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Antoinette Montague Summer Performance Schedule :: Jazzmobile – Tuesday, August 3 :: Summer Breeze Concert Series – Tuesday, August 17

August 2, 2010

  To: Listings/Critics/Features
From: Jazz Promo Services
Press Contact: Jim Eigo, jazzpromo@earthlink.net
http://jazzpromoservices.com/

Antoinette Montague Summer Performance Schedule
www.antoinettemontague.com

Read the Reviews from the August issue of DOWNBEAT and JAZZIZ
of Antoinette’s latest release, "Behind the Smile" below

Buy the CD here:

J&R Music
http://www.jr.com/product/music/pm/_1281922/

Allegro Media Group
http://www.allegro-music.com/online_catalog.asp?sku_tag=IGV3212

Amazon
http://tinyurl.com/2g9qbfj

Barnes & Noble
http://tinyurl.com/2b3p6e5

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Tuesday, August 3, 2010
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Jazzmobile
Antoinette Montague Quintet
with Bill Easley, Tommy James & Payton Crossley, et. al
135th Street between 7th and 8th Ave’s.
New York, NY
Host: 135th Street Precinct

Tuesday, August 17, 2010
7:00 pm
Summer Breeze Concert Series
Antoinette Montague Quintet
City Hall Plaza
Mt. Vernon, NY

Friday, August 27, 2010
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Jazzmobile
Antoinette Montague Quintet
with Bill Easley, Tommy James & Payton Crossley , et. al
The Jackie Robinson Bandshell
149th Street, NYC

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Antoinette Montague
Behind The Smile
In the Groove Records


On her second release, New York City-based vocalist Antoinette Montague offers a selection of jazz, blues and pop standards, but kicks it off with her self-penned title track, a strong blues-oriented love ballad. And truly, the versatile singer seems comfortable in a variety of settings. Montague delivers a powerful interpretation of blues legend Big Bill Broonzy’s "Give Your Mama One Smile," and then exercises great sensitivity on bossa-arranged tunes like Billy May and Milton Raskin’s "Somewhere in the Night" and on Duke Ellington’s "23rd Psalm."

Highlights include a torchy reading of Buddy Johnson’s "Ever Since the One I Love’s Been Gone," featuring standout bass work from Peter Washington, and a swing-tempo arrangement of Marvin Gaye’s protest song "What’s Going On," punctuated by Bill Easley’s call-and-response saxophone. Montague shines on Dave Brubeck’s wistful "Summer Song," accompanied solely by pianist Mulgrew Miller, who dexterously weaves around her vocals. Miller features prominently throughout, soloing brilliantly on a swinging romp through the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II classic "The Song is You." Easley also gets in some heated licks, while drummer Kenny Washington displays great agility.

Behind the Smile provides an eclectic showcase for this talented singer, who has yet to be discovered by a wider jazz audience.

— Ernest Barteldes
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DOWNBEAT REVIEW:
Antoinette Montague
Behind The Smile
In the Groove Records

Antoinette Montague’s name and elegant physical appearance have the touch of royalty. It’s silly to take the regal comparison too far, yet her singing on her second album suggests a fitting for a tiara isn’t out of the question. Focused and with purity of intent, she skillfully advances stories that are open-hearted gifts to listeners rather than exhibits of showy technique or solipsistic disclosure. Long under the spell of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, mentored by Carrie Smith and Etta Jones, Montague has the vocal command and depth of feeling to make you believe the words to songs, even potentially mawkish ones.

Impeccable in her choice of material, Montague brings the right expressive qualities to Duke Ellington’s neglected “Lost in Meditation” and “23rd Psalm”; her reverie over a lost love in the former is pitched emotionally between romantic fantasy and hopelessness, while the inner strength taken from her time singing gospel fuels her delivery of the lyrics to the Bible-inspired song for Mahalia Jackson. Also underscoring Montague’s appreciation of classics are the revival of the standard “The Song Is You” and the makeover of Ray Noble’s “I Hadn’t Anyone ‘Till You” as a sprightly bossanova.

The singer, who usually performs in New York, might have invited disaster doing Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” but she wins out by making lyrics about the turbulent 1960s sound pertinent to the present time. The rather bold decision to interpret bluesman Big Bill Broonzy’s mildly disreputable “Give Your Mama One Smile” pays off; her controlled excitement sits well with Bill Easley’s clarinet. She sounds stagy, false in feeling, only on the chestnut “Somewhere In The Night.” With Easley, Mulgrew Miller and Peter and Kenny Washington alongside, Montague is in good company. But she may actually be over-appreciative of the musicians as the arrangements sometimes give too much room to soloists at her expense.

– Frank-John Hadley

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For bookings, please contact Blues Straight Ahead: 203-820-8819
www.antoinettemontague.com

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