Good Night, and Good Luck (Concord Jazz)
Dianne Reeves
Released September 27, 2005
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2006
YouTube:
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About:
Good Night, And
Good Luck. follows the legendary Edward R. Murrow (David Straithairn)
during the broadcaster’s on-air confrontations with Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Murrow, the then host of the CBS series, See It Now, exposed the infamous
politician’s deceit, bullying, and manipulation in one of history’s most
courageous moments of journalism, an act that helped bring an end to the
tyranny of the blacklist and the House Un-American Activities Committee
anti-Communist hearings. Good Night, And Good Luck. is directed by
George Clooney, who co-wrote the script with the film’s producer Grant Heslov.
Clooney also stars as CBS News producer Fred Friendly.
Good Night, And Good Luck. is shot entirely in black and white, with much
of the mood and atmosphere created by the smoky jazz soundtrack and the
gorgeous vocal talents of three-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Dianne Reeves.
Clooney handpicked each of the songs featured in the movie, which Reeves, one
of the preeminent jazz vocalists in the world today, also performs on screen.
The soundtrack for Good Night, And Good Luck., much of which was recorded
live on film, features an original song, “Who’s Minding the Store,” along with
such classics as “Too Close for Comfort,” “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “One
for My Baby,” and “How High the Moon.”
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
Track Listing:
1. Straighten Up and Fly Right (Nat King Cole / Irving Mills) 2:44
2. I’ve Got My Eyes on You (Cole Porter) 2:06
3. Gotta Be This or That (Sunny Skylar) 3:16
4. Too Close for Comfort (George David Weiss) 3:50
5. How High the Moon (Nancy Hamilton / Morgan Lewis) 2:22
6. Who’s Minding the Store? (Matt Catingub / Allen Sviridoff) 4:31
7. You’re Driving Me Crazy (Walter Donaldson) 1:57
8. Pretend (Dan Belloc / Lew Douglas / Frank LaVere / Cliff Parman) 4:01
9. Solitude (Eddie DeLange / Duke Ellington / Irving Mills) 5:28
10. TV Is the Thing This Year (Phil Medley / William Sanford) 1:43
11. Pick Yourself Up (Dorothy Fields / Jerome Kern) 2:38
12. When I Fall in Love (Edward Heyman / Victor Young) 3:52
13. Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall (Doris Fisher / Allan Roberts) 4:08
14. There’ll Be Another Spring (Peggy Lee / Hubie Wheeler) 4:43
15. One for My Baby (Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer) 3:50
Personnel:
Dianne Reeves: vocals
Matt Catingub: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Peter Martin: piano
Robert Hurst: bass
Christoph Luty: bass (2, 5, 7, 10, 12)
Jeff Hamilton: drums
Alan Estes: percussion
Alex Acuña: percussion (11)
Recorded at Capitol Studios Studio A, Hollywood, CA by Leslie Ann Jones, and CBS Studio Center Stage, Studio City, CA, by Edward Tise
Mixing: Leslie Ann Jones
Mastering: Ron McCaster
Photography: Melinda Sue Gordon
Art Direction: Abbey Anna
Soundtrack Album Executive Producers: George Clooney and Grant Heslov
Soundtrack Album produced by Allen J. Sviridoff
Review:
Was casting Dianne Reeves as a sultry jazz singer in the McCarthy-era political drama “Good Night, and Good Luck” an inspired choice by actor-director George Clooney? Or was it an easy decision? Both, it would seem, for Reeves is not only capable of effortlessly evoking the jazz scene of a half-century ago, as she proves on screen, her devotion to Sarah Vaughan and other legendary jazz vocalists who recorded in the ’50s is no secret.
Clooney deserves full credit, though, for choosing the songs Reeves performs on this soundtrack CD, which features numbers recorded by his aunt, the late, great pop singer Rosemary Clooney. Bracketed by a strolling rendition of “Straighten Up and Fly Right” and the intimate pairing of Reeves and bassist Robert Hurst on the album’s after-hours coda, “One for My Baby,” the list of tunes is chockablock with standards that haven’t been part of Reeves’s repertoire until now. “You’re Driving Me Crazy” and “TV Is the Thing This Year” emphasize swing or a brassy shade of blues, but nearly all the highlights find Reeves, saxophonist Matt Catingub and a small combo conjuring dreamy and soulful moods while dusting off “How High the Moon” “Solitude” and “Pretend” or unveiling the newly composed and thoroughly evocative ballad “Who’s Minding the Store?”
Singer Rita Coolidge, who is touring with Reeves in a tribute to Billie Holiday this fall, recently released her first jazz combo collaboration, “And So Is Love.” It’s a surprisingly charming, if not always surefooted, debut, a chance for Coolidge to salute her lifelong inspiration, Peggy Lee, and perform songs by everyone from Harold Arlen to Boz Scaggs. Though Coolidge doesn’t possess much in the way of harmonic agility, her contralto, with its bluesy tinge, is well suited to “Cry Me a River,” “Don’t Go to Strangers” and other ballads. Providing subdued support are several well-known jazz artists and Coolidge’s former label head, trumpeter Herb Alpert.
Mike Joyce (Washington Post)
