Carol Kidd - Tell Me Once Again - Jazz Rag

As Carol Kidd knows, the pleasure of singing with just guitar accompaniment is something special.  Audience reaction to spots during her concerts in Scotland when she duetted with her regular quartet member Nigel Clark prompted the suggestion that they recorded a complete duo album.  Their decision to make it totally a ballad set posed an immediate challenge.  The classic Julie London/Barney Kessel collaboration inevitably comes to mind in this context - and their LP had a mixture of grooves.

In the end-result, Carol and Nigel contrive to sustain a degree of momentum by the range of the material and their approaches to it.  Five of the twelve songs are taken out-of-tempo throughout, but they are offset by such ingredients as the easy Latin lilt of a very nice 2005 Stevie Wonder composition, Moon Blue, and the bluesy power implanted ideally into You Don't Know Me.  Then there is the fully dramatic performance of the two key themes from Porgy and Bess that are too often delivered as if they were straight love songs.

While not to the fore as much as Barney was, the firmly supportive sound of Nigel Clark's guitar completely underlines and complements Carol's vocal excursions, and his various short solos fall easily on the ear.  The title tune is one of their own, and carries a strong story.  As does the quieter but mature message of He Won't Send Roses.  They close the CD with a venerable story-song, The End Of A Love Affair, and here the non-time statement allows more lyrical impact than doing it as a beguine.  Plus the knowledgeable jazz phrasing that validates everything this lady performs.

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