The recording process began in mid-2009 when Johnson revealed on her website that she was dropped from Epic Records, and that the album she recorded and planned to release with them, was now shelved due to contractual complications. Some tracks were written as far back as 2005 with intent to be released through the album she planned with Capitol-EMI, but that deal shortly ended as the executives who signed Johnson to the label had been released from their contracts....
Cooling her heels while crafting a follow-up to her hot dance makeover LOOSE, Nelly Furtado released MI PLAN, her first full-length Spanish album, in the fall of 2009. As it turns out, MI PLAN comes much closer to Furtado’s previous music than LOOSE, but she’s retained many lessons from her time with Timbaland, giving this a much stronger rhythmic foundation than her first two albums which this otherwise resembles in sound and structure. Nelly still sounds vaguely like a modern hippie, fusing together cultures with a hazily spiritual undertow, something that works well on an album like this, which is pitched at a Latin audience but never feels like a niche throwaway by a superstar. Instead, it’s assured and cohesive, holding together better than her muddled sophomore effort FOLKLORE but having a similar range, bouncing elegantly from barbed alt-rock guitars to electro synths to grand, gorgeous ballads. In fact, it says quite a bit about Nelly Furtado’s ambitions and skill when her Spanish detour winds up being arguably her strongest album yet....
Toronto’s Sophie Milman has that rare ability to appeal to two often deeply separated worlds: those who like their jazz light and those purists who want their jazz heavy and nothing short of it. By having a more-than-capable traditional jazz band and challenging herself vocally to bring the swing, she has commanded respect from both camps. Milman’s delivery is silky smooth, a gorgeous voice with a low register reminiscent of Fiona Apple and an upper register that brings Ella Fitzgerald’s bounce and playfulness to mind. Like many jazz vocal discs, her sophomore release Make Someone Happy contains an abundance of covers, but some rather surprising in style. The often-done “Fever”’s arrangement is nothing like the original, containing more of an unnerving musical undercurrent than the traditional sultry one. Milman–who recorded this disc in her early 20s–covers a number of underdone melodies, from Stevie Wonder’s “Rocket Love” to the Guess Who’s “Undun” with composer/original band guitarist Randy Bachman offering his sonic inflections to the song. Disc high points include the smokin’ jam “It Might As Well Be Spring,” the sexy bossa nova of original track “Something in the Air Between Us” and the beautiful cover of “Eli, Eli” by Second World War Holocaust hero and poet Hannah Senesh. It is a brave and haunting number that Milman does great justice to....
Gelka
Dianne Reeves
Quincy Jones
Dionne Warwick
Saint Privat
