BEAT KAESTLI

Happy, Sad and Satisfied.

2006-01-31

Only the music gurus at WYCE can find stuff like this: Swiss jazz. Young singer/arranger Beat Kaestli (born and raised in Switzerland, but now a NYC crooner) is in the Harry Connick, Jr. mode and while we don’t need even more versions of “Autumn Leaves” (what is up with everyone covering that chestnut over the last year?), this kid’s strength is in his arrangements and his instrumental compadres.

I think the disc gets better in the second half, with the instrumentation carrying cuts #7-#10. Listen especially to the trumpet in “So in Love,” the bass and sax in “Tenderly” and the organ in the interesting set-closer “I (Who Have Nothing)” * who remembers Tom Jones singing that on Top 40 radio? It is also different to hear a male lead on Gershwin’s “Summertime.” If this youngster wants to make it, my advice is to keep up the good work on the arrangements and choose less predictable numbers; that’s what makes the second half of this CD more intriguing.

1/06 MJVD Jazz-Contemporary (vocal)

More reviews tagged #Jazz

  • reviewed 03/2007

    Soweto Kinch
    A Life in the Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block.

  • reviewed 04/2007

    MELODY GARDOT
    Worrisome Heart

  • reviewed 09/2008

    JOHN PATTON
    Soul Connection

  • reviewed 05/2015

    PHO
    Cash It

  • reviewed 05/2015

    Arjun
    Core

  • reviewed 05/2017

    Johanna Sillanpaa
    From This Side

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.