SOUND CHECK.TIERNEY SUTTON Tierney Sutton (born June 28, 1963) is an American jazz singer. Sutton was born in Wisconsin and was educated at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to attending Berklee, Tierney Sutton attended Nicolet High School in the Milwaukee metro area. : ``I'm With the Band'' (Telarc Jazz) - Four stars This Grammy-nominated disc sets the bar high - and Valley-based vocalist Sutton could very well drive home from Staples Center on Wednesday with a golden gramophone in the trunk. Here, recorded live in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , she breathes like a woodwind player on ``Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise'' and 15 other standards, the word ``scat'' barely suggesting what she's able to accomplish. Each tune is marked by intonation and dynamics lesser singers would kill for. Sutton's band ticks along with precision, especially sensitive to the demands of a chanteuse chan·teuse n. A woman singer, especially a nightclub singer. [French, feminine of chanteur, singer, from chanter, to sing; see chant.] not given to constant belting. Among the highlights: a bass-vocal duet on ``People Will Say We're in Love'' that's simply perfect and a memorably bluesy ``The Lady Is a Tramp.'' As good as the other jazz vocal nominees are, Sutton deserves the Grammy, even if they have to saw the damn thing in half. - Steven Rosenberg BETH ORTON: ``Comfort of Strangers'' (Astralwerks/EMD) - Two and one half stars Orton has always been a bit of a granola-muncher, even in collaboration with such gritty guys as the Chemical Brothers, Ryan Adams and (the un-Jeff) Beck. You can sense the Laura Ashley in the drugged-up chill-out sounds Orton recorded to best effect with producer William Orbit last decade. On her fourth album, out Tuesday, the British singer-songwriter goes after the familiar lo-fi aesthetic often marketed as authenticity. In 14 strangely similar acoustic-based songs, Orton massages the words to ``Absinthe'' and other tracks with a soft, sleepy voice, working some sort of soporific soporific /sop·o·rif·ic/ (sop?o-rif´ik) (so?po-rif´ik) 1. producing deep sleep. 2. hypnotic (2). sop·o·rif·ic adj. 1. magic. - Fred Shuster SHE WANTS REVENGE: ``She Wants Revenge'' (Flawless/Geffen) - Three stars The debut album from this '80s throwback throwback see atavism. has got ``darkwave'' down pat. Echoes of Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and New Order are heard not only in the San Fernando Valley-based duo's moody, synth-driven music but in the deep, detached, robotic vocals of Justin Warfield. He even goes so far as to affect a fake British accent for ``These Things,'' a song that rumbles with a chilly sense of impending im·pend intr.v. im·pend·ed, im·pend·ing, im·pends 1. To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending. 2. doom and whose rubbery beats black-clad goths Goths: see Ostrogoths; Visigoths. are sure to embrace as they slink slink v. slunk also slinked, slink·ing, slinks v.intr. To move in a quiet furtive manner; sneak: slunk away ashamed; a cat slinking through the grass toward its prey. onto the dance floor. - Sandra Barrera GIBSON BROTHERS: ``Red Letter Day'' (Sugar Hill) - Three stars Leigh and Eric Gibson display a lot of versatility on their latest album. (Bluegrass bluegrass, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Poa, chiefly range and pasture grasses of economic importance in temperate and cool regions. In general, bluegrasses are perennial with fine-leaved foliage that is bluish green in some species. purists be warned: There are hints of pedal steel and percussion on some of these tracks). They lend their sibling harmonies to a variety of subgenres here, with multiple takes on such themes as criminal desperation, tentative religious redemption, sentimental childhood reverie and that old staple, the mean woman blues. Even the sappier tunes get a clean, propulsive mix that makes them sound fresh, and the brothers' takes on Ray Charles' ``I Got a Woman'' and the Womack/Stones classic ``It's All Over Now'' enhance an atmosphere that's equal parts traditional virtuosity and progressive exploration. - Bob Strauss CHRIS POTTER: ``Underground'' (Sunnyside) - Three and one half stars Potter doesn't get enough play when stellar saxophonists are discussed, but he's always been a dynamic leader and interesting composer. His latest is a studio collaboration with his '05 touring band - aggressive, athletic guitarist Wayne Kratz, the versatile Craig Taborn on Fender Rhodes and soulful drummer Nate Smith. The sound could be boiled down to a fusion-meets-funk aesthetic, with the band careening The careening of a sailing vessel is laying her up on a calm beach at high tide in order to expose one side or another of the ship's hull for maintenance below the water line when the tide goes out. through six spirited Potter originals (the groovy groov·y adj. groov·i·er, groov·i·est Slang Very pleasing; wonderful. groov  i·ness n. ``Next Best Western'' being a highlight) and an eclectic set of covers, including the Beatles' ``Yesterday,'' Billy Strayhorn's ``Lotus Blossom'' and Radiohead's ``Morning Bell.'' Complex yet accessible, ``Underground'' works on every level. Potter opens a six-night run at Culver City's Jazz Bakery on Feb. 21. - Glenn Whipp CAPTION(S): 6 photos Photo: (1) no caption (Tierney Sutton) (2 -- 6) no caption (CD covers) |
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