Jimmy McHugh, Composer - Clarence Gaskill, Lyricist
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Solitude (Irving Mills)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Duke Ellington, Composer - Irving Mills, Composer - Eddie De Lange, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Everything's movin' too fast (Dave Barbour)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Lyricist
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
When you speak with your eyes
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Composer - Rene Touzet, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Golden Earrings (Victor Young)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Jay Livingston, Lyricist - Ray Evans, Lyricist - Victor Young, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
I Don't Know Enough About You
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Composer
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
What More Can A Woman Do (Dave Barbour)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Lyricist
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Manana (Is Soon Enough For Me) (Dave Barbour)
Joe Beck, Performer - Laura Theodore, Performer - Dave Barbour, Composer - Peggy Lee, Lyricist
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
Albumbeschreibung
This was Joe Beck's last project -- an album of duets with the throaty-voiced Laura Theodore devoted to the repertoire of singer Peggy Lee and her onetime husband/guitarist Dave Barbour. It could have led to a much more ambitious project, a musical theater production on the life of Lee featuring just Beck and Theodore. But shortly after this album was completed, Beck was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to drop out (the musical went on to open in Cleveland with a conventional full band in Oct. 2007). As it stands, the Lee-Barbour project finds Beck in terrific shape, darting around in several styles, always inventive, always supportive of Theodore. Beck divides his time equally between a Martin acoustic guitar and a custom-designed Martin Joe Beck alto guitar that effectively combines the characteristics of a bass and a guitar. If truth be told, the difference in sound between the two instruments is not that great because Beck's clear-cut timbre and touch stamp an indelible signature on whatever he does. The main difference is in how the instruments are used, for Beck often seems to go with the acoustic whenever he wants to chonk away with rhythmic urgency while the alto lends itself to more intricate work. Theodore's voice and delivery only faintly resemble Lee's, but that's OK, for she imposes her own, deeper-voiced, more overtly dramatic creative personality on Lee's material. The most interesting transformation occurs on, of all things, the covered-to-death standard "Fever" -- now reharmonized and revitalized, capped with a wonderfully weird avant-garde ending in which Beck makes his guitar sound like a CD player skipping on a defective disc. "Manana" is an interesting case -- a period piece in which Theodore dares not mimic Lee's original faux-Mexican accent in the politically correct 21st century, but instead interprets it cheerfully without apologies. Given the sometimes questionable commercial zigzags that Beck's career took, it's heartening to report that his final recordings were so classy.
© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 16 track(s)
- Total length: 00:47:39
- Main artists: Laura Theodore
- Composer: Irving Mills
- Label: Whaling City Sound
- Genre: Jazz
2013 Whaling City Sound 2013 Whaling City Sound
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