University of Virginia Library

RECORDS

Bright Future For The Sundown Lady

By PARKES BRITTAIN

Getting to know a sundown
lady is a delightful experience,
especially when the lady is
Lan Hall On her first solo
album. Sun Down Lady, she
exhibits the same vocal
competence as in her late
six-year engagement with Brazil
77 66).

The most impressive quality
of her music is her near perfect
ph and voice control There
is no musical accompaniment
at all on the last track of the
um "Wherever I May Find
Him." based on Paul Simon's
"For Emily." Unblemished by
other instrumentation her
voice convincingly conveys the
mood of the song in stark
simplicity.

Miss Hall is also
accomplished in the
Streisand-dominated vocal area
of breath control. She uses her
voice to pay strict attention to
what the words are saying, so
that the listener hears phrases,
clauses and meanings rather
than series of unconnected and
vocally unrelated words

She is deliberately
considerate to enunciate each
word in her delivery, allowing
the song to take on a kind of
purity. Her voice is clear as
well–it is refreshing to hear an
artist sing a song as it is
written, not trying to add
personal variations for
dramatic effect.

If there is any carry-over
from her experience with
Sergio Mendes, it is realized
most clearly in the
instrumental arrangements.
Each note is weighed and
polished as a syllable in a
poem. In "Come Down In
Time" (Elton John, Bernie
Taupin), piano and guitar
exchange single notes during
the break to create an
imaginative contrast with the
rest of the song.

In Don McLean's
"Vincent," the primary
instrument is guitar, played in
traditional cassa-nova picking
style. Besides light background
percussion, there is little to
disturb the slow unveiling of
the "starry, starry night."

Sun Down Lady does not
rely on this technique.
however In "Tiny Dancer"
(John, Taupin), the piano
controls a fast-moving,
half-beat percussion section,
and the rhythm of Miss Hall's
voice is characteristic of her
stint with Brazil '77

As a songwriter. Miss Hall
lacks depth. The lyrics of her
"You" seem trite and
contrived in comparison with
the rest of the selections on the
album The song is saved,
however, by Herb Alpert's
ingenious arrangement, and it
does not detract from the
record's over-all quality

Alpert is essential to the
success of the album Besides
the arrangements, he produced
and engineered the recording,
sang uncredited background
vocals on two tracks, and
joined Miss Hall in adding
lyrics to Will Ramsey's "Sun
Down." As if that was not
enough, he also snapped two
photographs for the album
cover

So with a lot of help from

her friends. Lani Hall has
released a truly excellent
album. And it you find it hard
to believe as the back cover
promotional paragraph states,
that "It expresses Lani as an
individual. It captures her
poetic simplicity," you may at
least appreciate the exceptional
artistry of Sun Down Lady.