Joni Mitchell : Arrangements for Treble Voices

"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." Joni Mitchell's hit song "Big Yellow Taxi" from 1970 gets a fresh, hip treatment in this cool Greg Gilpin arrangement. "The Circle Game" - Originally created for Vancouver's Elektra, this concert arrangement features a soloist as it weaves the melody through every section in the ensemble. Multiple key changes add to the musicality of this delightful setting of a Joni Mitchell favorite. "Both Sides Now" - Recorded and performed by more than fifty artists in the fifty-plus years since its initial release, this Joni Mitchell song has become an enduring meditation on the shifting perspective that comes with time. The melody passes generously from part to part across a shimmering palette of choral harmonies. John Leavitt provides a piano accompaniment that adds texture and color while fully supporting the voices.

Songlist: Big Yellow Taxi, The Circle Game, Both Sides Now

This collection features 100 songs arranged for piano, voice and guitar from 100 iconic female artists. Artists showcased include Adele, Pat Benatar, Beyoncé, Karen Carpenter, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Janis Joplin, Carole King, Lorde, Madonna, Idina Menzel, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Taylor Swift, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Amy Winehouse, and many others.

Songlist: Midnight Blue, Linger, Beautiful, Last Dance, Landslide, Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Time After Time, Love Song, You're No Good, You Oughta Know, Stay, I Will Remember You, All I Wanna Do, Wannabe, You Were Meant For Me, This Woman's Work, Lady Marmalade, Kind & Generous, You're Still The One, Doo Wop (That Thing), Come Away With Me, Cowboy Take Me Away, When You're Gone, Let It Go, Respect, I'm The Only One, Chuck E's In Love, That's What Friends Are For, As Tears Go By, Ain't Nobody, and more

This huge songbook (672 pages!) features 151 standards that every musician should know! Each song is arranged for piano and voice with guitar chord frames. Songs include: All the Things You Are - At Last - Bridge over Troubled Water - City of Stars - Constant Craving - Crazy - Gabriel's Oboe - Hallelujah - Imagine - La Vie En Rose (Take Me to Your Heart Again) - My Heart Will Go on (Love Theme from 'Titanic') - Over the Rainbow - Perfect - River Flows in You - Shallow - Somewhere - Summertime - This Is Me - Time After Time - Wonderful Tonight - You Raise Me Up - and more. Listen to a Spotify playlist of all the songs from this book!

Songlist: Easy Living, Open Arms, Crazy, Good Night, Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Believe, Beautiful In My Eyes, You Belong To Me, Beauty And The Beast, The Colour Of My Love, At Last, Gabriel's Oboe, The Rose, Time After Time, Sway, Faithfully, If, Perfect, Hello, All I Ask Of You, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Change The World, Someone Like You, All Of Me, The Tracks Of My Tears, Ooo Baby Baby, Best Of My Love, All The Things You Are, All The Way, Somewhere, and more

Cadence : Speak Easy   

Ross, Aaron, Kurt and Carl, "Like four thieves who've been stealing the show for years", (Toronto Star) Cadence has played to sold-out concert halls and toured jazz festivals worldwide, sharing the stage with artists like Bobby McFerrin, Quincy Jones and Gordon Lightfoot. Both of their Juno-nominated albums have garnered wide critical acclaim, including CARAs for Best Jazz Song, Best Original Composition and Best Rock/Pop Album, and their 2005 release "Twenty for One" was nominated for the Best Vocal Jazz Album Juno Award alongside such established musical mainstays as Diana Krall and Paul Anka. A cool rat pack of musical misfits, Cadence thrills their audiences with infectious energy, wild stage antics, and by pushing a cappella music to amazing new heights! "Speak Easy" is a mellow, sublime collection of 12 innovatively arranged gems: classics like Cole Porter's "It's All Right with Me," Jimmy Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," and a bluenote/scattish take on Lerner & Loewe's "On the Street Where You Live," from "My Fair Lady." Then there are two sweet originals by group member Aaron Jensen, "Good Love" and "High and Drysville," smoky and hip with some killer faux horns, that you'll swear were written for a black & white Noir detective movie in the late 1940s. Several of our favorites are reinvented pop songs, such as Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" and Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," all perfectly arranged-and the foursome's "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" is simply big, silly fun. The bottom line is, we love "Speak Easy" and, well, everything else we've heard by Cadence, and we're betting that you will too!

