Following news earlier this week that Liane Carroll is to headline the new Brilliant Corners festival in March, the following month, it’s now understood, will see the latest album to be released by the award winning singer who is also touring heavily in the spring. Titled, quite simply, Ballads, it’s the classic jazz singer’s latest for Quiet Money Recordings, trumpeter James McMillan’s label, who returns to produce Liane once more following their work together on Up and Down released two years ago. This new album features arrangements by Chris Walden whose work includes Paul McCartney’s 2012 album, Kisses on the Bottom. 

Ballads tracks include ‘Here’s To Life’, featuring Carroll’s powerful vocals along with classical guitar and celeste; ‘Goodbye’ with a Walden orchestration and Mark Edwards on piano; a big band take on ‘Only The Lonely’ (not the Roy Orbison song, the Sammy Cahn/Jimmy van Heusen torch song closely identified with Frank Sinatra); ‘Mad About The Boy’ with an appearance by pianist Gwilym Simcock; jazz standard ‘You’ve Changed’; Todd Rundgren’s ‘Pretending To Care’ featuring the bass clarinet of Julian Siegel; ‘Calgary Bay’ by songwriter Sophie Bancroft; a strong reading of ‘My One and Only Love’; ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’ with acoustic guitar and the saxophone of Kirk Whalum who worked with Liane on Up and Down; ‘The Two Lonely People’; and the Buddy Holly associated song ‘Raining in My Heart’. Stephen Graham
Liane Carroll pictured top, and the album’s cover. Ballads is released on 15 April