Connie Evingson - Sweet Happy Life (2012)

Connie Evingson may have just released the best album of her career to date, which is saying a lot. In 2009, she told MinnPost about her interest in Norman Gimbel, an Oscar- and Grammy-winning lyricist whose name has largely been forgotten but whose songs The Girl from Ipanema, Killing Me Softly with His Song, I Will Wait for You are part of the canon. Her new CD, Sweet Happy Life, is the first all-Gimbel album ever recorded, and it is delicious. Hip-swinging samba and bossa nova, sensuous love songs ( his gaze swept over me like a slow hot wind ), and a song by Antonio Jobim with never-before-recorded lyrics by Gimbel. Plus a pensive new arrangement of Killing Me Softly, a song forever identified with Roberta Flack but convincingly reinterpreted by Evingson. –Pamela Espeland, MinnPost

Ever-resourceful Connie Evingson has come up with another inspired album concept. After doing projects on Peggy Lee, gypsy jazz and the Beatles, the jazz-leaning Minneapolis songbird takes on songs by Norman Gimbel, the wordsmith behind Girl From Ipanema, Bluesette and Killing Me Softly With His Song. On Sweet Happy Life, she does a wonderful job on 16 tunes (including the never-recorded and mysterious Adventure ), adding the right shadings, textures and vibe to each and affording stand-out players including pianist Laura Caviani and guitarist Danny Embrey solo opportunities. –Star Tribune

Tracklist:

01. Agua De Beber
02. Meditation
03. Slow Hot Wind
04. Sweet Happy Life
05. Killing Me Softly With His Song
06. Canadian Sunset
07. Watch What Happens
08. The Girl From Ipanema
09. Sway
10. Bluesette
11. How Insensitive
12. Take Me To Aruanda
13. So Nice
14. Adventure
15. I Will Wait for You
16. Tristeza