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APRIL ALOISIO & JOANIE PALLATTO |
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With the album starting off with a near acapella cover of the 1966 Cream classic “I Feel Free”, featuring the shared vocals and harmonies of Joanie and April, April & Joanie Sing! is the perfect showcase for the duo’s fondness for musical collaboration and a shared affinity for great songwriting. Following the Cream cover, April & Joanie Sing! goes on to spotlight unique covers of classics written by song-writing greats including the Gershwin brothers (“It Ain’t Necessarily So”), George Harrison (“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”), Michael Franks (“Antonio’s Song”) and other favorites, including tracks penned Joanie’s partner at Southport, Bradley Parker-Sparrow, jazz legend Frank Foster, Hermeto Pascoal and more. Musically, an impressive range of supporting musicians appear and they’re all listed in the CD booklet liner notes. Harmonica legend Howard Levy adds keyboards while guitar ace Fareed Haque adds in his inventive acoustic guitar skills, notably on the CD-opening Cream cover and the Beatles tribute. Another highlight is the 3-part “Sparrow Suite”, composed by flamenco guitarist Tomas de Utrera, with lyrics to "Little Sparrow (Gorrion)" by Joanie Pallatto. Many of the tracks here with April and Joanie are taken from earlier albums on Southport featuring April and Joanie back in the mid to late 1990s, along with several from April’s solo albums and they seem to fit in well with the newer songs as the listener is glided easily through the 14-track, 55-minute CD. A dazzling and dreamlike collection of smartly composed songs interpreted by two stylish singers, April & Joanie Sing! never fails to amaze the listener with its range of chosen song classics, each filled with impeccable vocal harmonies, impressive musicianship and lasting melodies.
April Aloisio: We chose our duet tracks from our records and CDs over the years. All of them. Nothing was left out. I looked at all of our songs and just made a list in the order that I thought would work. One list. I called Joanie and she thought the order choice was great. We never changed it and I think it works beautifully. I think I’ve always been blessed with making records flow with song choices and placement. I’m very happy with everything I’ve recorded. April Aloisio: Yes, this is definitely a retrospective! We have been musical friends for a long time and it shows when we sing together. We connect, it’s fun and easy, and we create together. I think that’s the best way to describe our music. mwe3: Was anything done to make the tracks sound more in-sync for this CD, remixing, any tweaking to match levels for tracks taken from a number of albums? April Aloisio: Of course we had to match volume levels of records and CDs to make it all cohesive, but everything was already mixed so nothing changed there. We came up with our vocal arrangements on a Friday night, and Fareed arrived at our studio on Saturday afternoon. I had the basic charts and our keys. We sat in the kitchen and started rehearsing "I Feel Free." Fareed likes to work in the moment, and his creativity resulted in such a fresh and beautiful guitar part. It's easy to sing with him, and we laid it down! On "Guitar Gently Weeps", we didn't want to do any overdubs, so we worked with Fareed on our vocal parts. He liked the idea of ending with a fade, which turned out to be quite effective. Sparrow set up our vintage mics, Neumann and AKG, which resulted in a warm and wonderful recording. April Aloisio: We only recorded and mixed the two new songs with Fareed. He was able to overdub guitar solos to build up the track. Vocals were recorded live with Fareed and what you hear is what we did that day.
April Aloisio: Tomas de Utrera and Joanie wrote “Little Sparrow”, which was perfect for our harmonious vocal duet. It was originally recorded for Con Guasa (with Attitude). I wanted to include it on my recording Footprints. “Two Sparrows” and “Improve Sparrows” were added before and after the song to add to the flamenco creativity. I wanted a real flamenco dancer added for authenticity and flavor. And, by adding guitarist David Onderdonk into the mix, my accompanist for many years, “The Sparrow Suite” was complete. It was a very cold and snowy day, and a bird was on the windowsill of our hotel room. I saw that little sparrow staring back at me, and there was the seed for the lyric. "Always there, waiting for a sign, a smile, a crumb... moving toward the sun... little sparrow, rescue me!" "I have dreams of you, on my windowsill, look into my eyes, you can make me cry!" Frank liked the lyric, and asked if I could write another verse, and thought that then it could be recorded. I finished the song, and kept in communication with Frank. It was so good of him to send me the "correct" chord changes, noting that the Fake-Book versions were wrong. When I told him that Bob Dorough would not only be singing but playing piano, he was so pleased. He said "If Bob is going to play, I know it will be done right!" It remains one of the high points of my life. We got to sing along with Bob who was a true friend, always generous, energetic and fun!
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Chicago’s celebrated jazz label Southport Records is back in the limelight in 2024 with April & Joanie Sing! a 14-track, 55 minute CD release featuring Joanie Pallatto and fellow Chicagoan April Aloisio. Two gifted singer-songwriters, Joanie and April go back some 40+ years and April has released several albums of her own, including some for Joanie’s label Southport Records over the past 30 years.
mwe3: Can you tell me how you put together the tracks on the new CD? There must have been many great tracks to choose from. Was it challenging to organize the track lineup for the new album?
mwe3: What inspired recording two new tracks, the covers of Cream’s “I Feel Free” and the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”? They’re two of the true classic rock songs of the late 1960s.
mwe3: Another highlight is the "Sparrow Suite", which has two flamenco guitarists on it. What inspired that 3-part suite?