Peg Carrothers - Edges Of My Mind - Reviews
Jazz Magazine
(FR)What is your relationship with the angels? Depending if you like their company or if you can’t stand them, either you will like this album or you will go away. Peg Carrothers (wife of the pianist Bill Carrothers)
has a spontaneously angelic voice. On Gentle Annie or on Once Upon a Summertime, stretching her voice up to ethereal heights, she gives redundancy to the essence of these melodies aiming to the sublime. But on Sympathy for the devil (yes indeed!)- the real pearl of this recording- the contrast between her diaphanous voice and this poisonous song is very well achieved. It is also the fact for the two last songs of the recording, specifically on the very beautiful I Can See Clearly Now of Johnny Nash where the voice is more powerful. This album is very ambitious in the selection of its titles. It embraces more than a century and a half of popular American music stretching from Gentle Annie (1856) to Edges of My Mind (1994) of Paul "Boe" Harbison, through the Dream On of Steve Tyler, leader of Aerosmith. The arrangements are very sophisticated, as for the presence of a mandolin very well used, sounding sometimes like a steel-pedal. The dialogue between the piano and the mandolin introducing the song Once Upon a Summertime is infinitely delectable.
CultureJazz (FR)
En écoutant , écoutant ( tant et tant ) ce très beau disque, je repense à une chansonnette de Graham Nash dans les années 70 : "I am a simple man and I sing a simple tune". Transposée au féminin, ce pourrait être la devise de Peg Carrothers.
Elle chante et nous enchante parce qu’elle n’est pas "du métier". Elle est bibliothécaire et prend grand soin de sa famille. Chez les Carrothers, la musique est fondamentale dans leur vie à Mass City, tout au nord du Michigan, près du Lac Supérieur, bien loin de l’agitation des métropoles. Un contexte déterminant pour comprendre la paix et la sérénité qui transparaissent dans ces chansons assemblées avec soin. Des mélodies qui racontent une tranche d’histoire contemporaine de la musique américaine-européenne de 1856 à 2004 (Les dates sont mentionnées : souci de précision documentaire, encore un trait de la famille !).
"Edges of my Mind" n’est pas le premier disque sous son nom ( il y avait "Blue Skies" en 1999, jamais écouté pour ma part ). C’est surtout aux côtés de son mari, Bill, que sa voix nous est devenue familière (
Armistice 1918, Sunday Morning... et le projet D.Day en Basse-Normandie ce printemps 2014) : pureté du timbre, précision du phrasé habillage subtil des mots...Aujourd’hui, le label français Vision Fugitive (co-dirigé par Philippe Mouratoglou, Jean-Marc Foltz et Philippe Ghielmetti) enrobe cette musique dans le superbe écrin aux couleurs diffuses qui contient un livret illustré d’images de l’Amérique rurale des années 40.
Translation:
Listening (more and more) this very beautiful CD, makes me think of a little song of Graham Nash in the 70’s : "I am a simple man and I sing a simple tune". Transpose to a feminine version, it could be the Peg Carrother’s motto.
She sings and enchants us because she is not from the professional experts circle. She is a librarian and she takes care of her family. In the Carrothers home, music is essential to their life in Mass City, up to the north of Michigan, near Lake Superior, very far from the bustle of the metropolis. This is a determining context to understand the peace and serenity breathing through these carefully gathered songs . Melodies which tell us of a slice of contemporary history of the American – European music from 1856 until 2004 ( dates are specified which is a sign of precision, another family quality !
"Edges of My Mind" is not the first recording under her name (there was "Blue Skies" in 1999, but I have never listened to it). It’s essentially from her husband's side that her voice became familiar to us (Armistice 1918, Sunday Morning…and the D-Day project in Basse Normandie this last spring 2014) : purety of timbre, a precise phrasing and a subtle dressing of the words…
Today the french label Vision Fugitive ((co-directed by Philippe Mouratoglou, Jean-Marc Foltz and Philippe Ghielmetti) is wrapping up this music in a superb box set of diffused colors, which contains an illustrated booklet of America in the 40’s. Only a subtle piano, a sober doublebasse and the echos of blues from a guitar are mingling with Peg Carrothers voice. The Stones, Michel Legrand, Aerosmith… the repertoire is electic but intepreted with a perfect unity of style. One will even find an original song "Hold On" which is for sure an injunction to stay clear-sighted as she concludes with "I can See Clearly Now", the old success of Johnny Nash (the other Nash !). Yes indeed, it’s clear, one can see and hear it : this clear-headed woman sings simply but with the strength of a music which stands up to time.
