STEVE TYRELL - I'LL TAKE ROMANCE

Often cited as the world’s true “romance crooner” and proponent of all things love, legendary jazz balladeer Steve Tyrell will release his new collection, I’ll Take Romance on February 7, 2012. His Concord Records debut, I'll Take Romance, features 12 tracks with Tyrell, backed by his band along with a String Orchestra. The release of I’ll Take Romance will be accompanied by dates across the country, including his annual seven week run at New York City’s legendary Café Carlyle, where he replaced Manhattan icon Bobby Short seven years ago. I’ll Take Romance is his ninth album release, and according to Tyrell “most of my albums have been collections of love songs. But I haven’t done a studio album of just romantic standards since Songs of Sinatra in 2005. I realize that my music is now played at countless weddings, engagement dinners and anniversaries, and it occurred to me that nobody ever created an entire album for people getting engaged and married. Inspired by Chelsea Clinton’s choice of his version of “The Way You Look Tonight” for the first dance at her wedding (as told to Tyrell at last year’s Café Carlyle engagement by proud Papa Bill Clinton), Tyrell then decided that his next studio recording should be an album consisting purely of romantic standards – an homage to The Great American Songbook with tracks culled from several genres expressing the theme of romance.

Featuring such gems as “That’s All,” “Taking a Chance On Love,” “All of You,” and the title track, Tyrell also covers a host of R&B classics, including the Etta James hits “At Last” and “Trust In Me,” Sam Cooke’s “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons;” and Little Willie John’s “Talk to Me.” In addition, Tyrell included a couple of songs that much of his audience would be discovering for the first time. During the 1960s, when he was a player in pop’s celebrated “Brill Building Sound,” Tyrell became close friends, and subsequently partners, with the hit songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. From the vast Mann-Weill catalog, he has selected the relatively obscure gem “Your Turn Me Around.” Written in the early 1970s (and originally recorded by Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers), says Tyrell, “It’s a real find! It’s a song I’ve known for a long time, and always wanted to do.” Also included by Mann and Weil is “Don’t Know Much,” a Grammy-winning song that he produced with Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville. Of newer vintage is David Foster and Linda Thompson’s “A Love That Will Last.”

I’ll Take Romance features nearly 20 difference accompanists, including four pianists, four bassists, and four drummers in various combinations. The reason, he says, is that “I’m always recording. When I get an idea, I record it. It’s like a painter who has a studio with all sorts of canvases in various stages of development. Most of these tracks were newly recorded for the album, but others I’ve been working on for years. That’s why you’ll hear the late great drummer Johnny Guerin (who dies in 2004) playing on ‘That’s All’ and ‘You Turn Me Around.’” Additionally, I’ll Take Romance showcased several stellar soloists, including five-time Grammy-winning Randy Brecker, saxophonist David Mann (who also plays flute on “Talk to Me” and “All of You”). Legendary Sinatra and Nat King Cole saxophonist Plas Johnson and harmonicist Will Galison. Another special guest is vocalist Judith Hill, Tyrell’s duet partner on the album’s title track. Tyrell first encountered Hill when he was producing Rod Stewart’s Soulbook (released 2009). “She was singing backup on the Stewart album,” he says, “and I fell in love with her voice, so I asked her to sing on my records. At the time, she was about to go out on tour with Michael Jackson. She was going to sing all the duets with him – you can see her in the film This Is It. He was going to introduce her to the world, She’s an incredibly talented, beautiful girl, and is going to be a big star.”

As for his recently forged relationship with Concord, Tyrell says he is “thrilled” about joining the label. “I’ve been a big fan of John Burke (Concord’s Executive VP and head of A&R) for a long time. As I stated earlier, Ray Charles is my favorite artist of all time, and John produced Ray’s final studio album (2004’s Genius Loves Company) that won a Grammy for Album of the Year. John was the one who signed me, and he’s helped a tremendous amount with this album. He is somebody I really admire.