Caro Emerald - Deleted scenes from the cutting room floor

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

(another I was just about to post when my old machine couldn't be bothered anymore)

I went shopping in Cardiff with my daughter last week, for birthday presents for my wife. She gave me a lift home afterwards – it’s a forty minute drive, and played me this album, her current favourite. Well, it was very different – very. So I got a copy, which arrived this morning, and I’m still very impressed.

I suppose you’d have to call it pop music, but it’s not much like most of the pop music I’ve heard over the last fifty years. The songs are VERY sophisticated indeed, calling to mind Cole Porter’s wonderful songs of casual and mercenary sex, as I guess they’re supposed to do, and filled with images of film noir, which the sleeve notes – setting the scene for each song – amplify. Here are a few samples of the lyrics.

Just one dance

“All it costs is just a minute now

For one dollar you can show me how

I’ll take your hand and then your worries too

In just one dance I’ll make your dreams come true.”

The other woman

“Wear that dress, the one you rely on

Slit up high, that shows off your wares

When he’s arriving, give him that invitation

Keep on wishin, almost all of him cares.”

Absolutely me

“I don’t want a serenade

To hear you say a thing

All I need is your attention

And a 10 karat diamond ring.”

Stuck

“You promised me a motorcade and endless perfume

A palace in Geneva with a perfect view

And dreams painted yellow like the colour of gold

And dine with kings and queens until the food gets cold.”

Lipstick on his collar

“As smug as a robber

That a cop can’t catch

The lipstick on his collar

Doesn’t seem to match

Mine.”

The accompanying music fits in with the general ambiance – retro jazz from the twenties to forties, but played over funky hip hop beats for the most part and full of interesting solos by Peter Huber (tp), Arnoud de Graaf and Floris van der Vlugt (ts), Jonathan Bitman (cl) and Daan Herweg (p). I don’t know if these guys are well known on the Dutch jazz scene; perhaps some of our Dutch members may know. Real thought has gone into arranging this so that these disparate elements all fit together smoothly but often surprisingly.

Caro Emerald is in her late twenties and Dutch (though my daughter informs me that one of her parents is British), a former jazz singer who was ‘discovered’ in 2009 and made this album. It and a couple of singles taken from it, seem to have been at number one pretty well everywhere in continental Europe, though they seem to have flopped here and in America. Subsequently she’s made a live album of, apparently, the same songs. She sings well, with a clear voice and the very clear diction the songs deserve. When she overdubs her backing vocals, she puts me in mind of Bette Midler’s and the early Pointer Sisters’ imitations of the Andrews Sisters – and again, that fits into the ambiance.

There’s all kinds of interesting stuff going on in this album. I think I’ll get a lot of pleasure listening to it for a long time.

MG

[Cyril]

like this one...

Here some more:

[Cyril]

More about Caro.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Your images didn't come out Cyril.

Do you know anything about those musicians Peter Huber (tp), Arnoud de Graaf and Floris van der Vlugt (ts), Jonathan Bitman (cl) and Daan Herweg (p)?

MG

[rostasi]

Thanks for the videos.

Interesting that the album

beat out Jackson's Thriller

on the Dutch charts - and

that bit in the article about

it staying on the charts for

two years and then removed

due to the law (?) that says

that an album can't be on

the charts for more than

two years.

[Cyril]

MG, I do it this way:

Floris van der Vlugt (ts) -> http://www.florisvandervlugt.nl

I've never heard of Jonathan Bitman

Daan Herweg -> http://www.daanherweg.com/

Peter Huber is also playing with the Rotterdam Ska Jazz Foundation -> http://www.rsjf.nl/main.html

Arnoud de Graaff with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw - http://www.jazzorchestra.nl/joc/

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks Cyril.

I looked on her website before I got the CD and saw that her album went double platinum in Poland! On sales of 60,000 !!!!!

Are those images that didn't come out videos?

MG

Thanks for the videos.

Interesting that the album

beat out Jackson's Thriller

on the Dutch charts - and

that bit in the article about

it staying on the charts for

two years and then removed

due to the law (?) that says

that an album can't be on

the charts for more than

two years.

Same as Billboard. Two years on the album charts and the record gets demoted to the catalogue charts, if it's fallen out of the top 100.

MG

[Cyril]

Your images didn't come out Cyril.

MG

It works for me.

And this one?

BTW Floris van der Vlugt has a very nice bio.

[Dave James]

Catchy. I like it.

[rostasi]

Wow! That was really nice! Most enjoyable music video I've seen in quite a while.

A bit of an abrupt ending, but, still fun and creative. It kind of took me away

from the actual song, but still a nice job. Thanks for that!

[Dave James]

Well, it's official. Note the time. I cannot get A Night Like This out of my head. Thanks a bunch.

[Cyril]

Well, it's official. Note the time. I cannot get A Night Like This out of my head. Thanks a bunch.

[Cyril]

I've never heard of Jonathan Bitman

MG, I found something about Jonathan Bitman, he is the (lead)saxophonist with the 'Utrechts Jazz Orchestra' and on clarinet on the cd 'Deleted scenes from the cutting room floor'

A lot of jazzmen are playing on this CD....

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

See, my daughter grew up listening to soul jazz. I didn't expect her to introduce me to something, because she's not keen on soul jazz

(Yes, the videos have come out for me now.)

MG

[king ubu]

Read about her again and again... and then recorded a concert of hers on TV... and thought it was incredibly lame, set-up, fake stuff... it's ooh so hip and those enjoying her can consider themselves so very darn refined, ya know?

Not for me, sorry. No more than mannerisms galore.

[Clunky]

i was given this some months ago and liked it.

[king ubu]

Well, I may be unfairly tough on her... but seing her pretend all the time on screen was just too much.

I think I've still got some radio capture somewhere - maybe that'll do more for me, got to check it out.

[GA Russell]

Same as Billboard. Two years on the album charts and the record gets demoted to the catalogue charts, if it's fallen out of the top 100.

I didn't know that! I guess that's another reason to trust only Soundscan.