Songlist: It's Alright With Me, Black Cars, Good Love, Ain't That A Kick In The Head, Both Sides Now, High and Drysville, On The Street Where You Live, Harvest Moon, Just A Gigalo / I Ain't Got Nobody, Bijou, The Tramps, Still Crazy After All These Years

The Idea of North : Extraordinary Tale   

"Extraordinary Tale" is a marvelously packaged CD that underscores why we love CDs over downloaded mp3s or such. The jewel case folds out to 6 panels, which are all decorated with moody, lowbrow children's book illustrations of mechanical birds, patchwork metal whales, and the group as children in a red-striped boat on a curly-cued sea. Inside a slot is a folded treasure map, where we see an old victrola, spouting fishes, the mechanical birds are singing, and the whale spouts a microphone-a metaphor on the group's experience as the top a cappella group in Australia, perhaps? The different islands on the map have the names of the 13 songs on them, plus the running times. On the flipside of that are the names of the singers, Sally, Naomi, Nick and Andrew, plus the welcome disclaimer: "This is an a cappella recording. All the sounds on this album were produced by the voices and/or bodies of the ION." For those not familiar with mixed Vocal Jazz quartet ION, they blew in from Down Under and won the 2003 Harmony Sweeps, and we joined everyone in the sold-out audience in becoming their fans for life. Our favorites among the 13 cuts? Their bluesy, scattish take on Chick Corea's "Armando's Rhumba," an understated, deliciously melodic, jazzy hit on the Swing tune "Don't Wait Too Long," a heartbreakingly fine soprano lead and background harmonics on Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," Sting's "La Belle Dame Sans Regrets" riffs into an unbelievable lovely scat tapestry; Lennon and McCartney's "In My Life" fits perfectly into the poignant mood. Group member Andrew Piper gives us a rare, wonderful original, "One Minute More," Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean A Thing" has a vocal muted trumpet and a vocal percussion solo that you should hear; Ray Charles' "Hallelujah I Love Her So," Stevie Wonder's "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer," Sinead O'Connor's "In This Heart," Aretha Franklin's "Since You've Been Gone" and Peter Allen's "I Still Call Australia Home" are all amazing but this review has gotten absurdly long. Treat yourself to "Extraordinary Tale," and thank us later!

Songlist: Armando's Rhumba, Don't Wait Too Long, Both Sides Now, La Belle Dame Sans Regret, In My Life, One Minute More, It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), Hallelujah I Love Her So, Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer, Give Me The Simple Life, In This Heart, Since You've Been Gone, I Still Call Australia Home

Both Sides Now is Naturally 7's seventh studio-album. It represents a further remarkable development for the renowned vocal-group from NYC. Some of their previous biggest successes were notable interpretations of global hits from Phil Collins' "Feel It (In The Air Tonight)"; Coldplay's epic "Fix You" to their self-penned "Wall Of Sound". All of which they performed during three world tours with Michael Buble in 467 shows to over 4 million people in 25 countries. Both Sides Now is driven by wonderfully rich and warm harmonies in stellar vocal arrangements combined with Naturally 7's unique talents to perform a variety of instruments simply using their voices. The album contains of classics spanning over a century: from Anton Dvorak "Going Home", England's most patriotic Hymn "Jerusalem" to Roberta Flack's "The First Time, Ever I Saw Your Face", Sting's "Shape Of My Heart" featuring A Cappella-Youtube-sensation Peter Hollens, Paul McCartney's "Pipes Of Peace", the title-track: Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" all the way to a very special version of Adele's "Hello" feat. German megastar Helene Fischer, as well as the group's original song, which always closes their live-show: "Caught In The Moment" featuring Naturally 7 fan Pentatonix' Kevin Olusola on cello. Kevin's excitement to work with the band comes as no surprise, as many admire the seven as the modern "Godfathers" of the vocal genre.

Songlist: Jerusalem, Shape of My Heart, (I Need) Air, Going Home, Prince Igor, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Both Sides Now, Hello, Caught in the Moment, Pipes of Peace, Bridge Over Troubled Water

The Singers Unlimited : The Complete A Cappella Sessions   

It doesn't get any better than this! After years of being available only on the box set here is a 2 CD release of all 33 a cappella recordings (not including Christmas) of quite probably the best vocal jazz group ever. The arrangements of Gene Puerling are simply exquisite and his ability to transform a song to completely new heights is astounding. We carry many thousands of a cappella CDs and this release is, in our opinion, the most essential CD for the collection of any serious fan of a cappella music!

Songlist: Both Sides Now, London By Night, Here, There And Everywhere, Lullabye, Michelle, The Fool On The Hill, Emily, Since You Asked, More I Cannot Wish You, Try To Remember, Clair, Killing Me Softly with His Song, Yesterday, My Romance, Lost In The Stars, April In Paris, Girl Talk, Nature Boy, I Don't Know Where I Stand, Autumn In New York, Like Someone In Love, Indian Summer, Anything Goes, The Way We Were, One More Time Chuck Corea, Sweet Lorraine, Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair, Someone To Light Up My Life, Love Is Here To Stay, The Entertainer, and more

