Rita Coolidge

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Rita Coolidge's Bio: Most music fans have a favorite song recorded by two-time GRAMMY® award-winner Rita Coolidge? “Fever,” “We’re All Alone,” “One Fine Day,” “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher & Higher,” “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” “All Time High,” “Superstar,” and so many other memorable tracks that topped the charts from the 1970’s onward. It is perhaps due to Coolidge’s pop and rock pedigree that many of her fans are unaware of her longstanding affection for jazz, however. Her debut release for Concord Records, And So Is Love, a collection of well-loved jazz standards, is sure to change all that. It will also undoubtedly add a few jazz chestnuts to that lengthy list of songs Coolidge has already made her own.

When Coolidge signed with new management a few years back, she put recording a jazz album on the top of her wish list. “I loved the experience of making my first jazz record with Barbara Carroll in the 1970s,” Coolidge recalls, “and I’ve always loved the jazz singers?Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and especially Peggy Lee, who I have admired since I was three-years old.” Coolidge continues, “I’ve always wanted to get over to the jazz side and am deeply grateful that [Concord Records' executive producer] John Burk believed in me enough to help me make this recording. He should have a star in heaven.”

Along with Burk (who most recently spearheaded the multi-GRAMMY winning Genius Loves Company duets project from Ray Charles), And So Is Love was co-produced by legendary bassist and co-founder of the Yellowjackets, Jimmy Haslip. Coolidge says, “I have never met a more talented, funnier, more perfect person. His energy is unbelievable, he’s full of life, full of music, and he’s passionate about all of it, from the nitty gritty stuff to tracking. Jimmy has amazing ears and has such a gift of bringing the right people into the recording.”

“This was a challenging project, for me, the greatest of lessons, because I hadn’t recorded before with hard-core jazz musicians,” Coolidge admits. Haslip invited two pianists?his Yellowjackets band mate, Russell Ferrante, and the versatile Alan Pasqua (Ray Charles, Queen Latifah, Rod Stewart)?to join the project and create the nucleus of two ace bands that would accompany the singer’s powerful vocals. The other musicians featured on the disk are: Terri Lyne Carrington and Ralph Humphrey (drums); Alex Acuna (percussion); Chuck Berghofer, Dave Carpenter and Darek Oles (bass); Bob Sheppard (alto flute, soprano sax); Larry Koonse and Sandro Albert (guitar); Dave Samuels (vibraphone); Stephanie Fife (flute), and Ronnie Cuber (baritone sax). A duet between Coolidge and her longtime musical cohort, the inimitable Herb Alpert, is the distinctive centerpiece of the sultry bossa nova classic, “Estaté”;the interchange between Alpert and Coolidge is indisputably charged with all the passion one might hope for in an evocative, romantic tune.

In all her musical endeavors, Coolidge has remained true to a sense of spirit, of discovery, of meaningful contribution, and of paying respect to those who’ve come before her. “I’ve always felt singing is about the spaces left, the spaces not taken up, about breathing space,” says Coolidge, who selected three tunes for this date: “Cry Me A River,” “Don’t Smoke in Bed” and “I Don’t Know Enough About You.” The latter two tunes were selected in homage to Peggy Lee, about whom, Coolidge laughingly says, “I would have done an entire album of Peggy songs if they’d let me. Last summer in Amsterdam, I did a whole big band show of all Peggy tunes, and I always sneak a Peg tune in now and then when I’m performing. I was the first to re-record ‘Fever,’ which was a big hit for the both of us. I loved her so much, and it was a big thrill to meet her. We became pretty good buddies. ‘Don’t Smoke in Bed’ is one of the great Peggy Lee tunes,” says Coolidge, “It’s like a little movie, a vignette.” … Read more