INNER VOICES
a cappella
VALENTINE
\
Guest Jim Gilstrap singing with Shelby Flint
VALENTINE SONGS
1. Chances Are (Allen/Stillman) 10. I Am His Lady (M. Ames)
2. I'd Like to be Baby to You (Morgan Ames) 11. Time After Time (Cahn/Stein)
3. Come On Back Where You Belong (Ames/Grusin) 12. I Don't Go Shopping (Allen/Lasley)
4. Close Enough for Love (Mandel/Williams) 13. Too Young to Go Steady(McHugh/Adamson)
5. O Cantador (Caymmi/Motta/Bergmans) 14. Belleville Rendezvous (Charest/Chomet)
6. Quietly There (Mandel/Ames) 15. Little Did I Dream (Mandel/Frishberg)
7. My Funny Valentine (Rodgers/Hart) 16. Glad We Threw In Together (Ames)
8. Paper Boat (Shelby Flint) 17. Unless It's You (Mandel/Ames)
1. Chances Are (Allen/Stillman) 10. I Am His Lady (M. Ames)
2. I'd Like to be Baby to You (Morgan Ames) 11. Time After Time (Cahn/Stein)
3. Come On Back Where You Belong (Ames/Grusin) 12. I Don't Go Shopping (Allen/Lasley)
4. Close Enough for Love (Mandel/Williams) 13. Too Young to Go Steady(McHugh/Adamson)
5. O Cantador (Caymmi/Motta/Bergmans) 14. Belleville Rendezvous (Charest/Chomet)
6. Quietly There (Mandel/Ames) 15. Little Did I Dream (Mandel/Frishberg)
7. My Funny Valentine (Rodgers/Hart) 16. Glad We Threw In Together (Ames)
8. Paper Boat (Shelby Flint) 17. Unless It's You (Mandel/Ames)
VALENTINE LINER NOTES by Morgan Ames
1. CHANCES ARE -- I got the idea of writing Johnny Mathis' famous solo down the octave on the bridge to be sung by Alvin Chea. There is no other voice like Alvin's. No wonder he has been the foundation of Take 6 all these years. He likes to sing with us because he gets to croon. I wrote all our parts above Alvin's bass solo, an unusual configuration in a cappella. We recorded it without a click, to keep the pulses right.
2. (I'D LIKE TO BE) BABY TO YOU -- I've been heavily influenced by Bill Evans. This arrangement made me think of the interplay between Bill and Miles Davis on "Blue in Green." Some of our songs have five parts but this one has four. As for the lyric, vulnerable, but I survived it and a lot more.
3. COME ON BACK WHERE YOU BELONG -- Dave Grusin and I wrote this for a film called "Midnight Man" starring Burt Lancaster. It was sung by the wonderful Yvonne Elliman. On our version, Julie's round, warm soprano is perfect.
4. CLOSE ENOUGH FOR LOVE -- You can almost see Elliott Gould as Phillip Marlowe in "The Long Goodbye" (I sang in that film, incidentally), a murder mystery in vintage L.A. It should have been in black and white. It's by Johnny Mandel with a jewel of a lyric by Paul Williams.
5. O CANTADOR -- by Dori Caymmi, my favorite Brazilian and maybe my favorite musician. He plays guitar and sings with us on this. I was floating. We meant to sing it in English, which would have been so damn much easier. But we fell in love with the Portuguese. No click was used, just Dori. We did not double our parts, partly because I thought it would be too thick in the mid range, where Dori's guitar lives on this, and partly for the intimacy. It feels like we're in a coffee house, fragrant with espresso.
6. QUIETLY THERE -- by Johnny Mandel and me from another murder mystery called 'Harper" starring Paul Newman. All these beautiful stars are dead. How does that happen? I wrote a lyric of regret: why didn't I treat you better? Now I lurk around town, the wandering Jew, hoping you'll be here when I get home. I was young and good at victim love songs. It's me playing keyboards and singing.
7. MY FUNNY VALENTINE -- I had some nerve arranging yet another version of this classic but what could I do? The album was titled "Valentine." You might say we recorded it by Braille -- that is, again with no click, and it's a floater. Shelby manages to make the soprano lead sound like a solo and a group part at the same time. I don't know how she does that.
