Songs
A happy song about the futility of life.
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- artist:Queen Esther
- featured artist:Queen Esther
- region:New York City
- release year:2024
- style(s):Jazz, Americana
- country:USA
- formats:CD (Compact Disc)
- record posted by:Esther, Queen
- label:released by artist
- publisher:BMG Rights Management (US) LLC
- buy this record
Queen Esther's latest recording Things Are Looking Up -- her sixth as a bandleader -- is a genre-crossing, expansive and eclectic tribute to Billie Holiday featuring a heady mix of Lady Day's lost and rare songs along with original compositions, performed by brilliant New York City jazz musicians.
Produced by Queen Esther with music direction from the late Jeremy Bacon on piano, including an international collective of engineers -- recorded with Tom Tedesco at Tedesco Studios, mixed by Jorg Mohr and mastered by Stef Ulrich in Germany -- along with established and storied musicians drummer Warren Smith (Max Roach) and bassist Hilliard Greene (Little Walter Scott) at the helm, Queen Esther reintroduces the world to Lady Day, considered by most critics to be the most influential jazz vocalist of the 20th century.
"Instead of more torchy versions of Stormy Weather and God Bless The Child, Queen Esther's got a different sort of agenda in mind as she weaves her hypnotic, rootsy magic through a batch of lost and rarely heard Holiday tunes and alternating between a quartet and trio format led by the astonishingly intuitive pianist Jeremy Bacon." ~The JW Vibe
"If you're sensitive to this form of authenticity, this album will grip you, for even listening to it casually, there will always be a moment where you'll perk up, not out of curiousity but out of necessity. Nothing on this album is left to chance, enriched by beautifully crafted arrangements and a remarkable simplicity that highlights the artist". ~Paris Move