Retro Blue
Track Listings
| 1. Dindi |
| 2. Baby, Come to Me |
| 3. The Thrill Is Gone |
| 4. Retro Blue |
| 5. Blue Bossa |
| 6. Ain't Misbehavin' |
| 7. Save the Best for Last |
| 8. Mysterious |
| 9. Oo Baby, Baby |
| 10. Come Sunday |
| 11. Sugar |
| 12. Night Cats |
| 13. I Can See Clearly Now |
Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Marcus Williams electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, electric bass, allto saxophone (Night Cats), background vocals (Baby, Come to Me, Night Cats, I Can See Clearly Now). Marcus performs on electric and acoustic guitars, electric bass, piano, keyboards, and saxophone. As a bassist, he played jazz, rhythm and blues, and other styles of music with a number of musical talents including Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, Billy Taylor, Bobby Hebb, and Grady Tate, as a member of the Orchestrated Crowd, a jazz orchestra in Nashville, Tennessee. Over the years he has performed on a number of television and radio programs with various musicians and vocalists. He has composed, arranged, and performed for documentary videos and radio commercials.
Lisa Grant Duguid vocals, background vocals, percussion. Lisa's musical talents were recognized at an early age when she performed for her mother's tea parties. She is a graduate of the prestigious High School of Music and Art in New York City and attended Hunter College where she was lead vocalist for the Hunter College Jazz Ensemble. She has performed twice at the Apollo Theater in New York City. Lisa has worked in the recording studio and has performed with a number of bands and musicians in the New York City and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. She possesses a tremendous vocal range and stage presence.
Russell Lyles, alto saxophone (Dindi, Baby Come to Me, Retro Blue, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Mysterious, Sugar, Come Sunday). Russell Lyles has been a long time collaborator and band member with Marcus & Lisa. He is one of those musicians who strives for excellence yet makes his music accessible without compromising his art. Whether it be jazz, pop, fusion,r&b, hip hop, or african rhythm, he brings his unique style to the music and makes it a memorable experience for his audience. He has played on numerous albums of various artists and adapts his style to fit each project with sincerity and a practiced knowledge.
David Allen electric piano, keyboards (solos on Blue Bossa, Mysterious, Sugar) David is a gifted performer, arranger, and composer. Marcus and David performed together in the Glory Band, a contemporary praise group that enjoyed David’s contributions as both keyboardist and arranger. It was inevitable that David would bring his unique stylings to the Retro Blue project. David spent most of his musical career in his native England. He was conductor of the BBC Radio Orchestra, music director at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as personal music director for many British stars. He met his American wife, Susan, when he was conducting the European tour of Oklahoma!. She played the lead role of Laurey. They both perform and teach together in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as happily raising three young children.
* Wesley Biles acoustic bass (Dindi, Ain’t Misbehavin’) Marcus met Wesley during college in Nashville, Tennessee. They played together in a number of groups as well as in the newly formed Orchestrated Crowd, a jazz orchestra affiliated with Fisk University under the direction of the late Robert Holmes, a well regarded Nashville studio arranger, composer, producer, educator, and musician. While in graduate school in Boston he played bass for several R&B bands in the early ‘70s. Wes has toured with Curtis Mayfield, Ike and Tina Turner, King Floyd, and the Natural Four. Wes has made Washington, D.C. his home and has contributed his considerable talents to many area jazz singers and musicians including Ronnie Wells, the Capital Jazz All Stars, and Ron Ellison. Wes is a bassist with an impeccable sense of taste and style.
Product Description
As one might expect with a CD entitled Retro Blue, many of the songs are from a time long ago. Dindi, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Blue Bossa, Come Sunday, and Sugar, hail from the jazz standards tradition that brings to mind the old Blue Note, Verve and Riverside recordings of the 1950s and 1960s. Recall, if you will, the black and white photos of that period featuring Wes Montgomery, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughn, Stanley Turrentine, Stan Getz, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, and Jimmy Smith. You get the picture. Although we add our own spin to these tunes, we tried to capture the atmosphere of these earlier recordings, and pay homage to these remarkable artists who made the music of that era timeless.
Smokey Robinson’s Oo Baby, Baby, and B.B. King’s The Thrill Is Gone, are well known rhythm & blues and blues classics. The music here is driving and forceful, but retains the bittersweet flavor of the originals. Baby, Come to Me, Save the Best for Last, and I Can See Clearly Now, are later R&B favorites that transcend categories. Baby, Come to Me has been reincarnated as a “smooth jazz” favorite and we hope we have captured that spirit by giving it an even jazzier feel with Russell Lyles’ sax solo.
Finally, we present the original selections. In the title track, Retro Blue, we look behind us both lyrically and musically. Retro Blue is a rather sentimental reflection on the past that weighs the risks of going down a road already traveled. It asks rhetorically whether we can ever go back, again. Like the lyrics, the music has a retro feel with a nod to the ballads and torch songs of yesterday with a dash of jazz stylings. Mysterious has both contemporary and retro leanings. While retaining a n easy-listening contemporary jazz feeling, it could just as well have been released in the 1970s. Mysterious was influenced by groups like the Jazz Crusaders, and artists like Joe Sample, George Benson, and the late Stanley Turrentine. Night Cats is our heartfelt tribute to the lions of jazz. It presents a fantasy jam session comprised of jazz musicians past and present. Although it salutes jazz as a tradition, Night Cats is purely a product of today with its contemporary rhythms a! nd sample-type sounds.
Retro Blue,Marcus and Lisa
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