'All Or Nothing At All' The Debut Release From Alexander Stewart
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 12:11PM 
Alexander Stewart is a 23 year old, Manchester born swing singer who's highly regarded amongst many on the UK scene. He's been received warmly at big name clubs such as 'Ronnie Scotts', 'The Pizza Express' and 'The Boisdale' and has appeared live on BBC radio 2 aswell as on ITV's Alan Titchmarsh show, no small feat for a jazz musician in today's market. Therefor it was no surprise that I was excited to hear the debut release from this up and coming hero of the circuit.
Alexander's album slid quietly through my letter-box and thudded wearily onto my door matt rustling it slightly. Accompanied by a letter from HM revenue and customs aswell as two unappealing looking bills, the dull brown package seemed to have lost all of its mojo and allure in transit. Even my dogs, who usually are quite happy to tear the mail out of the unsuspecting postman's hands seemed to deem this set of packages disregardable, and silently shrugged them off with no more than a nod. I tore open the parcel, tipped out the contents (a smart looking CD and an A4 press release) and, still half asleep, dumped the disc into my stereo and headed off to make breakfast. My stereo whizzed and whirred for a bit and then this happened...
well something to that effect.
The album jolts into life with a blazing rendition of Blondie's 'Call Me', a smooth piano and bass riff is overlapped expertly with a brass section with a the scintillating sound of a muted trumpet filling in where necessary. Its a fitting start to what promimses to be an exciting listen, and your instantly at ease in the fact that Stewart is going to provide some of your favourite tunes with the respect they deserve whilst pouring bucket loads of originality and creative flair into the mix. When he starts singing your mood can't be anything but high spirited and relaxed as his dulcet tones contrast neatly with a lively backing section.
The album cruises through a more contemporary selection of pieces such as Sam Sparrow's 'Black and Gold', Paul Simon's 'Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover' and the aforementioned 'Call Me' by Blondie. But it also pays homage to old classics such as Sinatra's 'Too Marvelous For Words' and Duke Ellington's 'Jump For Joy'. The combination of these songs, with Alexanders obvious talent makes for a fascinating listen, with each piece tailored to Stewart's modern sound.
Massive hats off to producer Andy Cleyndert, Frank Griffith for his impressive horn arrangements and musical arranger and director Alex Webb aswell for contributing to such fantastic piece of work.
The album is released on Monday 5th September and will be launched with a live show at The Pizza Express Jazz Club in London's Soho on the 12th September.
See you there!
Reader Comments (1)
Cannot wait! Alexander will not disappoint!