Telerama (FR)
P
eg Carrothers est la femme de BC, et ce n'est pas la premiere fois qu'elle chante accompagnee par son pianiste favori. Blue Skies, son premier album, remonte a 2001, mais elle a ete depuis aussi intermittente que Bill fut constant, dans us style moins flamboyant que, disons, Brad Mehldau, s'accomodant des standards (After Hours) comme des concepts (Civil War Diaries). Pour beaucoup cependant, Edges of My Mind sera une decouverte. On y entre a pas prudents, attire par la lumiere insolite d'un club de jazz, a peu pres desert en pleine journee. On s'assied et on ne repart plus. La dame est dansun rond de lumiere, derriere elle un trio. Cette melodie nous est familiere: c'est le Dream On d'Aerosmith, patine tout pareil qu'un air de Stephen Foster (Gentle Annie) juste avant, date 1856. En dehors d'une composition de Peg Carrothers elle meme, le morceau le plus recent est aussi le coeur palpitant du disque: Edges of My Mind, d'une certain Boe Harbison (1951-2004), guitariste obscur de la region de Minneapolis. La voix etheree de la chanteuse s'y promene avec une grace inouie. Dire que chaque morceau tutoie le sublime serait exagere, mais cette sensation d'apesanteur contamine l'album tel le plus suave des poisons, meme dans ses moments plus convenus (Once upon a Summertime) ou aventureux (Sympathy For the Devil, rien que ca) et refuse de s'evaporer.
Translation:
Peg Carrothers is the wife of Bill Carrothers, and this is not the first time she sings accompanied by her favorite pianist. Blue Skies, her first album back in 2001, but it was also intermittently since Bill was constant in us less flamboyant style than, say, Brad Mehldau, is accommodating standard (After Hours) as concepts (Civil War Diaries). For many however, Edges of My Mind is a discovery. We enter not careful, attracts the unusual jazz club light, roughly in the middle of desert day. We sit and we no longer leaves. The lady dansun round of light, behind it a trio. That melody is familiere us: this is the Dream On Aerosmith patina that any such air of Stephen Foster (Gentle Annie) just before, the date 1856. Apart from a composition Peg Carrothers she Similarly, the piece the most recent is the beating heart of the disc: Edges of My Mind, a Boe some Harbison (1951-2004), an obscure guitarist in the region of Minneapolis. The ethereal voice of the singer walks there with an unheard of grace. That each piece is exaggerated tu the sublime, but this feeling of weightlessness contaminates the album as the sweetest of poisons, even in its most agreed (Once upon a Summertime) or adventurous (Sympathy For the Devil, nothing moments ca ) and refuses to evaporate.
CitizenJazz (FR)
Souvent associee aux projets de son epoux, Bill, PC se devoile ici comme chanteuse a part entiere (et quelle chanteuse) sur un repetoire qui dessine un pan d'histoire de la musique americaine du milieu du xixeme siecle jusqu'a aujourd'hui. Avec tout le soin d'une bibliothecaire(son "vrai" metier) elle a deniche et depoussiere quelques melodies qu'elle eclaire de sa voix pure et assuree avec la complicite de musiciens particulierement inspires. Un bijou sans doute.
Translation:
Often associated with projects by her husband, Bill, Peg Carrothers unveils here, as a full-fledged singer, and what a singer, on a repertoire that draws a piece of history of American music in the middle of the 19th century, until today. With all the care of a librarian (her "real" job) she found it and dusted some melodies, pure and enlightened, assured, with the complicity of musicians particularly inspired by voice. Undoubtedly a jewel.