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- Artist: Andy Bey
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1998
- Total Time: 50:43
- Genre: Jazz
Review
Andy Bey's bass-baritone voice has aged over the last thirty-odd years, but it's aged well; he now sings in a husky drawl that sounds all the more warm and intimate for being a bit ragged around the edges. When he goes into falsetto, as on "Midnight Blue," athe sound is so dark that you don't recognize it as falsetto at first. This album peaks early on with "Like a Lover," a wistful love song with only the gentlest, sparest guitar accompaniment. But there are many other beautiful moments, the best of which always come on the slow numbers: the Billy Strayhorn classic "Pretty Girl," on which Bey sounds like Billy Eckstine with a weathered patina to his voice, and the surprising Nick Drake cover, the moody and intense "River Man." His vocal version of Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" is fun, but it tends to expose the limitations of his range; however, he makes the uptempo "Believin' It" work beautifully -- Geri Allen's edgy, modernist piano contrasts nicely with Bey's effusive, bop-inflected delivery. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Like a Lover (O Cantador) | Dorival Caymmi, Dori Caymmi, Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, |
Andy Bey | (4:42) |
| Midnight Blue | Andy Bey | (5:48) | |
| Get It Straight [Straight No Chaser] | Thelonious Monk, |
Andy Bey | (6:27) |
| Pretty Girls (The Starcrossed Lovers) | Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn | Andy Bey | (5:18) |
| River Man | Nick Drake | Andy Bey | (4:21) |
| Dark Shadows | Earl Coleman | Andy Bey | (6:19) |
| Believin' It (Half & Half) | Charles Davis | Andy Bey | (3:43) |
| Some Other Time | Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green | Andy Bey | (4:11) |
| The Last Light of Evening (Blood Count) | Dominique Eade, Billy Strayhorn | Andy Bey | (6:58) |
| Drume Negrita [Afro-Cuban Lullaby] | Andy Bey | (2:56) |
