Reviews of Mark Winkler Sings Bobby Troup
"After listening to Sings Bobby Troup,
I can't think of any jazz singer today who could have paid better
tribute to Troup than Mark Winkler, he captures the right style,
attitude, and mood on every tune."
Ed
Trefzger, Jazz Week
"Four Stars. Highly Recommended. Mark
Winkler does Troup and his music justice."
Scott
Yanow
"Winkler's magnificent Sings Bobby Troup
is an exciting and passionate musical valentine to a legend whose
vocal stylings and music helped define the West Coast cool of
another time and place."
Jonathan Widran,
Jazziz
"Even Julie London would approve. Cheers, Bobby,
wherever you are."
Atomic Magazine
"This record is one hip, witty, and
swinging tribute to Bobby Troup. Thoughtful, heartfelt interpretations
and Mark's own humor comes through. Fine Band. Anthony Wilson
should get high praise for his arrangements and guitar work."
Bob Roth, Bobby Troup biographer
"Winkler
joins singers like Diana Krall, Mark Murphy, Kurt Elling, Mose
Allison, and the great Dave Frishberg who are still waxing the
poetic side of life. Along the way, pianist Jon Mayer, organist
Joe Bagg, guitarist Anthony Wilson, tenor saxophonist Bob Sheppard,
bassist Kevin Axt and drummers Roy McCurdy and Mark Ferber give
Winker swinging and sympathetic support."
All
About Jazz
"Bobby
would have loved this album!"
Al Viola,
Bobby Troup's guitarist
"Mark Winkler's hip retrospective
of the fiftie's love affair with everything that Bobby Troup
created, rolls out gently, filled with subtle passion. These
are the songs that jazz lovers can't do without."
Jim
Santella
"13 tracks of musical magic with a fine array
of ultra strong sidemen. Mark Winkler carries listeners on a
finely-tuned journey towards vocally activated excellence. In
the final analysis, even the artist himself (Bobby Troup) would
be proud of Mark Winkler Sings Bobby Troup.
Sheldon T. Nunn, Jazz Review.com
"Mark Winkler's latest vocal adventure is his
best thus far, primarily because he's had the good sense to plumb
the late (died 2/7/99) Bobby Troup's droll, sometimes insightful,
always entertaining song book. Although he doesn't sound like
Troup, his slightly gruff, reedy voice is redolent of the sort
of waggish, misdirected delivery from which Troup Tropes benefit.
Jon Mayer directs traffic from the piano bench, or Anthony Wilson
from his position hunched over frets and strings, and whether
it's McCurdy or Ferber on the drum stool, the rhythm crackles
at all the right junctures. "Hungry Man" is a hoot
worthy of Frishberg, while "You're Looking at Me" is
a ballad whose melodic structure and lyrics just naturally call
for the loping swing, with which they're herewith graced. Both
Stacey Kent and Diana Krall have had the acumen to record it
within recent memory. Mayer's piano is replaced by Anthony Wilson's
guitar for the clever "Lemon Twist" as assisted by
Joe Bagg's B-3 organ and Mark Ferber's drum's. "Meaning
of the Blues", which Troup wrote with Leah Worth, and which
was one of his wife's (Julie London's) modest hits, finds Winkler
alone with Jon Mayer's supportive piano. I hear just a bit of
Joe Mooney in Winkler's projection, although his affect is nowhere
as flat as would be Mooney's, more often than not. "Route
66" jumps on the strength of Kevin Axt's bass and the Ferber
drum kit. "Baby, Baby All the Time" finds the Wilson
trio from "Lemon Twist" back in place, and the guitarist
has some delicious stretch out room in which to tell his story.
Add Kevin Axt's bass to the mix for "Walking Shoes"
( Gerry Mulligan's line) and you have a very cheerful perambulation
down the cool West Coast. "Learn to Love" which has
Jon Mayer alone supporting, is a product of the songwriting collaboration
between Troup and Matt Dennis. Winkler is very high on it, as
he makes clear in a short liner note essay about it's genesis
and Winkler's delivery certainly matches his emotional investment.
"Girl Talk", on which Troup collaborated with Neil
Hefti and which, along with "Route 66" is the most
widely circulated of his tunes, contains no surprises with Wilson,
Bagg, and Ferber nicely in tow. The album closer
"Two Guys from the Coast" is an original by Winkler
and Mayer, in which the singer pays homage directly to Troup,
singing about seeing him "somewhere in the Valley/the place
half empty/when he took the stage/Bobby just blew me away".
Winkler nails it beautifully, with Mayer, Axt and McCurdy supporting.
It's a heartfelt finale to a fitting tribute."
