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| First Instrument | 
 enlarge | Artist: Rachelle Ferrell
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $2.94
You Save: $9.04 (75%)
Buy New/Used from $2.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  (31 reviews)
Sales Rank: 50743
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.4
MPN: 27820
UPC: 724382782025
EAN: 0724382782025
ASIN: B000005GWF
Release Date: April 4, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | You Send Me | | • | You Don't Know What Love Is | | • | Bye Bye Blackbird | | • | Prayer Dance | | • | Inchworm | | • | With Every Breath I Take | | • | What Is This Thing Called Love | | • | My Funny Valentine | | • | Don't Waste Your Time | | • | Extensions | | • | Autumn Leaves |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 A Voice Out of This World, but. . . July 12, 2008
Though she cannot be considered a straight-out jazz vocalist, Rachelle Ferrell has a voice that is a technical marvel. She can approximate the highs of the late great Minnie Ripperton and then approach the depths of the late great Sarah Vaughan. On record and especially in concert, Ferrell constantly teases, jousts and whiplashes the audience in the manner of Patti LaBelle, often careering from operatic stateliness to pure pop confection with frequent dips into fire-engine pop-gospel and R&B. It's a distinctive vocal persona that is entirely original and all her own.
That said, my only problem (and it's a big one) is that in her quest to wow the listener with her vocal range, Rachelle Ferrell often leaves the melodies of her songs behind. Like her great idol Sarah Vaughan (her biggest and most obvious influence), Ferrell seems most interested in reconfiguring and stretching songs well beyond the original intent. But the difference is that you feel Ferrell's every exertion, unlike, say, Ella Fitzgerald, whose effortless scat singing seemed to grow organically out of a deeply felt connection between melody and lyric.
On "First Instrument," Ferrell is superbly backed by the likes of bassist Stanley Clarke, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and other jazz-fusion luminaries who give her lots of room to strut her stuff. She does some nominal jazz riffing on bluesy versions of the classics "You Send Me" and "You Don't Know What Love Is." But some songs ("Inchworm," Extensions") and even some reworked standards ("What is this thing called Love," "Autumn Leaves," "Bye, Bye Blackbird") venture too far into experimental jazz-fusion territory--a genre that does not really serve her well.
"With Every Breath I Take" is in fact the only song here that truly speaks to the level of Ferrell's superb instrument: it's a hauntingly beautiful torch song that allows her to slow down, draw in and caress the listener, thoroughly showing off the stunning colors of her voice without ever sacrificing emotional intensity (this song is also refreshingly free of the distracting vocal runs that sometimes get in her way). I love a good twist of vocal showmanship as much as anyone else, but I also believe that in music, (like sex and a lot of other great things in life), it's not always what you put out there, but what you withhold that is the most seductive. Unfortunately, the less-is-more concept is something that too often escapes the artist on "First Instrument."
 WHAT A MARVELOUS VOICE SHE HAS April 17, 2008
IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND SUCH A VOICE TODAY .Propably impossible to find something similar .BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM IN THE WORLD ALONG WITH PATRICIA BARBER S MODERN COOL.IF WE ARE LUCKY AND PATIENT SOMETHING NEW OF THE SAME QUALITY MAY COME OUT IN THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS OR SO BY ANOTHER ARTIST.IF NOT IT WILL NOT BE SO BAD BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE A SIGN WARNING US THAT REAL MUSIC HAS LOST ITS HUMAN ROOTS .
Awesome CD September 17, 2007
I really enjoy listening to Rachelle's CD. She is an awesome singer as well as a great musician.
Outstanding! April 11, 2007
I saw rachelle in Los Angeles and was not impressed, she did a lot of R&B. I just got turned on to this CD and find it one of the most incredible Jazz albums ever. It is too bad she would rather do R&B, there was truely room in the universe for another great jazz vocalist.
 Some fine singing January 21, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First of all, I liked this CD, but was not exhillarated like most of reviewers....
Extraordinary vocal capacity is but one of the prerequisits of a great singer; for instance, compared to Ferrell, Billie Holiday had limited vocal range, but her rhythmic abilities, subtle melodic imagination and the quality of tone (timbre) made her a divine singer... She had, I guess and inborn tallent for interpretation, like Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Jon Hendricks and other great jazz vocalists.
Rachelle Ferrell is very strong on vocal technique, her sense of rhythm is excellent but somehow her interpretations are not fully satisfactory to me. It would be silly to speak of "the soul" of her singing, but at points, although fine, it sounds almost mechanical, with insufficient expressiveness in slower tempos, where her vocal gymnastics cannot be so prominent...
I'm sorry to hear she mostly recorded R$B music; this album shows promise for becoming a true vocal giant some day...
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