Music Review: The Easiest Of Easy Listening Is Bob Levy's Music On BOB LEVY, EVER SINCE WE MET - THE DANE VANNATTER RECORDINGS

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from jazz composer Bob Levy, who recently released a collection of his songs as sung by silky crooner, Dane Vannatter titled Bob Levy, EVER SINCE WE MET-THE DANE VANNATTER RECORDINGS. Not being too familiar with Mr. Levy’s work, when we dove in, on our first listen to his collection, Little Bobby felt himself being transported back in time. The feeling, song after song, was that of yesteryear, the post-Big-Band-Era era, where ultra-smooth crooners like Dean Martin flourished. The gentle jazz bounce of the opening cut, WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE, is reminiscent of something Mel Tormé would have sung, and he might well have, were the song not a more modern composition than Mel’s lifespan. Each song in this new collection is an original by Bob Levy that he has entrusted to the gold tones of Dane Vannatter, and his trust is not betrayed. Mr. V’s gifts with a song are that of a jazz master. His vocals are smooth, and almost delicate at times, and at all times intimate.  Mr. Levy’s songs are of today but rooted in the past, and are some of the easiest easy listening that we’ve done in a while. The second cut EVER SINCE WE MET is, indeed, that classic jazz crooning of the Mel Tormé sort. Vannatter is velvety and smooth and seems to not be working at all, and yet the effort is in making the sound so soft and creamy. The jazz improv in piano carries the character of the composition and the performance. Each of these songs follows the pattern of croon a bit, improv a bit, back to croon, and a soft landing at the end. 

CRAZY DOG is THE moment of the first half of the record (there are 19 cuts total) with its more bluesy, smoky nightclub feel. This is a cool tune about a troublesome dog (Spot) that thinks he’s a cat sometimes and chases his owner’s life out of the door, until the day he sadly disappeared and his Human mourned until he was discovered under his big chair… just to be mean. Here is a send-up of the blues, a sort of winking at the form while combining jazz minor chords with its very clever lyrics. All of Levy’s lyrics are good poetry and Vannatter knows how to relish them in just the right way, song to song. WILL IT EVER BE SPRING is the song that speaks the most to the dedicated New Yorker, a cool Levy tune that gives his crooner a nice range to sing in. The lyrics are solid, if a bit cutesy, as a typical New Yorker/North Easterner complains about the winter’s snow. OUT IN THE COLD is the final number and would have had a fine lead-in with WILL IT EVER BE SPRING, but between them is the tepid SOONER THAN SUNDAY, a cut that Bobby would have cut from the album if asked… but we weren’t. With OUT IN THE COLD, though, what one has is a solid looking for love song. This is the most emotional piece, both in music and performance. The Piano challenges us and Dane’s voice fills with longing. One would want it to go on, but the lyrics fail them this time and become repetitive and a bit pointless.

In all, dear rainbow readers, this album is something for your easy-listening moods. Its sounds are old-fashioned ones, where jazz mixes in some blues and sings mostly softly in your ear. While the songs are original to Bob Levy and he is a fine songwriter, his work here feels like a pastiche, an old-fashioned piano bar where the player is instructed to keep it down so people at the tables can talk and drink without disturbance. Is it nice music? You bet it is, but that’s all it is, nice, and so Bobby gives Bob Levy, EVER SINCE WE MET-THE DANE VANNATTER RECORDINGS

3 Out Of 5 Rainbows - it’s worth a listen.

Check This One Out On AMAZON: HERE

Or Stream It On Your Spotifies: HERE

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