The Swingle Singers : Ferris Wheels   

The Swingles, the mixed-voice world-class, multiple Grammy-winning, legendary a cappella octet from London and one of our favorite Vocal Jazz groups of all time, originally broke into the Jazz scene of 1963 because of Ward Swingle's innovation. He handed his group of session singers charts for an instrumental, Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier," which led to their double Grammy hit album "Bach's Greatest Hits." There is this kind of innovation and artistry on "Ferris Wheels," which comes from the Joni Mitchell hit "Both Sides Now" ("Moons and Junes and Ferris Wheels, the dizzy, dancing way you feel"), the second of 12 wonderfully crafted songs on the album. The ethereal "Unravel," James Taylor's lazy-day, bluesy "On the 4th of July," the exquisite French adaption of the theme from "Summer of '42," "L'Ete 42," Nick Drake's stunning bluenote "River Man," Sting's powerful, waltzlike "Until," and a symphonic arrangement of Lennon/McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" by group member Kevin Fox (who also sings lead on it). David Freeman and Joseph Hughs' "No More I Love Yous," Stevie Wonder's "Summer Soft," Billy Joel's "Goodnight My Angel" and Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" are all beautifully arranged and performed. "Ferris Wheels" is a masterpiece by the Swingles that touches and satisfies on many levels. One of the best Jazz/Pop albums of the year and highly recommended!

Songlist: Unravel, Both Sides Now, On the 4th of July, L'ete 42, River Man, Until (A Matter of Moments), Elanor Rigby, No More "I Love You's", Flying High/ Wake Me Up When September Ends, Summer Soft, Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel), God Only Knows

Syncopation : Wonderful You   

Mixed Vocal Jazz quartet Syncopation represented Boston well at the recent Harmony Sweeps Finals in San Rafael, CA, winning a strong ovation from the sellout crowd for songs like the sweet, soaring "High and Dry," which is here on "Wonderful You." There are 9 songs here, our favorites are the a cappella songs, Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" and the aforementioned "High and Dry." Of the others, "Invisible War," lightly piano-accompanied, is very nice, as are the more heavily accompanied songs "Breakout," "I Can Fly," the title tune (from The Big Chill), Lennon/McCartney's "Broken Wings" the Motown tune "Betcha By Golly, Wow" and "Getaway." Beautiful leads, harmonies and arrangements, but let us once again make it clear that "Wonderful You" is mostly an accompanied album.

Songlist: Breakout, I Can Fly, Wonderful You (Big Chill), High and Dry, Invisible War, Broken Wings, Betcha By Golly, Wow, Getaway, Both Sides Now

St. Paul, MN-based 3-woman, 2-man jazz quintet Voice Trek has a rich, clean, poised sound, and arrangements that can turn very familiar tunes like the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride," Dave Brubeck's jazz anthem "Take Five," Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" and Michel LeGrand's "Windmills of Your Mind" and turn them into new songs, unexpectedly tasty musical treats. There's a spirited, sassy cover of Rossini's "William Tell Overture" that would have the Swingles looking over their shoulders, Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon" becomes a (lightly accompanied) scattish, salsa romp, and Toto's "Rosanna" is a finger-snapping winner, as is Brazilian composer Manfredo Fest's energetic "That's What She Says." A bonus track, "America the Beautiful," was included "after the tremendous response from the a cappella community when they performed it at the West Coast Summit!" 11 songs, each a many-faceted gem. "An A cappella Trek," Voice Trek's 5th recording, is a joy from beginning to end, one of the best Vocal Jazz CDs we've heard this year!

Songlist: That's What She Says, Ticket To Ride, Take Five, Both Sides Now, The William Tell Overture, A Little Luck, Fly Me to the Moon, The Windmills of Your Mind, Rosanna, America, The Beautiful

Founder of legendary Boston-based Vocal Jazz group Vox One, Yumiko has always been one of our favorite vocalists and arrangers. She has two excellent collections of arrangements in the PAC catalog, "Collection Vol. 1" and "Collection Vol. 2." The Anthology "To Every Thing" is her first solo album, and it includes a piece Yumiko wrote for acoustic guitar for some friends' wedding, "Tsubasa," her arrangement of Billy Joel's "And So It Goes," performed by the Western Wind with Yumiko, and her marvelous arrangements of the English Traditional tunes "Scarborough Fair," "Black is the Color" and the title tune, performed by Boston Jazz Voices. The Western Wind also shines on Yumiko's arrangements of Lionel Bart's "Where Is Love" and Lennon/McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby." Yumiko's classically accompanied arrangement of Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind," her lovely arrangement of Joanie Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," performed by Syncopation; and the Scottish Traditional "Skye Boat Song," performed by Yumiko with the women of the Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, are all favorites. "To Every Thing" is a remarkable collection, highlighting the tremendous vocal, arranging and composing talents of Vocal Jazz master Yumiko!

Songlist: Tsubasa (wings), And So It Goes, Scarborough Fair, Brett, Where Is Love?, Black Is The Colour, Blowin' In The Wind, Eleanor Rigby, To Every Thing There Is A Season, Georgia On My Mind, Both Sides Now, Skye Boat Song