8. PAPER BOAT -- Exquisite ballad written by Shelby for Susan and Al Jarreau's wedding. "We went out to sea on a small paper boat, nobody thought we could keep it afloat." They did, though. Alvin Chea sings the bass lines (Shelby's idea) plus a track of ad-libs that makes me sigh every time I hear it. There are lovely duet lines with Shelby and Michael and just-right sax played by Jerry Peterson.
9. 50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER -- Just a funny song. My fantasty scenario: Michael in the dog park, in New York, at sunset, puzzling over love. His best girlfriend comforts him. Julie put some gospel on the choruses, so we went there too.
10. I AM HIS LADY -- A love song I wrote, deep and shallow like a river. "Faster than a flood in spring, slower than a sparrow with a broken wing but a song to sing, I'm his lady." It was a good day. Love's not perfect but Shelby basically is when she sings it.
11. TIME AFTER TIME -- We sang this at my wedding, all sweetness and juice.
12. I DON'T GO SHOPPING -- A big ballad by our friend David Lasley and the late great Peter Allen. Michael sings the butt off this one and adds the synth bass to Bill Cantos' keyboard. (Have you noticed that practically everyone in our group plays keyboards and writes? Because I have.) Only four parts on this one, with Julie singing soprano.
13. TOO YOUNG TO GO STEADY -- Or as Michael once put it on stage, "Too broke to go steady." Now why did I want us to sing this teenage song of the 60s? The melody. I wove in a lot of hot chords and key changes for fun. The arrangement went and put itself into 6/8 the second time through. I was just sitting there. Four voices on this one with Shelby on very soulful soprano.
14. BELLEVILLE RENDEZVOUS -- My husband and I became obsessed with the Oscar nominated animated French film "Triplets of Belleville." He suggested we sing this. I asked guitarist John Goux to play like Django Reinhardt in a club in Paris in the 20s. He brought his special "Django" guitar and blew us all away. This chart is athletic and fast; you have to keep your wits about you to sing it at all. Big fun. Both Julie and Shelby sang the soprano part.
15. LITTLE DID I DREAM -- By Johnny Mandel and the picturesque Dave Frishberg, with wonderful bridge solos sung by out Sheri.
16. GLAD WE THREW IN TOGETHER -- I wrote a backyard love song, lying "with my eyelids to the sun," grateful for a good man lying beside me. Sheri sings the solo and means it. Julie contributes the very sweet "together, oh yeahs."
17. UNLESS IT'S YOU -- Johnny Mandel songs are all over this album. Can't help it. He has been a powerful influence and great friend since we met in Big Sur when he was scoring "The Sandpiper" (The Shadow of Your Smile) and I was working with John Derek on some forgotten script, porn I think. Johnny wrote the whole song in four-note phrases. I wrote not only rhymes but inner rhymes, for my sins.
Morgan Ames
August 2010
1. CHANCES ARE -- I got the idea of writing Johnny Mathis' famous solo down the octave on the bridge to be sung by Alvin Chea. There is no other voice like Alvin's. No wonder he has been the foundation of Take 6 all these years. He likes to sing with us because he gets to croon. I wrote all our parts above Alvin's bass solo, an unusual configuration in a cappella. We recorded it without a click, to keep the pulses right.
2. (I'D LIKE TO BE) BABY TO YOU -- I've been heavily influenced by Bill Evans. This arrangement made me think of the interplay between Bill and Miles Davis on "Blue in Green." Some of our songs have five parts but this one has four. As for the lyric, vulnerable, but I survived it and a lot more.
3. COME ON BACK WHERE YOU BELONG -- Dave Grusin and I wrote this for a film called "Midnight Man" starring Burt Lancaster. It was sung by the wonderful Yvonne Elliman. On our version, Julie's round, warm soprano is perfect.
4. CLOSE ENOUGH FOR LOVE -- You can almost see Elliott Gould as Phillip Marlowe in "The Long Goodbye" (I sang in that film, incidentally), a murder mystery in vintage L.A. It should have been in black and white. It's by Johnny Mandel with a jewel of a lyric by Paul Williams.
