Joanne Barry – Embraceable You

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For her second album, Joan Barry joins husband Carl Barry and other good New York musicians on a mixed agenda of familiar and not-so-familiar material. Generally, there are two musical scenarios in this album. The first has Joan Barry backed by a small group with Carl Barry’s guitar in the lead. For upbeat material, the Barrys are joined by a variety of horns, synthesizer, and so on. Joan Barry’s voice is powerful, but she controls it nicely. Because she is the mistress of a considerable set of pipes, she is able to bring the appropriate set of emotions to the ballads and then swing mightily on the up-tempo material. There’s lots of solid help here, led by the cleanly plucked guitar of Carl Barry, which takes on the role the piano usually plays in vocal accompaniment. Another important contributor is Michael Morreale, who’s on four tracks and was the mainstay with Joe Jackson for several years. His high-flying trumpet with John Clay’s palpitating drums drive a swooping, sweeping, scatting Joan Barry on a wild “My Favorite Things.” In stark contrast is her almost Elizabethan music rendition of “My Funny Valentine,” with Carl Barry’s lute like guitar being the principal instrumental chaperone. “Empty Faces” has Joan Barry in duet with herself through the magic of dubbing. Interesting, but it doesn’t add much to this uninteresting piece of music. The star once more is Morreale, this time on flugelhorn. A special treat is the appearance of guitarist Jack Wilkins on “Alone in the World.” This album is attractive not only because of Joan Barry’s poise and absolute confidence in her ability to make songs sound new, or at least refreshed, but because she was wise to allot plenty of playing space for the good sidemen on this session (Dave Nathan/AllMusic).

Track listing:

00:00 – You Don’t Know What Love Is (Don Raye / Gene de Paul)
05:35 – My Favorite Things (Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II)
09:04 – The Island (Ivan Lins / Vitor Martins / Alan and Marilyn Bergman)
12:40 – Autumn Leaves (Jacques Prévert / Joseph Kosma / Johnny Mercer)
18:40 – Embraceable You (George and Ira Gershwin)
24:16 – Hearts Take Time (Kye Fleming / Janis Ian)
27:55 – I’ve Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good (Duke Ellington / Paul Webster)
32:34 – A Beautiful Friendship (S. Styne / D. Kahn)
38:02 – Alone in the World (Jerry Goldsmith / Alan and Marilyn Bergman)
42:48 – That’s All (Alan Brandt / Bob Haymes)
44:44 – Empty Faces (aka “Vera Cruz”) (Milton Nascimento / Lani Hall)
49:15 – My Funny Valentine (Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart)

Personnel:
Joanne Barry – Vocals (All Tracks)
Carl Barry – Guitar (All Tracks)
Steve LaSpina – Bass (Acoustic: Tracks 1, 4, 8, 12)
Tim Lekan – Bass (Electric: Tracks 2, 11 ; Acoustic: Tracks 3, 6, 7, 10)
Mike Hyman – Drums (Tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12)
John Clay – Drums (Tracks 2, 11)
Paul Jost – Drums (Tracks 7, 10)
Tony Regusis – Synthesizer (Tracks 2, 11)
Michael Morreale – Horns (Trumpet: Tracks 2, 6; Fluegelhorn: 3, 11)
Tony Aiello – Saxophones (Alto: Track 2; Tenor: Track 6; Soprano: Track 11)
Jeff Berman – Percussion (Track 11)
Special Guest – Jack Wilkins (Track 9, solo guitar)

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Arranged and Produced by Carl Barry
Recorded and Mixed by Joseph Marciano at Systems Two, Brooklyn, New York