Album review: JANET SEIDEL - Don't Smoke in Bed

La Brava Music LB0050

Review copy supplied by Abels Music, Canberra

Reviewed by Tony Magee

The first album I ever reviewed for this publication was a Janet Seidel album, Comme Ci Comme Ca, which is a sensational CD, and it is an equally great pleasure to write words about her latest release, Don't Smoke in Bed.

This is very smooth mix of songs all originally made famous by Peggy Lee and contains a touching Australian connection, with the album being dedicated to the memory of the late and greatly missed jazz trumpeter, Tom Baker.

Singer Seidel is of course based here as well, and all of the players are top Australian jazz musicians: Kevin Hunt on piano, Chuck Morgan on guitar, David Seidel on double bass and Adam Pache on drums, with guest appearances on some tracks by Don Burrows on flute, clarinet and alto sax.

But it goes even further! The piano used is the stunning new Overs-Steinbach, designed and built in Sydney. It sounds gorgeous.

The main thing of course is the music and how it sounds. It is truly sublime.

Starting with the evocative Blues in the Night, the selection includes You Do Something to Me, He's a Tramp, Things are Swingin', Fever, Johnny Guitar, Black Coffee, Mr Wonderful, Bye Bye Blues, Street of Dreams and of course Don't Smoke in Bed, as well as many others.

Janet Seidel is quite simply one of Australia's top song stylists and interpreters of the jazz idiom, particularly in a commercially appealing way, and I can't recommend this new CD highly enough as being perfect for sophisticated dining experiences in classy establishments.

First published in Restaurant and Catering Magazine, October 2002