From Another American – KEVIN MAYNOR, Bass [GPJ]: Classical CD Reviews- Apr 2003 MusicWeb(UK)

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From Another American – KEVIN MAYNOR, Bass
Arr. J.W.WORK (1872-1925)
Go tell it on the mountain
This little light of mine
Trad. AFRICAN/ANGOLAN
Kum ba yah
Samuel A.WARD (1847-1903)
America the beautiful
Traditional
Let us break bread together
Arr. PAUL ABELS
We shall overcome
Irving BERLIN (1888-1989)
God bless America
Arr.E.Edwin YOUNG
Amen!
William STEFFE
Battle hymn of the Republic
George.W.WARREN (1828-1902)
God of our fathers
Vincent YOUMANS (1898-1946)
Without a song
James Weldon JOHNSON (1871-1938)
Lift every voice and sing
Irving GORDON
Unforgettable
Trad.
He’s got the whole world
Duke ELLINGTON (1899-1974)
Come Sunday
Charles CHAPLIN (1889-1977)
Smile
Manning SHERWIN (1940-2000)
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square
George GERSHWIN (1899-1937)
Love is here to stay
Richard RODGERS (1902-1979)
Where or when
Kurt WEILL (1900-1950)
September Song
Lowell MASON (1792-1872)
The Lord’s Prayer

Kevin Maynor, bass
Eric Olsen, piano
Recording date/venue not given
GUILD GMCD 7247 [56:44]

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Kevin Maynor has a magnificent bass voice, and Eric Olsen accompanies in the good humoured, patient way that all accompanists have to have if they are to survive with their sanity and self-respect intact. However the fact is that this is an awful CD. The programme consists of twenty-one – twenty-one! – slow, mostly hymn-like numbers, sung in a uniformly straight-laced, insensitive way, with about as much flexibility of phrasing as an iron girder. The patriotic songs near the start are bad enough, but when Mr.Maynor moves into the lighter repertoire, we really are in trouble. Try as his accompanist may, the singer seems to have just one tempo, one style, one tone of voice for everything. The intimacy of Weill’s September Song is blown clean out of the water, while Unforgettable suggests that the lover in question is employing a sort of foghorn diplomacy to woo his girl. The Lord’s Prayer, with its sturdy melody and powerful climax was the only track I came close to enjoying – but then again, it is the last one on the disc…..

Gwyn Parry-Jones

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