Giacomo Gates - You [CD]

Jazz vocalist Giacomo Gates is blessed with a smooth and supremely expressive baritone voice and an all-inclusive musicality which encompasses a hipster-like coolness, a smattering of vocalese, an Eckstine-like seductiveness, the story telling ability of a griot, a firm footing in the blues and a sense of swing which is second-to-none. His performances can be quiet and full of insight (or innuendo) or be ebullient and joyful. Whatever style Gates may offer - be it sensitive, sensuous or syncopated - he infuses the music with an understated humor, wry cultural and social implications and an impish delight in surprising his listeners. You is a perfect example of Gates at his best with the vocalist putting together a program with a unique and decidedly altruistic leitmotiv. As Gates himself says, "The context of many songs written and recorded, are composed by people with 'I' problems... but not these songs. All of these songs are about you." Here are 18 songs everybody knows and loves, arranged with creativity and wit and featuring Gates' gregarious delivery so that there can be no mistake, "it's all about you!"