Name: Aria
Brand: Sony Bmg Music Entertainment
SKU: 303865
Availability: OutOfStock

Aria

Rating

Album: Aria
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Je Crois Entendre Encore :: I Still Hear Her Sweet Voice
2)	Porquoi Me Reveiller? :: Why Do You Wake Me?
3)	Flower Duet
4)	Amor Ti Vieta :: Love Forbids
5)	O Mio Babbino Caro :: My Sweet Papa
6)	Donna Non Vidi Mai :: Never Seen A Woman Like That
7)	Ch'ella Mi Creda :: Let Her Believe It
8)	My Man's Gone Now - (featuring Terence Blanchard)
9)	O Soave Fanciulla :: Oh Sweet Little Lady
10)	E Lucevan le Stelle :: The Stars Are Shining
11)	Au Fond du Temple Saint :: Deep Inside This Holy Place
12)	Vissi D'Arte :: I Lived For Art

Album: Aria
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Je Crois Entendre Encore :: I Still Hear Her Sweet Voice
2)	Porquoi Me Reveiller? :: Why Do You Wake Me?
3)	Flower Duet
4)	Amor Ti Vieta :: Love Forbids
5)	O Mio Babbino Caro :: My Sweet Papa
6)	Donna Non Vidi Mai :: Never Seen A Woman Like That
7)	Ch'ella Mi Creda :: Let Her Believe It
8)	My Man's Gone Now - (featuring Terence Blanchard)
9)	O Soave Fanciulla :: Oh Sweet Little Lady
10)	E Lucevan le Stelle :: The Stars Are Shining
11)	Au Fond du Temple Saint :: Deep Inside This Holy Place
12)	Vissi D'Arte :: I Lived For Art

Performer Notes

Personnel: Grover Washington, Jr. (saxophone); Robert Freedman (arranger, conductor); Terence Blanchard (trumpet); Billy Childs (piano); Ron Carter (bass); The Orchestra Of St. Lukes.
Producers: Grover Washington, Jr., Robert Freedman.
Recorded at Giandomenico Studios, Collingswood, New Jersey and Sony Music Studios, New York, New York between May and August 1999. Includes liner notes by Laraine Perri, Christine Washington, and Jackson Braider.
ARIA is a beautiful and touching end to a 30-year recording career, completed just four months to the day before Washington's untimely death in 1999. It was the saxophonist's dream to return to the same classical repertoire he grew up with in his hometown of Buffalo, New York and he accomplishes this here with panache.
ARIA focuses on opera, but casts it in a jazzy light. Throughout his career, Washington worked to blend seemingly disparate styles of music together. This fusion between classical and jazz is one of his most successful efforts. Performing with the Orchestra of St. Luke's under the direction of Robert Freedman, and accompanied by the piano stylings of Billy Childs and bassist Ron Carter, Washington performs memorable versions of Bizet's "Je Crois Entendre Encore," Puccinni's "O Soave Fanciulla," Massenet's "Pourquoi Me Reveiller?" and others. He replaces the soprano voice with the saxophone's lyricism, and imbues this 19th century music with a renewed sense of romanticism.

Professional Reviews

Down Beat (11/00, pp.76-7) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...He succeeds in balancing purity of tone with a warm, expressive delivery on a range of saxophones....This satisfying, radiant hybrid presents...[him] in a surprising variation on his best role, a singer of songs..."