East Coast hip!
Mark Winkler, Cheryl Bentyne – Eastern Standard Time Café Pacific Records CPCD 4065 48:34****:
( Mark Winkler & Cheryl Bentyne – vocals; Rich Eames – piano; Bob Sheppard – sax; Grant Geissman – guitar; Pat Kelly – guitar #7; Gabe Davis – bass; Dave Tull – drums; Kevin Winard – percussion; Stephanie Fife – cello)
Eastern Standard Time by the singers Mark Winkler and Cheryl Bentyne is a bookend to their 2013 release West Coast Cool which chronicled tunes from the 1950s which told the musical story of the West Coast Cool sound. While in the East, the jazz music that enjoyed recognition in the clubs of that same time period was not generally regarded as cool, but rather as hip.Among the singers whose names were linked to this period were Jackie Paris, Mose Allison, Blossom Dearie, Chris Connor and Anita O’Day.
Backed by a sympathetic swinging band, Winkler and Bentyne prance though a session of eleven charts of which seven are duets, and the other four are solo efforts equally split between the two singers.Bob Dorough’s much recorded “Devil May Care” opens the disc with a spirited Afro- Cuban arrangement by pianist Rich Eames, one of the nine tunes that bear his mark. With this interesting harmonic makeup, Winkler and Bentyne show their daredevil spirit through Dorough’s quirky lyrics.
The first of Winkler’s two solo turns starts with Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz’s amusing “Rhode Island Is Famous For You” which became an integral part of Blossom Dearie’s club repetoire and secondly “ I Could Get Used To This (Bumpin’) which originally was guitarist Wes Montgomery’s instrumental number, to which added his own lyrics. Both numbers reveal Winkler’s vocal versatility and musical flexibility.
Bentyne makes terrific use of her solo space firstly choosing a Rodgers and Hammerstein composition “The Gentleman Is A Dope” and additionally on the Tommy Wolf number “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most”. Wolf’s compositional talents also pop up on a couple of the duets such as “You Smell So Good” and “Ballad Of The Sad Young Men”. The quality and timbre of Bentyne voice has a polished glow and she know her way around a lyric and her solo efforts reflect these qualities.
Reverting to the two aforementioned duets as well as the other tracks, it is evident the Winkler and Bentyne have developed a symbiotic musical relationship as their efforts come across flowing with a distinctive and genuine warmth.
Tracklist: Devil May Care; Rhode Island Is Famous For You; Like Jazz; The Gentleman Is A Dope; I Could Get Used To This (Bumpin’); The Best Is Yet To Come; Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most; Walk On The Wild Side; You Smell So Good; Things Are Swingin’; Ballad Of The Sad Young Men/Lies Of Handsome Men
—Pierre Giroux
