Lili A el - Every Second in Between [COMPACT DISCS]

CD Baby

Artist: Lili A el

Title: Every Second in Between

Condition: New

Format: COMPACT DISCS

Release Date: 2009

Label: CD Baby

UPC: 884501211208

Genre: Jazz

Album Tracks

1. I Don't Need You This Way
2. One More Night
3. Suppose to Be
4. That's All I Want from You
5. So Far Away
6. Can't Fall Out of Love
7. Much to My Surprise
8. George Bailey's Lament
9. Won't You Stay
10. Voyager
11. Goodbye

On her 2009 release, Every Second In Between (Wall-I Records), Lili Añel wanted to continue depicting her love of songwriting, singing and interpretation, but at a whole new level. "I knew when I began putting the songs together for this record that I wanted to work with a producer who would get me, what I'm about, and bring out my voice." Enter four-time Grammy winner Glenn Barratt. "I was already familiar with Glenn's work when I heard a record he'd produced over the club's sound system after one of my gigs," says Lili. "I was amazed at the way the recording cut through the club's noise ? not only was the vocal well balanced, but I could hear every word. That was paramount for me." Every Second In Between is a collaboration of heart, soul, words, music, spirit and technique. The songs' landscapes accurately capture Lili, bringing her voice to the forefront, from the classically tinged Voyager, with it's string quartet and Lili's voice, alone and in chorus, to her cover of Nina Simone's That's All I Want From You, and the Latin flavored Supposed To Be, the album's first single, a song of empowerment with the storyteller's refusal to give up sense of self. Every Second In Between proves Lili's stick-to-it-ness and her continued growth as a songwriter and artist to be, as she likes to say, "good as gold." The songs, much like Lili, are a hybrid of musical styles. Often categorized as 'jazz', Lili says 'yes, my songs have Jazz overtones, but you will also hear Folk, Pop, Latin, and even a 'Country' edge, like on Much To My Surprise'. Honestly, I don't mind how you want to label me, as long as you like the music and it means something to you'. With a sound that reflects her Black/Cuban heritage with frequent comparisons to such greats as Joan Armatrading, Joni Mitchell, and Steely Dan, Añel certainly delivers on Every Second in Between, especially on her favorite track, the lead-off single, "Supposed to Be." "'Supposed to Be' was captured exactly as I had hoped - the arrangement, instrumentation, everything," she says. "The vocal is up front, it's minimal, and it's the kind of song that someone else could have gone to town with and thrown in the kitchen sink. But Glenn did a real good job keeping it simple. I just love the way the vocals sound and the feel of the whole song." Other standout tracks include "Can't Fall Out of Love," which contains tasteful harmonica work (very much in the style of Toots Theilemans and Stevie Wonder), as well as "Voyager," which teams Añel with a string quartet (which she compares to what David Amram did with the score for the classic 1961 movie Splendor in the Grass), as well as a cover of one of her all-time favorites (and another influence), Nina Simone's "That's All I Want From You."