Home Is Where The Heart Is
ENRICO PIERANUNZI With Tina May & Tony Coe
Featured Artists
Tina May vocals
Enrico Pieranunzi piano
Tony Coe soprano saxophone on tracks 3 & 7
Recorded
Nov, 2014
Release date
July 10, 2015
Duration
00:40:54
Record Label
33 Jazz
Album Tracks
1 - Don't Forget the Poet, Please - 4:20
2 - A Nameless Gate - 4:53
3 - The Night Bird - 4:57
4 - With Every Smile of Yours (O! Le Feu Dans Les Yeux) - 2:45
5 - Within the Hush of Night (within the House of Night) - 4:43
6 - I Took Your Hand in Mine (Fellini's Waltz) - 4:07
7 - Day Dream - 7:06
8 - Home Is Where the Heart Is (Distance from Departure) - 5:32
9 - This Is New - 2:00
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About Home Is Where The Heart Is (2015)
Tina's long association with '33' continues with this long awaited collaboration between Tina and one of Europe's greatest pianists, the incomparable Enrico Pieranunzi.
The album features several well-known Pieranunzi compositions that are given lyrics by Tina – including to Chet Baker's original solo on Pieranunzi's 'Night Bird', that the pianist recorded with Baker in the 1970's.
On two numbers, 'Night Bird' and Ellington's 'Day Dream', the Duo are joined by the wonderful Tony Coe on soprano saxophone.
"'Home Is Where The Heart Is' plays with the concept of mother tongue…..it ventures out into new territory and experience. So precise is the writing and so intuitive the performance that every song finds its way home, in the deepest way." Brian Morton
Enrico Pieranunzi (left), Tina May (centre) and the bonus of a rare appearance by jazz saxophonist, Tony Coe (right). Photograph: Justin Doherty/PR
Tina May & Enrico Pieranunzi On tour
Enrico Pieranunzi, the Italian pianist who accompanied Chet Baker in the 1970s and 80s, is an underrated giant of European jazz. He’s an uncannily sensitive foil for vocalist as well as a gifted improviser and composer, and this tour pairs him with a fittingly accomplished British partner in the multilingual Tina May, with whom he recorded the album Home Is Where The Heart Is in 2015. It’ll be deceptively low-lit music, but with a hot creative core.
7/10/2016 John Fordham
Tina May / Enrico Pieranunzi & Tony Coe - Home Is Where The Heart Is
Singers who care for a piece of music so much they want to own it may be tempted to write a lyric. A raft of examples where the tune would be better off without the words confirm this is a high risk strategy. But the always resourceful Tina May brings it off brilliantly here. And what pieces they are. She offers five songs by the quietly virtuosic Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, who joins her at the keyboard, and each offers a perfect blend of words and feeling.
Don’t forget the Poet is a beautifully simple tune that the words shift toward a rueful meditation. The Night Bird revisits Chet Baker’s solo on a classic recording of Pieranunzi’s tune and shows off bebop chops to rival Sheila Jordan. Have a tune that seems to suit a French lyric? No problem. May has that covered as well with the irresistable Le Feu dans tes Yeux. I swear she scats in French here too. It’s just one example of her ability to vary her delivery – now crystal clear, now ever so slightly smoky – to suit the occasion. Add one song with Pieranunzi's own lyric, one by Ellington/Strayhorn and a Weill/Gershwin number and this is pretty much a perfect programme.
Pieranunzi switches between embroidering the themes with a composer's authority and offering pellucid solos that offset the vocals perfectly. Two tracks featuring the dazzling soprano sax of Tony Coe - who worked so effectively with May ten years ago on More than You Know - might leave one wanting more. But the unadorned vocal-piano pairing sounds so good they sit well as icing on the cake. This is an unexpected meeting of great artists that adds lustre to two discographies that are already deeply accomplished and wide-ranging: a collaborative triumph.
20/07/2015 londonjazznews.comJon Turney
Tina May and Enrico Pieranunzi: Home Is Where the Heart Is
There’s so much to absorb in these nine pieces that, after two concentrated listenings, I’m sure there’s a lot more to take in. Enrico Pieranunzi, pianist and composer (and former professor of music), is one of Europe’s leading jazz stars, while the extravagantly gifted jazz vocalist Tina May should need no introduction. She has written lyrics that match his rangy melodies so well they now belong together. One song has words in both English and French, another contains a lyric added to a Chet Baker solo, a tricky form known as vocalese. Inventive and elegant, the whole collection is quite captivating. There is even the bonus of a rare appearance by the great saxophonist Tony Coe on two tracks.
12/07/2015 The Guardiuan Dave Gelly
TINA MAY MEETS ENRICO PIERANUNZI - Home Is Where The Heart Is
Coming hot on the heels of two albums for Hep Jazz, Diva and My Kinda Love, with a larger ensemble, this most welcome of releases finds the Tina back at 33 Records where she began her solo recording career and in a paired down setting in which she excels so well. She has often recorded and performed in a trio or duo setting, with several notable albums with Nikki Iles under her belt, but this new album with Italian pianist, Enric Pieranunzi is perhaps her boldest yet.
May's instinct for the right song is often unfailing, and when she plunders the Great American songbook she will often come up with some unexpected and lesser heard gems, but with the exception of 'Day Dream' by Duke and Billy Strayhorn and 'This Is New' from the pen of Weill and Gershwin, all the other music is written by Pieranunzi with Tina adding lyrics to five of the compositions. If as a result of this selection in repertoire much of the music is new to many listeners, May and Pieranunzi deliver these songs in such a way, that despite the intimacy of the setting and in many cases the lyric, there is a feeling of comfort and familiarity as if the two musicians are inviting you into their world and sharing their deepest thoughts and feelings. This brings a warmth to proceedings that enhances the experience and allows these beautiful songs to unfurl and tell their story in their own unhurried manner.
Of the original material with Tina's lyrics, the most poignant is the delicately haunting melody of 'Within The Hush Of The Night (Within The House Of The Night) with the pianist's touch at the Keyboard supporting the meaning and beauty of May's words, and linger long in the memory. Equally fine is the title track, 'Home Is Where The Heart Is' which is based on the original composition of Pieranunzi's 'Distance From Departure'.
Elsewhere we are treated to 'The Night Bird (Nightbird)' written by Enrico and performed by his Space Jam Trio that accompanied Chet Baker during the trumpeter's spell in Europe in the late 70's, and includes a superb vocal from May where she has added lyrics not just to Pieranunzi's composition but also the to Baker's trumpet solo and which she negotiates with great skill and control.
As if a fine album with seven original tunes, two great standards impeccably interpreted by two maestros is not sufficient , we are also presented with another maestro with the presence of the wonderful Tony Coe who is featured on soprano saxophone on two tracks. On the above mentioned 'The Night Bird' he certainly ruffles some feathers with some fearsome playing that enhances the anticipation prior to May's entry,and then shadowing and echoing the singer in a duet improvisation to climax the piece. The more delicate side of Coe is heard on the tender reading of 'Day Dream' in which saxophone, vocal, and piano dovetail beautifully.
This not just another fine album to add to your collection from Tina May's burgeoning discography, but perhaps her best album to date and essential listening from one of the UK's national treasures.
11/2014 Jazz Views Nick Lea