Alan
Bargebuhr, Cadence Magazine
My
wife and I are sitting down having dinner with the TV set to
the cable jazz music channel and I hear this guy singing a sad
song I hadn't heard before. Jumping up from the table to see
who's singing and the name of the song, I find it's Mark Winkler
singing a rarely heard Bobby Troup line about the late actor
James Dean, "A Young Man is Gone." Its a moving
piece and the lyrics have that sad, yet hip flavor you'd have
expected from Bobby Troup. However, it's the singer that fascinates
me. Immediately, I tell myself: I must hear more of this. Looking
it up on the Internet, I find that Mark had made an entire CD
made up of all Bobby Troup lines. With the exception of "Two
Guys From the Coast" penned by Mark, the rest of the
tunes all belong to Bobby Troup. "What a great idea,"
I think to myself. I don't know of anyone ever taking on such
a cool task as this.
It's difficult to say where the whole "cool"
attitude began in jazz. My first encounter was during the early
fifties. Miles Davis with Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan changed
the jazz temperature by thirty degrees cooler when they introduced
"Birth of the Cool." But it would be a bit different
on the West Coast. You know, like laid back, surf and smooth
with a dry martini kind of cool.
After my first full hearing of this remarkable CD, it kind of
brought me back to L.A. in the Sixties, the first time I moved
out here. During that period I was a lot more active hitting
the jazz clubs in the Southern California scene on a more regular
basis. I would hear Terry Gibbs and the dream band at the "Summit."
Then I'd swing over on a Monday or Tuesday night to catch Shelly
Manne and his men at the "Mannehole" Sunday
meant afternoons at the "Lighthouse" in Hermosa.
Maybe once or twice I did get to see Bobby Troup perform. I can't
exactly remember where it was. It could have been a club on La
Cienega called "The Losers" or maybe it was
Gene Normans club "The Crescendo." But anyway,
I did catch up to him once or twice. A lot has already been said
about the absolute hipness of Bobby Troup and the small circle
that encompassed him. The fact is he was one of the most gifted
songwriters and musician who spoke mostly to the jazz crowd.
And now Mark Winkler has brought it all back to us. He has done
it dynamically capturing the correct nuances, sentiments, styles
and general hipness that prevailed during Bobby Troup's time.
Mark has a wonderfully controlled vocal delivery that suggests
certain hip figures illustrated in his shadings and bending of
particular words in the lyrics that hit home.
"Hungry Man" goes beyond being cute and contains
much the same feeling described through listing, linking and
rhyming things in a fun jazz way that prevailed in the Troup
evergreen, "Route 66." Compare this to the melancholy
lyrics of "One October Morning" and you come
away with the wide range of music that Bobby Troup created and
Mark Winkler interprets in his incomparable way.
Mark is at home with all the tunes and could have very well been
around during the Sixties when these lines were blossoming. For
example, "Girl Talk" comes into fruition, given
Mark's interpretation, and has survived all of the feminine social
advances and sounds hipper than ever with Mark's eloquent delivery.
The poignant tale of James Dean, "A Young Man is Gone"
is done with moving delicacy and grace without being mushy or
over sentimental.
"Walkin Shoes" is a complete surprise to me.
Of course, I remember Gerry Mulligan's instrumental version many
years ago. I never knew that Bobby put lyrics to it. Mark swings
nice and easy and walks us through aided by a nice guitar solo
by the inimitable Anthony Wilson.
"Learn to Love" was a collaboration between
Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup. A beautiful and tender lyric with
a simple yet caring message that Mark delivers with an ear and
a heart toward the sensitivity this song reflects. Wouldn't it
be a beautiful thing if the next CD by Mark Winkler were a set
of Matt Dennis tunes?
This CD is a welcome breath of fresh air filtered out from the
smog of the past. It could be a nice thing if some of those that
did not have the good fortune to hang around and catch guys like
Bobby Troup discover this gem for themselves and learn a little
about this music. We couldn't ask for a better perception to
that past than this wonderful package that Mark Winkler and company
has delivered.
Pete LaBarbera, Jazzzine
Review of Easy the Hard Way
Musicians: Mark Winkler, vocals; Billy Childs, Jon Mayer,
Gareth Williams*, piano; Bob Hurst, Bob Maize, Arnie Somogyi*,
bass; Greg Hutchinson, Roy McCurdy, Ralph Salmins*, drums. With
Claire Martin, guest vocal*; Anthony Wilson, guitar; Bob Sheppard,
saxophone; Bobby Shew, trumpet.
