Horace Silver Live At Newport '58 CD

Wilfrid Sheed, noted author of The House That George Built (the golden age of the American Songbook), literary critic and novelist, won a 1987 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes on Frank Sinatra's The Voice . Chris Gillespie is accompanied by Vito Leszcak on drums; Keith Loftis(toured with Ray Charles)on Sax; and Frank Tate (who was Bobby Short's Bass player for 10 years) on Bass.

Chris Gillespie Live At The CarlyleIf you are of a certain age, odds are good that you saw Bobby Short sing at the Carlyle Hotel. I did. It was a necessary part of my New York education, signifying that I was no longer Craven Youth, with the beer and the pot and the hippie hair. Showing up at The Carlyle bar --- in regulation blazer and tie, my date more familiar with Calvin than Couture --- testified that I knew how to open a door for a woman, order a grown-up drink, plot a seduction that ruffled no feathers along the way. And how simple it was to do that: Just join the out-of-towners, the December lovers, the tragic drunks and the devotees of the Great American Songbook as they paid homage to Bobby Short, the master of the sophisticated song. Since Short's death in 2005, Chris Gillespie has filled much of the gap. Tall, suave and exotic --- his father is Dutch, his mother Tasmanian --- he was born and raised in Munich, where he was classically trained. And then he made the fateful decision to cast his lot with Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Jimmy van Heusen, Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz.

On the surface, Chris Gillespie is the Terminator of saloon singers. He's got a decisive piano style; long ago, he seemed, he banished all offensive unnecessary touches. His voice is smoother than the most expensive liquor at the Carlyle bar. If this live CD is any indication, patter is --- mercifully --- not his thing. And he has exquisite taste in sidemen: Vito Lesczak (drums), Keith Loftis (sax) and, on bass, Frank Tate, who accompanied Bobby Short for a decade.