Love Is Blue

Love Is Blue, is the follow-up recording to the critically acclaimed The Men In My Life, and further captures the vibe and mood which Jackie Allen is capable of evoking. The project once again features Jackie's touring ensemble in an all acoustic setting. The project was arranged and produced by Rob Mathes (Vanessa Williams, Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart, Carly Simon and Eliane Elias). Her quietly beautiful obsession with life, love and passion blossom into a full musical expression from the pensive opening track and holds ones attention throughout the duration of the recording. A complete album - front to back! ******** Jazz Times, September, 2004 By Christopher Loudon If, after last year's elegantly accomplished The Men In My Life, anyone needs further proof that Jackie Allen is a real comer in the contemporary canary sweepstakes they need look no further than the far more impressive new Love Is Blue (A440). As hybrids go, Allen is a rare breed. Her firm roots are clearly folk-rock (and, as evidenced here, her sound grows increasingly similar to Joni Mitchell's), but they are wedded to a keen jazz sensibility. She can take an overripe pop chestnut like the title track, still best known as a syrupy instrumental '68 chart-topper from Paul Mauriat, and remind us of the emotionally desperate depths of Brian Blackburn's lyric. Likewise, she rescues 'A Taste of Honey' from the brassy clutches of Herb Alpert (or the melodramatic bleating of Julie London) to deliver a bittersweet reading that is starkly, refreshingly honest. 'I'll Be Around,' too often performed with suicidal desolation, is here injected with a tiny glimmer of hope that better underscores Alec Wilder's heartbreaking eloquence; and Allen's 'Pavement Cracks' ably captures all the bleak brilliance of Annie Lennox's original. But what really lifts Love Is Blue off it's hinges are two Allen originals, both written with her screen-writer pal Oryna Schiffman. 'Go,' penned nearly a decade ago but recently refitted with new lyrics, is a cunning little one-act play about a woman with an obvious romantic bias, urging a male friend to end a dissatisfying relationship. Even better is 'Moon of Deception,' which (quite intentionally, I presume) sends up those moon-June-spoon tunes of old by recasting the moon as a cruel mistress. Dazzling. ****** 'The fine art of understatement . . . ' ***1/2 Down Beat '...musically sophisticated, artistically daring' Howard Reich, ChicagoTribune '...a sparkling performance' Don Heckman, L.A.

Times ***** Colors can define both music and emotion. Passion can be red-hot, envy turns us green, and moods can downshift from sunny yellow to sullen gray. Music is also color-sensitive: white-hot solos, cool blues, and rainbows of colorful notes tantalize our senses. For this project, Allen has chosen to focus on the darker side of that most powerful of human relations, love. Hence the project's title, Love Is Blue, an evocative statement that implies as many yearnings and questions as love itself. An appropriate proclamation for a collection of songs that convey a less-than-perfect view of relationships, which even the most intensely in-love amongst us can nevertheless relate to. Her quietly beautiful obsession with life, love and passion blossoms into a full musical expression from the pensive opening track and holds one's attention throughout the duration of the recording. Love Is Blue's opening track, 'Lazy Afternoon' with marimba accompaniment, lays the groundwork for a fiercely intimate listening experience for the listener. The second track, 'Go,' was written by Allen nearly a decade ago; the song underwent a radical metamorphosis to reach it's current form. 'I didn't like the lyrics, but I liked the melody,' says Allen. 'I tried rewriting the song a number of times, and it never worked out.' Working with friend and screenwriter Oryna Schiffman, Allen reworked 'Go' into a darkly romantic tale of a woman who tries to give a male friend every conceivable reason to end a relationship he is in. Although the narrator speaks as an impartial judge, by the