Tenor Philip Chaffin's Warm Spring Night is a rich and romantic follow-up to his Where Do I Go from You?, which was the inaugural release for the label he co-owns with producer Tommy Krasker, PS Classics.
While that solo debut was big-band-themed, Warm Spring Night is more eclectic, collecting a number of less-familiar love songs by well-known songwriters, such as Kern and Hammerstein ("Don't Ever Leave Me," "Heaven in My Arms"), Schwartz and Dietz ("Haunted Heart"), George and Ira Gershwin ("Evening Star"), and Stephen Sondheim ("Silly People," cut from A Little Night Music). Other unusual fare includes two songs from Menken and Rice's King David (the title tune, "When in Love"), and Ricky Ian Gordon and Richard Nelson's "If It Is True" (from My Life with Albertine). Most of the songs are accompanied by a lush orchestra, but Jeff Harris's piano is the only accompaniment in the highlight of the album, the standard "That's All" (no, not the Genesis song), which with "My Romance" and "Out of My Dreams" proves that great standards can coexist happily with unfamiliar fare in a classy setting such as this. - David Horiuchi
Track Listing:
1. Warm Spring Night (Alan Menken & Tim Rice)
2. There's A Room In My House (John Kander, James Goldman & William Goldman)
3. Don't Ever Leave Me (Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II)
4. Haunted Heart (Arthur Schwartz & Howard Dietz)
5. Heaven In My Arms (Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II)
6. Evening Star (George & Ira Gershwin)
7. My Romance (Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart)
8. Out Of My Dreams (Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II)
9. When In Love (Alan Menkin & Tim Rice)
10. Silly People (Stephen Sondheim)
11. Sailing At Midnight (Vernon Duke & Howard Dietz)
12. That's All (Alan Brandt & Bob Haymes)
13. If It Is True (Ricky Ian Gordon & Richard Nelson)
14. You've Come Home/You're Far Away From Home (Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh)
PS Classics