Issue
#99
Oct.
'07
Four years ago, Meredith
DiMenna and Keith
Saunders,
recording as The
Saucers (along with Craig Sala),
released Eternal
Intermission, a CD that was described by this
reviewer as having
sensual
rhythms, alluring vocals, and erotic production. Within that review, I
also
stated this about the closing track “Something
Stop
Me:” “It drops us down
inside an ultra funk cabaret club where everyone is dressed to the
nines. We’re
seated at round tables draped in white linen, while on stage a lone
spotlight
focuses on the torch singer whose voice illuminates the room.”
The Saucers are now Saint Bernadette,
add Jar-E, Joe
Novelli, and Brandy
Ruelas, place them in the abandoned Bijou Ballroom
in Bridgeport, CT
for 3 days, roll the tape, and let the
past meet the future. The resulting 11 tracks will seduce your soul
with a pure
Cabaret/Lounge/Club sound that completely wraps Meredith’s
sultry, sexy vocals
in a velvet crush of instrumentation, which allows the smoldering,
silky smooth
voice to wrap back around the music in a sensuously fused tango.
By
continuing Saint
Bernadette from where they left off as The Saucers, Meredith and Keith have escalated
and evolved their sound
and
vision to a point that reflects exactly where they want to be.
It’s no coincidence
that their record company is named Exotic
Recordings, because this is
what they
thrive on, call it Cotton Comes to Bridgeport
or the Apollo East. Listen to the ghosts of Billie Holiday and Jim
Morrison in
the vocals and spot the silhouettes of not only Tommy & Jimmy
Dorsey, but
of The Doors and Cheap Trick, Herb Alpert and Santana holding court as
the
mystic wisdom of Kerouac and the beat poets bleed over and through the
Swing of
New Orleans and Chicago Jazz roots.
In The Ballroom is
a complete, revamped, modernized, 21st
century work of everything that preceded the past 5 decades of rock,
and makes
one of the purest rock records of this era, which in turn can be placed
back
among the eras and not only hold it’s own within each
previous musical segment
of time, but add to, complement, and actually one up each and every one
of
them.
Call it Provoc
Rock, as in Provocative. Call it torch,
lounge, cabaret. Call it sexy, sensual, sultry. Call it hot,
smoldering, alluring.
It’s Big Band, it’s Jazz, it’s Latin,
Blues, Rock, and Swing.
It’s In The
Ballroom, and we are seduced by the vocals and moved by
the sound. All
of which
carries this live recording and allows us to not only appreciate the
professional mix, mastering, and production, but also understand that
this work
of art could not have been presented as powerfully if it had been
recorded in a
standard studio environment. Give credit to Meredith and Keith, as well
as the
entire Saint Bernadette
line up, for the sanctity of their passion and
vision,
for the purity and cohesion of the sound, and for their belief and
wisdom of
the music that stirs their souls and blesses their hearts.
If
you want
rapture, if you want to be enraptured, then
enter the cathedral of Saint
Bernadette. There we are seated at round
tables
draped in white linen, while on stage, a lone spotlight focuses on the
torch
singer whose voice illuminates the room and the soft lights cast a glow
on the
small, big band whose sound can be as sweet and lofty as heaven and as
down and
dirty as hell.
Saint Bernadette - In The
Ballroom
is available now for: $10.98 +s/h*
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