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Peter Eldridge: Disappearing Day
ByEldridge assembles a small ensemble of players for this project with a core group of musicians on the majority of tracks including Matt Aronoff on bass, Ben Wittman on the drums with Marc Shulman and Alan Hampton sharing duties on the guitar. A founding member of New York Voices (celebrating its 25th year anniversary in 2016), Eldridge has fellow Voices member Lauren Kinhan appearing as a special guest with the background vocals on "Forever Blue," one of the outstanding songs of the recording which also features saxophonist great Anat Cohen on clarinet. For his original "Around Us," a soft and beautiful atmospheric ballad, Eldridge refrains from singing playing the piano accompanied by Aronoff on bass as the main feature of the song is, The Elm City Girls' Choir directed by Tom Brand.
The music starts out on the spicy and percussive original "Mind to Fly" highlighting the leader on vocals and piano with Wittman on percussion and Jo Lawry on the triangle. McCartney's "Jenny Wren" is delivered here as a haunting piece of music with light strings as the singer voices the tune in a slightly dark manner. The original "Wish You With Me"left out of a documentary film scored by the leaderis another light soft ballad where Eldridge is joined on vocals by Becca Stevens, continuing the same style on the following "Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter."
Shifting format to a standard trio, Eldridge presents a brief and unique rendition of Sinatra's classic "Witchcraft," an up tempo and livelier version of Luciana Souza's "Home" and a warm and humbling take of Bernstein's "Some Other Time," to close out the session. There's little doubt that Eldridge's soulful vocals is the main feature of Disappearing Day, but his melding of different musical styles and the creative originals on tap, make this vocal album compelling on many fronts,
Track Listing
Mind To Fly; Looking Forward To Looking Back; I Wish I Had An Evil Twin; Jenny Wren; Forever Blue; Wish You With Me; Driving To Town Late To Mail A Letter; Scared Of The Dark; Witchcraft; Around Us; House; Some Other Time.
Personnel
Peter Eldridge
vocalsPeter Eldridge: vocals, piano, leg slapping (3), wooden plank (11); Alan Hampton: guitar (1, 2, 6, 8), vocals (1, 3, 7); Matt Aronoff: bass; Ben Wittman: drums, percussion, harmonium (2), accordion (8); Jo Lawry: vocals (4, 7), triangle (1, 4); Laila Biali: vocals (1, 4, 8); Jess Lewis: guitar (2, 12); Marc Shulman: guitar (3, 7); Caleb Burnhans: violin (4, 5), viola (4, 5); Mariel Roberts: cello (4, 5, 7); Anat Cohen: clarinet (5); Lauren Kinhan: vocals (5); Janis Siegel: vocals (5); Becca Stevens; vocals (6), guitar (6); The Elm City Girls Choir (10).
Album information
Title: Disappearing Day | Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Sunnyside Records