[.ca] Dreams of Johnny Mercer

Where Has She Been All My Life?:
What A Beautiful Voice Monica Mancini Has!!! This Cd Is A Real Treat, Each Song Is FRESH And Wonderfully Sung!!The Songs Written With Barry Manilow Are The Stand Outs!! Starting With "When October Goes" & "When The Meadow Was Bloomin'" Each Song Is Simply Stunning!! All I Can Say Is, MORE PLEASE!!!! A Fan For Life.

WOW!:
I had the pleasure of meeting Monica and of purchasing this cd and all I can say is WOW!!! The entire Mancini family is an American treasure. The post office has issued a commemorative Henry Mancini postage stamp and pin, so if you're a collector, grab one. And, if you get the chance to see Monica do her Multi-media show live... TAKE IT! She injects new life into classic songs in a way no other singer could do because of her family and her own special vocal talents. Monica has a way of bringing a pure love back to the classics. It's genuine, it's honest, and it's by birthright. I love this cd because it is music that we all should own. The tunes were composed by Barry Manilow and the lyrics by Mercer, discovered by his widow. Also, the drumming work of Monica's husband Gregg Field is awesome. He's worked with such talent as Streisand and others and he sure knows how to put on a live show with the Henry Mancini Alumni Orchestra from the Henry Mancini Institute through UCLA. He is also the band director and more. You will hear some of this world's greatest young musicians on this tour and you will enjoy the show, there won't be a dry eye in the house!

This cd was dead on arrival:
To be unique and different is well and good, but one needs to be extremely careful when treading in such dangerous waters. In this case I think Monica drowned in these waters. I think the idea to do a Johnny Mercer tribute cd was great. Where the real problem came into play was with the repertoire. I read Monicas' comments in the inlet of this cd and she stated that she wanted to record a lot of Johnnys' unkown and non-hit songs. She also said that she wanted each track to be different. I also read where some of these songs had never been published. The fact that these songs were never published tells me that they were worthless or they would have be published many years ago. I think that Monica shot herself in the foot by being so paranoid about being different. I feel like she carried this idea of being different to the extreme. I would like to say that Monica did so some good things with this project. Her voice was in prime form and her band did a good job with it's accompaniment. This being said, all the good that this project accomplished, were undone by the poor repertoire that was used. I think this project was a wasted venture.

Not eveyone will like this - but I do:
I will aknowledge right up front that this is not an album which will appeal to as wide an audience as it really should. The material is a mix of known and unknown and the unknown really makes this worthy. The tempos and styles of the material are very broad. The orchestrations are a bit lush for my taste but support Ms. Mancini's voice very well. Her husband, drummer/producer Greg Field does a wonderful job. He knows her strengths and plays to them. Her voice is unique much like Julie London or Sarah Vaughan but it is not quite as distinctive. That provides plenty of versitility and it's used here. There are upbeat tunes (Acentuate the Postive and Atchesn Topeka and Santa Fe) but the ones that I love are the ballads especially When October Goes and Skylark. The hidden gem here is The Weekend of a Private Secretary. A latin number that at first seems so out of place but then, no. This is a hard CD to categorize but if you like vocals, jazz and/or pop you'll probably like this.

A Delightful Discovery... by Accident:
My favorite easy listening station played Monica's "Slow Hot Wind" from her first album and I was so blown away, I bought all 3 of her albums at once. Good grief, what a discovery! Why are we not hearing more about this incredible talent? This album is haunting, unusual, brilliant and dreamy. If I could give it 10 stars I would. I can't be more enthralled with a singer than I am with Monica. Bravo!!

• Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
• Something Tells Me
• Skylark
• Weekend of a Private Secretary
• With My Lover Beside Me
• When October Goes
• On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
• When the Meadow Was Bloomin'
• It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera)
• Love Is Where You Find It
• At Last
• Just Remember