Carol Kidd – Dreamsville (2008) {MCH SACD ISO + FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz}

Dreamsville marks the long-awaited return of a UK jazz legend. Dreamsville showcases American Songbook favourites as well as previously unrecorded original songs. Carol Kidd is renowned for her impeccable phrasing and delivery along with an innate ability to breathe fresh life into jazz standards. Dreamsville places a great singer, at the top of her form, back where she belongs – in the upper echelons of world class vocal jazz.

Carol Kidd is well known for her impeccable phrasing and delivery and for her innate ability to breathe fresh life into jazz standards. A Linn Records artist since 1984, Kidd celebrates the 25 year relationship with a hand-picked selection of standards. After the studden death of her partner in 2003, Carol took a complete break from singing for a few years. However, she found therapy in writing the lyrics and penning two songs, co-written with guitarist Nigel Clark, which appear on the album – ‘Do You Believe’ and ‘There Goes My Heart’. The album also features a delightful new version of her signature song ‘When I Dream’.

Carol Kidd’s first album in eight years also marks the 25th anniversary of her relationship with the Glasgow-based Linn Records. And what a partnership it has been – Kidd a faultless vocalist of impeccable stylistic credentials, and Linn a beacon of artist and audiophile quality for independent British labels. A tellingly bittersweet and plangent affair, “Dreamsville” is a long overdue return to the fray after the death of her partner in 2003 and subsequent trauma-induced loss of voice. Although now into her 60s, Kidd’s voice remains full of character and colour, an emotionally alert and expressive instrument she puts to perfectly-phrased, beautifully-pitched use with a crafted, lightly-worn elegance that continues to astound as it delights. Two songs are new and self-penned (with guitarist Nigel Clark): There Goes My Heart is a soft, lilting leave-taking, and Do You Believe a hymning lullaby to love and second chances. A heartfelt cover of Harold Arlen’s Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe is offered as a tribute to the late Humphrey Lyttelton and benefits from Paul Harrison’s softly measured piano accompaniment. Indeed the four-piece band assembled here – Mario Caribe on double bass and Alyn Cosker on drums ably partnering Clark and Harrison – prove to be a crack outfit who seize a fabulous opportunity in Cole Porter’s adrenalin-fuelled It’s Alright With Me to show off their virtuosic wares. Illustrating a more sensitive side, Stars Fell on Alabama glints and sparkles with a hushed loveliness that makes much of Kidd’s eloquent ability to hold and extend a note. Familiar standards How Deep is the Ocean?, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and Can’t We Be Friends? are set down with consummate and engaging ease while Kidd’s signature song, When I Dream, newly arranged by Nigel Clark and producer Graeme Duffin, brings things to a glowing, finely delivered conclusion.

Tracklist:
01. It Never Entered My Mind
02. Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
03. How Deep Is The Ocean
04. How Long Has This Been Going On
05. Can’t We Be Friends
06. Dreamsville
07. There Goes My Heart
08. Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe
09. It’s Alright With Me
10. Stars Fell On Alabama
11. Do You Believe
12. When I Dream

Produced by Graeme Duffin. Engineered by Allan Cathbertson & Sandy Jones. Mixed by Calum Malcolm.
Recorded at The Mixing Rooms/Terminal Music, Glasgow & The Foundry MusicLab, Motherwell, January-February 2007.

Personnel
Carol Kidd – vocals
Paul Harrison – piano
Nigel Clark – guitar
Mario Caribe – double bass
Alyn Cosker – drums
Graeme Duffin – guitar, vocals on “12”

SACD ISO

Car0lKiddDreamsville2008SACDIS0.part1.rar
Car0lKiddDreamsville2008SACDIS0.part2.rar
Car0lKiddDreamsville2008SACDIS0.part3.rar

FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz

Car0lKiddDreamsville2008FLACStere02488.2.rar