Music Review: Vanessa Williams: The Real Thing

This album is presented as rhythm and blues.  I feel it is jazz.  SO I am left with a wonderment as to what is the difference between the two genres. 

At any rate, Vanessa Williams has a very elegant picture on the cover, and the music is just that, very elegant.  However, most of the songs are long and drawn out.  There were a couple songs I liked more than others, mostly because they had more character and energy.   “Loving You” uses a swear word and faster tempo to give it some emotion, and it works.  “Come on Strong” uses a bass riff at the fist which sets the mood for the entire song, and this is my favorite.  “Close to You” has a very nice lyric.  This song also has a section in Spanish talking about how many tear, which I like.  “October Sky” is a duet with Javier Colon which is also very nice.  However most of the songs are forgettable tunes with a strong jazz flavor.  If you love Vanessa Williams, or enjoy this type of music then this is a good CD.  However for me, it gets old fast.

Movie Reviews: Musicals: ***Bye Bye Birdie (1995)

Bye Bye Birdie (1995) this is not the original version, but a newer made for t.v. version of the Tony award winning musical.  My only response is that I missed Dick Van Dyck.  Jason Alexander stars as Albert and Vanessa Williams as Rosie.  Williams plays the bar scene too hot and steamy for me.  However Marc Kudisch was excellent as Conrad Birdie.  Tyne Daly does excellent as the over protective mother, who refuses to let her son go, destroying her son's happiness, and her own as well.  Vanessa Williams has a beautiful voice, but her dancing was too risque for my tastes.

Music Reviews: Donny Osmond ****"This is the Moment"

"This is the Moment" is an album of Donny Osmond singing songs from musicals.  Because he is putting them in the context of pop music rather than in the musical setting, they at times lack the emotion that goes with the song.  A couple cases in point would be "This is the Moment" the title song.  It just doesn't have the same flavor as when Dr Jekyll is considering consuming the substance he has created to test it.  Also his version of "Anythng's Possible" lacks the dancing fish the version of Caleb on You Tube from when he was in Suessical.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da1l8CSeEAA
However his other song from Seussical, "Solla Sollew" is very well done.  Listening to Donny Osmond and Vanessa Williams sing, "Not While I'm Around" is just beautiful.  He ventures out of the musical realm and sings "You've Got a Friend in Me" From Toy Story.  He also provides some musical theater history singing George M. Cohan's "Give my Regards to Broadway."