While Rick Braun has long been admired by his legions of fans as a contemporary jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player with the kind of showmanship that brings audiences to their feet with raving ovations, many of those same fans don’t realize that he is an equally adept vocalist who sings with a balance between lyrics and music. However, that will all change when audiophiles longing to hear a fresh perspective on love and life as written in such revered jazz standards as “Say It, (Over and Over Again)” and “It’s Love,” listen to Rick Braun Sings With Strings.
About the songs
In many ways, Rick Braun Sings With Strings is changing the face of contemporary jazz. By updating Great American Songbook standards and performing internationally revered folk songs for his listeners, Braun transcends his relationship with his present audiences as an instrumentalist who offers excellence on a wide range of horns (trumpets and flugelhorn) to that of a true artistic genius with major skills who can reveal the story inside of a song’s’ melody, harmony, and rhythm as an impressive minimalist balladeer. He approaches this music as a devoted master of his craft, with detail, love and charisma.
By expanding his repertoire and introducing such revered favorites as “I Thought About You,” “The Things We Did Last Summer,” “Time After Time,” and “The Good Life” to his Gen X and Y fans, he not only pays his respects to those he has learned from and admired, but he extends his audiences beyond the contemporary jazz and smooth styles that he became famous for.
“La Valse des Lilas,” Michel Legrand’s gorgeous French song, is translated to English and sung with great beauty. Titled “Once Upon A Summertime,” Rick Braun’s flawless interpretation is sensitive and passionate. Another great selection is “The Good Life” an English translated version based upon Sasha Distel's French song titled “La Belle Vie.” Here Rick plays nearly half of this great song on flugelhorn before taking the microphone to recall the infamous lyrics made famous by Frank Sinatra. Braun wins you over as he hits all the notes and makes the song his own. “Plus Je T’embrasse,” is sung as a duet by Rick and French singer Jasmine Roy. Listeners may recognize this song as the jazz standard with its origins in the pop song “Heart of My Heart.”
Rick’s singing and playing is designed by the pros for a pro
Rick isn’t the first trumpeter to emerge as a singer by adding vocals to their instrumental repertoire. Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Clark Terry and more recently Roy Hargrove previously translated their instrumental experiences into valuable resources as singers. But Braun, who is more inspired by the minimalist singing of Chet Baker than the husky vocals of Louis Armstrong, has several distinctive advantages over his predecessors including the beautiful arrangements and orchestration supplied by Orchestra.net that producer Philippe Saisse used to provide the eminently listenable backdrops for Braun’s live vocals and flugelhorn prowess.
In addition to his own great talents, Rick put together a great team that included Philippe Saisse’s tremendous artistry as a producer, arranger and orchestrator, Al Schmitt’s mixing genius, and Doug Sax’s mastering. With a team like this, Rick’s new and returning fans are afforded a creative and highly inspired quality recording that beautifully introduces them to Rick Braun’s great singing.
