In 2010 MJ independently released her first CD, ‘Down With Love’. The inspiration for it came one day while she was thumbing through some songbooks looking for fresh material. “Why are all the songs about love? There really is more to life!” she wondered. The idea behind her new album, released in August, came about when he was working on songs for her live performances. After a while she realized that there were many female songwriters and arrangers among the material she was looking at, so decided to release an album where not only were all the songs by women, but all the music was played by women as well. So, the band she put together was comprised of Linda Presgrave on piano, Iris Ornig, bass, and Barbara Merjan on drums. To supplement the main ensemble, she added Andrea Brachfeld on flute, Virginia Mayhew, tenor saxophone, and Brandee Younger on harp.
One of the songs is her own, but the rest of the material are taken from throughout the spectrum, from Peggy Lee (“Everything Is Moving Too Fast”, co-written by Peggy with Dave Barbour) through to Iola Brubeck (who co-wrote “No Time For Snoozin’” with her husband Dave Brubeck). I understand the rationale behind the album, but in some ways it demeans the end result, as I personally don’t think of genre as being important in music, so my initial reaction is “why?”. I do hope that people don’t either rate or disregard the album in the way it has been put together, as the music and performances demand far more than that. The musical base behind MJ is wonderful, with Linda, in particular, having an incredible touch which greatly impacts the overall sound, while MJ is at home being delicate and breathy as she is letting her voice take over and providing some scat vocals. She is in total control, and the result is something that is incredibly enjoyable, and feels honest and never contrived. For more details on this, other releases and gigs, visit www.mjterrito.com
