CeCe Gable – More Than A Song – CD Review
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Plastic – CD
Surface noise: N/A
Dynamic Range: 4
Stereo Imaging: 4-
Image depth/perspective: 4-
Overall frequency response: 4
Please see here for my comments on reviewing albums.
Track List:
- East Of The Sun
- As Long As I Live
- Love Is A Necessary Evil
- I Thought About You
- My Shining Hour
- What Is This Thing Called Love
- It’s Alright With Me
- Fotografia
- I Concentrate On You
- Detour Ahead
Instrumental Line Up:
- Vocals – CeCe Gable
- Guitar – Roni Ben-Hur
- Baritone Saxophone & Bass Clarinet – Brian Landrus
- Bass – Harvie S.
- Drums – Sylvia Cuenca
Background:
This CD was recorded and engineered by David Kowalski at Teaneck Sound Studio, Teaneck, NJ. It was mixed and mastered by both David Kowalski and Harvie S. at the same studio. The album was released on the CCGableLLC label on July 24th, 2020.
CeCE Gable is a consummate jazz performer who has sung in clubs and venues throughout the US, Europe and Japan. CeCe has produced 4 CD’s, all to critical acclaim, and continues to offer concerts and clinics.
This is a mix of laid back easy listening tracks. As such the sound is generally neither very dynamic nor very detailed. Letting the listener fall into a relaxing sultry mood.
As with many studio recordings instruments appeared panned into position within the stereo image. In this case this “panned mono” resulted in a rather narrow image with little depth, all being pushed towards the front, with the stereo kit image being rather narrow and placed just slightly towards the rear. All images appearing mostly between the center and right speaker. CeCe’s vocals were dead center and right out front with the electric guitar spread center to just right of center, the sax and clarinet placed right of center and the double bass just behind CeCe or front center for its solos. All images appeared in the same horizontal plane with little depth delineation. Only the cymbals showed some height. Excluding the cymbals, only T1 showed any instruments, the guitar, left of center, leaving a rather empty space between the center and left hand speaker.
Instrumental placement was generally solid and there was no overtly obvious compression or hum. Some low level electrical white noise was noted on several occasions during tracks fades.
Despite the individual musical parts being enjoyable and all instruments sounding natural, having good detail, sparkle and openness, I unfortunately did not find the musicianship very tight and I heard a few less than stellar notes. General dynamics were reasonable overall and instrumental solos and breaks abound for the electric guitar and baritone sax, with several for the kit and one for the bass clarinet.
CeCe stands front and center of each mix with good presence. Her dynamics did not seem to be overly restricted having a generally warm and mellow tone that occasionally lacked just a little body. Her annunciation being clear and concise with no undue emphasis to any part of her vocal range and her close miking rarely accentuating any sibilance.
During T1 the electric guitar creates a very wide image from centre left to center right. It may have been double tracked or just an open mic, who knows? All other tracks provide a much narrower image from center to just right of center and it is set back just behind CeCe. Providing a clean, warm and mellow tone with little finger or fret noise, numerous breaks/solos abound, to include T1, T2, T5 andT8.
The baritone sax makes itself known just to the right hand side of the guitar showing generally good presence. Even though the sax is clean and open with a bright brassy edge, it displays a hollow thin tone lacking a little in bottom end warmth and mellowness, but providing some good solos and breaks like those on T3, T6 and especailly T9. The bass clarinet found on T10 replaces the sax, and has excellent presence with a deep, warm and mellow tone.
The acoustic double bass sat generally behind CeCe never getting lost in the mix and coming to the front during its solos/breaks on T1, T3, T4, T7, T9 and especially T6. Its tone was generally a little thin on body and slightly boomy except when it was pushed to the front of the mix during its breaks and solos. During many of these it showed good presence with a tight well defined string action and no obvious finger or neck noise. Occasionally you could hear Brian’s deep intake of breath (T6).
The kit was barely sat back and during the more lively performances almost appeared at the front. It had a fairly narrow image from just left of center to just right of center. The cymbals and hi-hat were bright and well detailed with no signs of a hard edge, the snare and toms were well damped with a short ring, rim work was impactful (T2) and brush work on T4 and T10 well detailed. The kick drum created a dull well damped thud, sounding a little hollow and exhibiting no beater noise, even during the breaks/solos on T5 and T7.
Overall reverb was short and low level providing just sufficient ambience to fill the sound out and provide a little warmth.
The lack of image depth, up front instrumental placement and the musicians not feeling very tight, didn’t enhance the performance. So while many of the individual performances were good the sum total was less than stellar. I just wonder whether the “hollowness” I perceived, in particular the kick drum, toms and sax, were a function of the studios acoustics.
Despite my technical concerns I am sure that those listening to the music will thoroughly enjoy CeCe’s vocal renditions and the performance of her fellow musicians.
Playback note: Reviewed using my Denon DBP A100 over Denon Link 3. Speakers; a stereo pair of Genelec 1038’s and four SVS subs.
Disclosure: This CD was provided by Kari-On Productions for my review. No financial compensation was provided.
Buy the CD direct from CeCe Gable’s web site, Amazon or download from Amazon Music or Bandcamp.
See my other Kari-On Productions reviews here.
