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Randy Freedman, jazz fan/critic extraordinaire has written quite a CD review of  "Far Away Places", the new CD by our friends Andy Brown and Petra van Nuis (their first husband/wife jazz duo CD collaboration).

"Far Away Places is the title of the first recording by guitarist Andy Brown and his wife, vocalist Petra van Nuis, that features them together as a duo. This CD has a beautiful wrap-around cover with striking photos, and insightful liner notes by Chicago/Phoenix jazz icon pianist/vocalist Judy Roberts.

It is worth noting that days before this CD’s release, Brown’s abilities as an accompanist–so evident on this recording–were put on national display as Brown and a small group of local musicians accompanied legendary vocalist Barbara Streisand as she performed a song on the Oprah Winfrey TV show.

Brown has such a vast repertoire of varied guitar techniques and textures at his command that his ability to choose between them and employ the correct ones with impeccable timing might be his greatest talent of all. But I suggest you pay special attention to the dynamics of his guitar performance. It may seem simple, but Brown uses the full measure of dynamic range from soft to loud, a skill seemingly lost by many of his contemporaries. The intimate microphone placement and high recording quality of Far Away Places will allow you to appreciate this and other subtle audio nuances as well.

The voice of van Nuis is effervescent, yet refined and classy. She can sound hopeful without being overly sweet, or serious with out any sense of manufactured drama. Van Nuis sings the lyrics as she feels they were intended to be sung, adding only the "salt" of her enthusiasm and the "pepper" of her charm. There is a sense of sincerity in every note that even that the most jaded of listeners could not fail to hear.

My favorite tracks include the title song, "Far Away Places." Brown and van Nuis succeed in believably expressing a musical sense of childlike wonder at travel in our era where "far away" can just mean the fifty-six inch HD TV in the living room, set to the Discovery Channel. Van Nuis does this with inspired phrasing, while Brown provides some homespun chords flavored with the slightest touch of the exotic. His solos on "Caravan" (suggestive and seductive) and "Me, Myself, And I" (breezy and fun) are totally different from one another, yet are both so cool as to be worth the price of the CD all by themselves. "Let’s Do It" provides a perfect showcase for van Nuis’s charming vocal style, and I cannot think of another version of this Cole Porter classic that I have
enjoyed as much. "A Cottage For Sale" casts our duo in the role of sad storytellers, with van Nuis using inflection and nuance with scalpel-like precision to evoke just the right amount of pathos from her listeners. The eerie and mysterious introduction by Brown to "Invitation" sets the stage for van Nuis to make her musical entrance as a woman caught in a dark delusion of shadow and desire.

With their new album, Far Away Places, Andy Brown and Petra van Nuis have given their audience a musical time capsule reflecting the hopes, dreams and aspirations of twentieth century Middle America for its own future. With the clarity that only hindsight can provide, we can see where those dreams actually came true or crashed and burned along the way. Perhaps there are even a few of those hopes and dreams left on which the final verdict has not yet been decided. I highly recommend that you bring "Far Away Places" home and open this enjoyable musical time capsule for yourself. 

                                                             –Randy Freedman "Congrats to Randy on a wonderful piece and to Andy & Petra on their fantastic collaboration! 

We purchased a copy at their CD Release Party at Katerina’s  & were lucky enough to get it autographed by this gorgeous couple. We agree that this is a CD worth buying as the one thing  that really shines through on each of the songs they chose is not only their love of jazz but also their love for each other, giving the CD such a warm feeling.

Tags: "Far Away Places", A Cottage For Sale, Andy Brown, Caravan, Chicago, Chicago Jazz Magazine, Chicago Studio Club, Far Away Places CD, Far Away Places CD review, Illinois, Invitation, jazz CD review, jazz review, Katerina's, Let's Do It, Me Myself and I, Petra Van Nuis, Randy Freedman . This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Andy Brown, Chicago, Chicago Studio Club, guitar, Illinois, Indie, Jazz, Live Music, Music, Petra Van Nuis, photos, thepointandshootist, vocalist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.