5. O CANTADOR -- by Dori Caymmi, my favorite Brazilian and maybe my favorite musician. He plays guitar and sings with us on this. I was floating. We meant to sing it in English, which would have been so damn much easier. But we fell in love with the Portuguese. No click was used, just Dori. We did not double our parts, partly because I thought it would be too thick in the mid range, where Dori's guitar lives on this, and partly for the intimacy. It feels like we're in a coffee house, fragrant with espresso.
6. QUIETLY THERE -- by Johnny Mandel and me from another murder mystery called 'Harper" starring Paul Newman. All these beautiful stars are dead. How does that happen? I wrote a lyric of regret: why didn't I treat you better? Now I lurk around town, the wandering Jew, hoping you'll be here when I get home. I was young and good at victim love songs. It's me playing keyboards and singing.
7. MY FUNNY VALENTINE -- I had some nerve arranging yet another version of this classic but what could I do? The album was titled "Valentine." You might say we recorded it by Braille -- that is, again with no click, and it's a floater. Shelby manages to make the soprano lead sound like a solo and a group part at the same time. I don't know how she does that.
8. PAPER BOAT -- Exquisite ballad written by Shelby for Susan and Al Jarreau's wedding. "We went out to sea on a small paper boat, nobody thought we could keep it afloat." They did, though. Alvin Chea sings the bass lines (Shelby's idea) plus a track of ad-libs that makes me sigh every time I hear it. There are lovely duet lines with Shelby and Michael and just-right sax played by Jerry Peterson.
9. 50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER -- Just a funny song. My fantasty scenario: Michael in the dog park, in New York, at sunset, puzzling over love. His best girlfriend comforts him. Julie put some gospel on the choruses, so we went there too.
10. I AM HIS LADY -- A love song I wrote, deep and shallow like a river. "Faster than a flood in spring, slower than a sparrow with a broken wing but a song to sing, I'm his lady." It was a good day. Love's not perfect but Shelby basically is when she sings it.
11. TIME AFTER TIME -- We sang this at my wedding, all sweetness and juice.
12. I DON'T GO SHOPPING -- A big ballad by our friend David Lasley and the late great Peter Allen. Michael sings the butt off this one and adds the synth bass to Bill Cantos' keyboard. (Have you noticed that practically everyone in our group plays keyboards and writes? Because I have.) Only four parts on this one, with Julie singing soprano.
13. TOO YOUNG TO GO STEADY -- Or as Michael once put it on stage, "Too broke to go steady." Now why did I want us to sing this teenage song of the 60s? The melody. I wove in a lot of hot chords and key changes for fun. The arrangement went and put itself into 6/8 the second time through. I was just sitting there. Four voices on this one with Shelby on very soulful soprano.
14. BELLEVILLE RENDEZVOUS -- My husband and I became obsessed with the Oscar nominated animated French film "Triplets of Belleville." He suggested we sing this. I asked guitarist John Goux to play like Django Reinhardt in a club in Paris in the 20s. He brought his special "Django" guitar and blew us all away. This chart is athletic and fast; you have to keep your wits about you to sing it at all. Big fun. Both Julie and Shelby sang the soprano part.
15. LITTLE DID I DREAM -- By Johnny Mandel and the picturesque Dave Frishberg, with wonderful bridge solos sung by out Sheri.
16. GLAD WE THREW IN TOGETHER -- I wrote a backyard love song, lying "with my eyelids to the sun," grateful for a good man lying beside me. Sheri sings the solo and means it. Julie contributes the very sweet "together, oh yeahs."
17. UNLESS IT'S YOU -- Johnny Mandel songs are all over this album. Can't help it. He has been a powerful influence and great friend since we met in Big Sur when he was scoring "The Sandpiper" (The Shadow of Your Smile) and I was working with John Derek on some forgotten script, porn I think. Johnny wrote the whole song in four-note phrases. I wrote not only rhymes but inner rhymes, for my sins.
Morgan Ames
August 2010
