Lisa Lauren

Lisa Lauren - What Comes Around (1998)

By David. Thanks a lot.

01 - Dear Prudence
02 - And I Love Her
03 - Sunshine Superman
04 - Can't Buy Me Love
05 - Midlife
06 - All My Loving
07 - With A Little Help From My Friends
08 - One Day You'll Know
09 - I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
10 - Some Kind of Wonderful
11 - Spooky
12 - No One But You

Planet Jazz Records (CD) 643287
Lisa Lauren is a pianist, singer, songwriter, and recording artist residing in Evanston, Illinois, USA.

« Lisa wrote three of the songs here (‘Midlife’, ‘One Day You'll Know’, ‘No One But You’) and filled the remainder of the album with covers of sixties pop songs, mostly Beatles songs. However, these are no ordinary covers but exquisitely arranged and performed re-interpretations. The Beatles covers are ‘Dear Prudence’, ‘And I Love Her’, ‘Can't Buy Me Love’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ and ‘I'm Happy Just To Dance With You’. The other covers are ‘Sunshine Superman’ (Donovan), ‘Some Kind Of Wonderful’ (Drifters) and ‘Spooky’ (Classics IV). But if you're thinking you know these songs, you haven't heard these versions. A lot of thought went into the arrangements, which certainly present old songs in a new but hugely enjoyable way. Lisa's own songs are good (particularly ‘Midlife’, about growing old) but if you buy this album, it's the covers that stay in the memory longest.
Lisa acquired the services of some very talented musicians to provide the music so I'm assuming that she had established a reputation in Chicago (her base) before she got near a recording studio. There were a maximum of five musicians on any track, the complete list being Faireed Haque (guitar), Jim Guilloreto (soprano sax), Jim Cox (acoustic bass), Larry Beers (drums), Jeff Thomas (percussions), Chris Miller (viola), Phil Gratteau (drums), Ruben Alvarez (percussion), David Sanborn (alto sax), Rob Amster (acoustic bass), Steve Gillis (drums), Richie Fudoli (alto flute), Elizabeth Conant (accordion), Ekkiot Delman (guitar), Howard Levy (harmonica), Larry Gray (cello), Steve Eisen (tenor sax) and Danny Faith (talking drum).
I cannot recommend this album highly enough. It took a few plays to grow on me because some of the old songs sound so different that it took a while to appreciate the new arrangements.
~ Peter Durward Harris, Leicester England »