The Very Thought of You

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Product Overview

• Format: Audio CD, CD, Audiobook, Oct. 16 2007
• Artist: Barlow, Emilie Claire

This stunning new release may be Emilie-Claire's most
personal album to date. There is an up-close and intimate tone that starts
with the gorgeous cover art, and continues throughout this entire recording.
The arrangements are fresh and focused, and all her own. Joined by an all-star
band (Reg Schwager, Nancy Walker, Kieran Overs, Mark Kelso) and some fabulous
guest soloists (Kelly Jefferson, Kevin Turcotte, Bill McBirnie, Alan
Hetherington) Emilie-Claire leads the group, including a large string
ensemble, through gems from the American Songbook (Almost Like being In Love,
What A Little Moonlight Can Do, Surrey With The Fringe on Top), beautiful
bossa novas (So Many Stars, De Conversa Em Conversa), and even a few tunes en
francais! (C'est Si Bon, Les Yeux Ouverts).Ý This album is romantic, playful,
lush, swinging......timeless. The Very Thought of You When you can't get that
certain someone out of your head, and counting the minutes until you see them
again.. You float around in a constant state of distraction, a few inches off
the ground...dreamy, blurry...... It's infatuation, I guess. What a wonderful
feeling... Almost Like Being in Love I didn't realize this tune had a verse,
and at the last minute I found some old sheet music that had it written out. I
was sold. I also thought it was the perfect tune to perform in the style that
I love so much and have taken much inspiration from lately - Nat King Cole
Trio. Just swinging piano, guitar and bass. O Pato (The Duck) I caught a video
online of Joao Gilberto and Caetano Veloso performing this tune live. One of
the comments was "Wow - 2 grown men quacking like a duck!". Somehow - they can
pull it off. The Portuguese version of the word "quack"Ý is "quem" - Yes -
animal noises are funny in any language. The story of this tune is so cute,
and John Hendricks did a fantastic job of translating it to an english
version. Everything he has anything to do with just turns out so hip - even a
song about ducks. Les Yeux Ouverts This is such a well known song - a very
familiar melody. It really lends itself to the french language in my opinion.
I love singing in different languages. This song really seemed to fit on the
record. This tune also gave me the string writing bug again. Pennies From
Heaven I had this idea in my head for about 3 years. I could hear this samba
version of this tune running around in my brain. There is something 'floaty'
abut the melody, especially in the bridge that I thought would lend itself to
this groove. It just took a while to get it out on paper and then into the
studio. Right from the beginning I knew I was going to require a Bill McBirnie
flute solo. And he didn't let me down!Ý What A Little Moonlight Can Do I love
Nancy Wilson's version of this tune, but I wanted to do something a bit
different. This arrangement draws from several inspirations, the most
prevalent being Tierney Sutton's "East of The Sun". I heard her singing a
chorus just with drums and I thought it would work for this tune. The bass and
voice 'vocalese' just came pouring out as an extension of the lyric,
continuing with the idea of infatuation, and a stolen moment or two. Surrey
With The Fringe On Top My favourite version of this tune is Mel Torme's - on
the album "Mel Torme Swings Schubert Alley". It's the combination of Mel's
perfect delivery in his prime and Marty Paich's incredibly hip arrangement. If
you are familiar with that version you will note that I borrowed a bit of Mr.
Paich's brilliant ideas in the first few bars of the bridge. Hey - if you're
going to steal from someone..... My Time Of Day/I've Never Been In Love Before
Guys and Dolls is my favourite musical of all time - hands down. The music is
perfect and the lyrics are perfect. I've Never Been In Love Before" has been
done many times by various jazz artists, but in the musical, Skye Masterson
sings "My Time of Day" to Sarah Brown right before they launch into that
ballad. They are capping off an evening of falling in love and discovering the
city after dark.Ý De Conversa Em Conversa Depite being such a peppy little
ditty, this is actually a song about breaking up. It's not an angry song, it's
just a realistic song - we seem to fight a lot. Maybe we should pack up our
things and go our separate ways. I must have listened to Joao Gilberto sing
this about hundreds of times. I wanted to keep it simple. It's the bossa nova
- don't mess with it. C'est Si Bon I believe this tune was my mother's
suggestion. She has such a good knack for song selection. It is such a well
known tune, but I can't recall it being done that much in the last few
decades.Ý The Boy Next Door This song has such a good verse. It could be done
for that reason alone. But it also has a really interesting melody. I don't do
nearly enough songs in 3/4 time. So Many Stars I am a huge fan of Sergio
Mendes and Brasil '66. This song, like "Like A Lover" really exemplifies what
they were all about. It seems like such a simple tune, but once I set out to
record it, I realized it's one of the most difficult songs I've ever sung. An
interesting and sometimes unexpected melody.Ý Amazon.ca Canada certainly has
produced a healthy collection of females singing loungey jazz covers in the
last decade (Diana Krall may well be the matriarch, with Holly Cole and Sophie
Milman following behind) so the question remains... how does Emily-Claire
Barlow stand out from her competition? Well, creative control, for one thing,
having produced and arranged The Very Thought of You, as well as writing the
arrangements and conducting the string section on her disc. The end result is
a collection that is a little more musically expansive than some of her
traditionalist counterparts. The title track oozes its way forward, lushly and
restrained; on the second track, "Almost Like Being in Love" Barlow
commandingly scats, as she does in and out of a number of tunes, including
"Surrey with the Fringe on Top," that features a beguiling arrangement that's
far more sexy than perky. As for what the disc does best? That answer would
have to be the way the Torontonian embraces jazzy samba and bossa nova rhythms
on a number of different tracks, including the playful "Pennies from Heaven,"
"De Conversa Em Conversa" and the sensually breathy "So Many Stars." --Denise
Sheppard