Artist: Iain Mackenzie
Album: Twice On Sunday
Genre: Vocal Jazz
Label: Jazzizit
Released: 2007
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
- Sunday 03:09
- Sugar 03:49
- I Won't Dance 03:54
- The Very Thought Of You 04:37
- Pensativa 05:31
- I Concentrate On You 03:29
- If It's Magic 03:34
- Whisper Not 03:41
- Poppy Day 03:25
- I've Got You Under My Skin 04:07
- Angel Eyes 07:18
- Sunday (Reprise) 03:14
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- Personnel:
- Iain Mackenzie - Vocals
- Simon Thorpe - Bass
- Troy Miller - Drums
- Pete Wareham - Saxophone
- Pete Churchill - Piano
Relief and surprise, those were my first reactions to this album. Relief, because the supply of British male singers with a strong jazz inclination has been in need of new recruits to ease the burden on the excellent Shaw, Cosburn and Tughan who are the forward-looking standard bearers in this country for a great and necessary tradition. And surprise that Iain Mackenzie, unheard by me before playing this debut disc, gives fresh settings to old chestnuts.
To see 'I've got you under my skin' on any playlist can make a listener tense with apprehension at the prospect of another Sinatra retread. Oh no, we cry before a bar is broken. But not here. And not with 'Angel Eyes' either, the uber-saloon song which Mackenzie drags out of the smoky demeanour of an after-hours drinking joint into the air circulating around his respectful up-tempo arrangement: the man sounds down on his luck but not yet drowned in his cups. (Mackenzie also tackles the verse, another plus point.)
Mackenzie's voice is clean, his phrasing careful and his diction crisp. Words are well-handled, well-ended. These are more plus points, but maybe too they cost him that fifth star in my estimation. These tracks are lively and nicely-crafted, but also just a bit lacking in the 'life', colour and creativity that can make a good jazz recording into a great one. For me, the album was parked too long in Parkinson-land waiting to be noticed for its relaxed commercial viability rather than ticketed for artistic vibrancy.
But its class stands out in the range of material - from Turrentine to a very good Stevie Wonder track - and promising new material by Mackenzie himself. His support has the knowing touch expected of Pete Churchill, and the album presentation is very neat indeed.