Jane Ira Bloom: Sixteen Sunsets (2013) [Blu-ray]

Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has always had a special feeling for ballad performances. So much so that she has now finally released: Sixteen Sunsets, a beautiful new recording featuring expressive interpretations from the American Songbook along with five compelling slow tempo original compositions.

The fourteen tracks on Sixteen Sunsets feature nine American songbook classics including: Gershwin's ''I Loves You Porgy,'' Kern's ''The Way You Look Tonight,'' Arlen's ''Out of This World,'' Weill's ''My Ship,'' Jimmy Van Heusen's ''Darn That Dream,'' and Billie Holiday & Mal Waldron's ''Left Alone,'' among others. There are also five originals from Bloom s ballad repertoire including: ''What She Wanted,'' ''Ice Dancing'' (for Torvill & Dean), ''Gershwin's Skyline,'' ''Too Many Reasons,'' and ''Bird Experiencing Light.'' Photographic legend Jay Maisel contributed his breathtaking image: ''Maine Forest At Dawn'' for the album cover art. He picked the image from his archives after listening to the CD and the synchronicity is startling.

The album was recorded in 5.1 high-resolution Surround Sound at New York's famed Avatar Studio B by renowned engineer Jim Anderson who also co-produced and pushed the envelope of how a jazz quartet could sound using this technique. JIB felt that 'Surround' was a perfect match for the soprano sax because the sound doesn't emanate directly from the bell of the horn, it radiates out in all directions from the instrument in a more diffuse way. The saxophone was literally surrounded by a satellite array of mics for the sessions, and JIB's playing style was very well suited to the technique since she is always moving when playing. She recalls: ''I've always been interested how sound changes when it moves and the doppler-like effect that I create when I sweep the bell of the horn past the microphones really comes through vividly in surround-sound.'' Sixteen Sunsets will be submitted for consideration in the 2014 Grammy sound surround category.

Треклист:
01. For All We Know
02. What She Wanted
03. Gershwin’s Skyline / I Loves You Porgy
04. Darn That Dream
05. Good Morning Heartache
06. Out of This World
07. Ice Dancing
08. Left Alone
09. The Way You Look Tonight
10. But Not For Me
11. Primary Colors
12. My Ship
13. Too Many Reasons
14. Bird Experiencing Light