December 15, 2011
Scott Wager- Station Manager, WDCB Radio - WDCB Radio

An outstanding homage to Mel Torme and Marty Paich.

December 05, 2011
Joe Patitucci - Jazz Inside Magazine

To view the article you will need download a pdf of the magazine, the interview is on page 38.  Click here to download

 

October 27, 2011
Neil Tesser - Chicago Jazz Music Examiner
In the case of trumpeter and vocalist Jeff Hedberg, you don’t have to wait till next year: he’ll celebrate the release of his intoxicating new CD, Too Darn Hot, with two nights at Andy’s (11 E. Illinois) this weekend, starting at 9:30 both Friday and Saturday.
The album features the ensemble Hedberg calls “C11” (for Chicago Eleven). Together they re-create, with fidelity and precision, selections from several albums that the jazz genius Mel Tormé recorded in the mid-50s. Those discs paired Tormé with master arranger Marty Paich, whose ten-piece “Dek-tette” explored the cool translucency Miles Davis had introduced to jazz with his famous Birth of the Cool tracks.  Responding to the irresistibly swinging Dek-tette arrangements – and putting down his trumpet to focus on singing – Hedberg has blossomed into a coolly powerful, fully swinging artist.
His light, airy tenor has almost exactly the same weight, even the same inflection, as that of Tormé – another Chicago-born tenor, who sounded very much like this in his younger years. Tormé’s voice, which earned him the sobriquet “the Velvet Fog,” quite naturally deepened and darkened with age, and that’s the instrument most people remember today. But those first records with Paich reveal a purity of timbre that Hedberg channels here (though with a bit less of Tormé’s youthful edge).
Hedberg’s band also lives up to its inspiration, reeling off Paich’s writing with exuberance as well as care. Spurred by the streamlined powerglide rhythm section of bassist Joe Policastro and drummer Darren Scorza – and sporting an elite brass section of two trumpets, trombone, tuba, and French horn – Hedberg’s C11 makes these charts sound nearly as fresh as they did six decades ago. And the singer recycles that punch into the crisp, snappy phrasing missing from his previous disc.
The material itself might surprise even those who consider themselves 50s aficionados. Some tunes – the title track, “Too Close For Comfort,” and “Lullaby of Birdland” – remained in Tormé’s book throughout his career, and those won’t surprise anyone. (Hedberg’s scat solo on the latter is a highlight, comparing favorably with Tormé’s own vaunted improvisations.)
But “The Carioca,” “Lulu’s Back In Town,” and “When The Sun Comes Out” have receded from familiarity; hearing them again, and in this context, offers yet another tier of pure satisfaction.
It’s an easy out for writers to say that an artist “leans heavily on the influence” of so-and-so, but “still manages to provide his own interpretation” of classic material, and I can guarantee you’ll see a few reviews like that of this disc.
That’s pretty much nonsense, I’m afraid. Due to his range, and to the fact that he has chosen to cover these very detailed and specific arrangements – in which Tormé’s voice was artfully woven into the horn textures – Hedberg sounds a great deal like Tormé on these tunes. To which I can only ask, “What’s wrong with that?”
At his peak, Tormé was the most artistically accomplished male jazz singer in history: he had perfect intonation, impeccable time, a solid feel for the blues, and an ability to improvise – using actual lyrics as well as scat syllables – matched among vocalists by only Ella Fitzgerald. Anyone who can reference that achievement, without wilting in the comparison, gets my vote; that Hedberg can place himself in the discussion without embarrassment is nothing to shy away from.
October 25, 2011
Paula Edelstein - Sounds of Timeless Jazz

As the debut release in Jeff Hedberg’s two-volume Pages of Paich project, Too Darn Hot re-introduces listeners to the genius of singer Mel Torme and songwriter Marty Paich. As a long-time enthusiast of Torme’s music, Jeff Hedberg formed C11, a group of Chicago musicians based upon Marty Paich’s Dek-tette. They recorded 29 tracks from the Torme-Paich albums using 15 arrangements from several of Torme’s albums. The result is Too Darn Hot, Pages of Paich, Vol. 1, a 15-track program that reveals Hedberg’s artistic integrity as a vocalist and trumpeter. The set opens with “Too Close For Comfort” and continues with Torme’s trademark “Lulu’s Back In Town.” Hedberg sings in clear, unified tones and with the kind of high artistry one would expect from this impressive ensemble of musicians. He swings convincingly on “Something’s Gotta Give” and speeds up the tempo on “The Lady Is A Tramp.” On both of these songs Hedberg’s phrasing and delivery are solid and progress in time with his swinging rhythm and brass sections. The program also revolves around songs from the Great American Songbook, Films, and Broadway musicals including great renditions of Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face The Music and Dance,” (a song he wrote for the film Follow the Fleet), “Old Devil Moon” (from Finian’s Rainbow), the title track “Too Darn Hot” (from Cole Porter’s play Kiss Me Kate), and “Fascinating Rhythm” (from Lady Be Good). Throughout the entire set, Hedberg is consistent in his vocalese, scatting and presents a different facet of Torme & Paich’s genius as opposed to approaching the material as an advance on their particular evolutionary scale. Overall Jeff Hedberg’s approach to these songs is rampant with swinging rhythms and the core elements of West Coast Cool style of jazz singings that make these songs such an aural pleasure. Check it out.