Songs: Trio, Easy the Hard Way, Like Young, Lonely Woman, Baby It's Cold Outside*, Toys in the Attic, Ellen's Song, Kelly's Moods, Empty Bed, Another Night, Like Jazz, Quiet Fire
Rating:
While this is the seventh recording
from singer and lyricist Mark Winkler, it's his first that has
been promoted as mainstream jazz. Liza Minnelli, Dianne Reeves,
Randy Crawford and Kenny Rankin have recorded his songs and he
has worked on a couple of off-Broadway musicals. Winkler has
a smooth and supple voice. Seven of the selections feature his
lyrics, which are adept, clever and witty. He swings easily on
tunes like "Trio" (which draws some interesting parallels
between musical and romantic setbacks), "Ellen's Song"
(a jazz waltz) and the title cut (which swings a bit harder,
aided by the sax playing of Bob Sheppard). He has good jazz phrasing
and feel. "Like Young" (an Andre Previn tune) works
with just Wilson's guitar backing the singer. He's at his best
on the uptempo tunes; he doesn't sound quite as much like a jazz
singer on some of the ballads. Doubtless his lyric writing experience
is one factor contributing to his uncommon effectiveness in conveying
the lyrics. British singer Claire Martin drops in for a fun duet
on "Baby It's Cold Outside."
Michael
Colby, www.52ndstreet.com
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May not be reprinted or reproduced in any form without permission.
Reviews
from 
All laughing! All singing! All 'Naked'!
July
23, 1999
by David Kaufman
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
"Naked Boys Singing!" is as full-frontally outrageous as its title implies. A revue that features unabashedly lewd material, "Naked Boys" is a contemporary "Oh Calcutta!" being put on by a "Full Monty" gang, sort of like a Chippendales glee club.
For the most part, the generic tunes sound like they might have been concocted for a makeshift theatrical event at a summer camp - especially with their accompaniment by a lone piano. But many of the numbers prove laugh-out-loud funny in surprisingly sophisticated ways.
As it's performed entirely in the nude by an eight-member ensemble with buffed bodies, the opening number - "Gratuitous Nudity" - says it all: "Tonight! Get ready for something risque'/Tonight! We throw inhibition away/Why even bother to make a fuss/when it's obvious to us/you're here to see/gratuitous nudity."
If each member of the cast gets the opportunity to strut his stuff with a solo number, Tom Gualtieri stands out with his tribute to Robert Mitchum, as do Daniel C. Levine with " Perky Little Porn Star," Glenn Allen with "Nothin' but the Radio on" and Trance Thompson with "The Entertainer."
A couple of earnest love songs prove relatively dull. But between Robert Schrock's direction and Jeffry Denman's choreography, the show is staged with loads of charm and theatrical savvy.
Despite its recurring focus on the male member and an array of topics that can't be mentioned in a family newspaper, this is illegitimate theater that's really good, clean - if adult - fun.
It's bound to be a hit with gays, straights - and everyone in between.
Window-Shopping: Is It Mr. Right or Just Mr. Raw
July 23, 1999
by Anita Gates
Has it really been 30 years since Broadway audiences gasped at the sight of the cast of "Hair" standing nude on stage for a few minutes? Now theatergoers a the Actors' Playhouse in Greenwich Village gaze casually and smile good-naturedly as the cast of "Naked Boys Singing" performs its lightly teasing opening number, "Gratuitous Nudity," and much of the rest of the show, equally unclothed.
This is an affable, appealing production with a versatile and talented cast. "Naked Boys Singing" isn't for everybody - especially sweet Aunt Rose from Hooterville, unless she's partial to symbolic re-creations of masturbation and crude terms for it - and it's hardly brilliant, but it should please its target audience, and the rest of us who can, in the right mood, appreciate slightly prurient songs about circumcision.
The production consists mostly of lighthearted songs, with titles like "The Naked Maid," "Muscle Addiction" and "Nothin' but the Radio On." "Robert Mitchum" is a particularly likable song-and-dance number, a tribute to the days when men, even movie stars, weren't so perfectly gym-toned ("I know he was a little beefy and soft" and yet "a perfect 10 back in the days of real men"). But real poignancy pops up in the middle of this show in "Kris, Look What You've Missed," a sad ballad addressed to a man who died of AIDS, telling him about all the things he didn't live to see ("Richard got fat"; "The whole world's on line"). It is sung by Jonathan Brody, during a reverse striptease, with effectively understated emotion.
"Window to Window," sung by Adam Michaels and its reprise, sung by Sean McNally, is also touching. And it's a good example of the sociosexual assumptions required to appreciate the show. If you don't think two total strangers spying on and admiring each other while they both stand naked and visible through the windows of their respective apartments is an acceptable way to look for Mr. Right, you won't approve of this production.
"Naked Boys Singing" lists writers, and the lyrics to "Perky Little Porn Star" indicate that at least one, David Pevsner, must be a major old movies buff. A mention of Tab Hunter is one thing, but Deanna Durbin? Come on, some younger gay men have to be told who Judy Garland was. ( Of course, Deanna and Judy were early rivals, so maybe it's a big inside joke.)