专辑简介

Roger Letson's "You Stole My Heart" combines sensitive delivery and exquisite taste in songs, arrangements, and musicians to make an unaffected, personal statement about love and loss. The bad-boy bluster of West Coast cool is left on the doorstep on the swinging opener, followed by an original gorgeous bossa nova which showcases the delicacy and profundity of Letson's baritone. The devastating ballad "With Every Breath I Take" begins with a vocal-bass duet and features aching long tones that celebrate vulnerability. Lovely bass, clarinet, and guitar solos call attention to the imagining of the Eric Dolphy classic "Serene" of a puppet fantasia. The other down-tempo tracks, such as the whispered title cut and "L'eau qui dort" (Try as I may) show the uncrowded and unreservedly romantic sounds of sax solos by Christian Roy, guitar solos by Serge Merlaud, and bass solos by Jean Pierre Rebillard. Even the scat solos are offered as sweet nothings rather than bombast, with no sense of competition with the similarly natural understatement of the instrumentalists. The absence of percussive instruments on this date (no drums, no piano) seem to bring the band closer together both harmonically and rhythmically. The chief attraction of this long-overdue debut resides in the session as a whole, in its relaxed atmosphere, created by meticulous attention to balance, space, and simplicity. The listener will be drawn to his or her own favorite highlights upon repeated listening, sure to come as 'easily' as, well, falling in love.