Name: Serene Renegade
Brand: MAXJAZZ
SKU: 542382
Price: 21.39 USD
Availability: InStock

Serene Renegade

Rating

Album: Serene Renegade
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Red Shoes	More Info...	0:06
2)	The South Is Mine	More Info...	0:07
3)	Autobiography	More Info...	0:04
4)	Wishes	More Info...	0:06
5)	Pause	More Info...	0:05
6)	Hard Day's Night	More Info...	0:05
7)	Lover Man Oh Where Can You Be	More Info...	0:05
8)	Many Years Ago	More Info...	0:06
9)	Little Girl	More Info...	0:05
10)	Rufast Daliarg	More Info...	0:04
11)	Ode To Flower	More Info...	0:07

Album: Serene Renegade
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Red Shoes	More Info...	0:06
2)	The South Is Mine	More Info...	0:07
3)	Autobiography	More Info...	0:04
4)	Wishes	More Info...	0:06
5)	Pause	More Info...	0:05
6)	Hard Day's Night	More Info...	0:05
7)	Lover Man Oh Where Can You Be	More Info...	0:05
8)	Many Years Ago	More Info...	0:06
9)	Little Girl	More Info...	0:05
10)	Rufast Daliarg	More Info...	0:04
11)	Ode To Flower	More Info...	0:07

Performer Notes

Personnel: Ren‚ Marie (vocals); Ren‚ Marie; Herman Burney (bass instrument); Roland Guerrero (percussion); Jeremy Pelt (trumpet); Takana Miyamoto (piano); Quentin Baxter (drums).
Audio Mixer: Katsuhiko Naito.
Recording information: Avatar Studios, New York, NY (06/01/2004-06/02/2004).
Photographers: Dena Katz; Jimmy Katz.
Arrangers: Ren‚ Marie; Takana Miyamoto; Quentin Baxter; John Toomey.
The fourth album by Virginia-born, Atlanta-based jazz vocalist/songwriter Rene Marie is her most quirky and idiosyncratic set yet, and therefore possibly the one truest to herself. Marie wrote nine of the 11 songs herself, the two covers being the unexpected pairing of the standard "Lover Man" (most often associated with Billie Holiday, a singer Marie otherwise has little in common with) and, of all things, a West Coast cool ballad version of "A Hard Day's Night" featuring an extended bass solo. On the originals, Marie channels elements of Ran Blake (the Boston-based pianist whose cerebral deconstructions of cool jazz Marie's own solos occasionally recall), Nina Simone (especially on the startlingly direct, partially a cappella closer, "Ode to a Flower"), and even Joni Mitchell's mid- to late-'70s work. The opening "Red Shoes," a song of sisterly celebration, would not sound out of place on Mitchell's Hejira, or on one of Carla Bley's more straightforward albums. Although she's a canny arranger and an exceedingly talented piano player (talents exhibited on the witty, samba-fied "Rufast Daliarg"), Rene Marie is first and foremost a singer, and it's the warmth of her voice, which matches crisp diction … la Simone with the husky sensuality of a Nancy Wilson, that makes the aptly titled Serene Renegade so appealing. ~ Stewart Mason

Professional Reviews

JazzTimes (p.107) - "Stunning. Simply, utterly, stunning."