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Allyson Briggs: Promises, Promises and Raindrops

By Richard J Salvucci
January 16, 2025
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Allyson Briggs

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Allyson Briggs describes herself as an "old soul" who connected almost instinctively to the music of the 1970s. Her models are

Tony Bennett

vocals
1926 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Bennett and

" data-original-title="" title="">Ella Fitzgerald, bearers of a very different musical culture than what is currently on offer. She is part of a different era, of not exactly big band singers, but of the sort that emerged from that scene. Her work is tasteful, swinging and familiar in a good way. A kind of quintessential New York club singer, hardly extinct, but typical only of a certain milieu. If this is the repertoire one seeks, Ms Briggs is certainly entertaining. She is hardly a newcomer to the scene, but is perhaps, not exactly a household name with an enormous following.

Here Briggs is doing

Hal David

" data-original-title="" title="">Hal David and

Burt Bacharach

composer / conductor
1928 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Burt Bacharach—where "jazz meets pop" and she is doing it very well and no apologies. This is a trip down memory lane, intentionally so. Briggs says "I hope to provide a light in the dark, a calm respite to soothe the soul. We need some nostalgia, we need joy, we need more love." A cynic—and there are plenty of them—might respond that the good old days of the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers require a degree of suspended disbelief to conjure up, but that seems churlish. There is always time for beauty and if someone does not think "I Say a Little Prayer for You" is anything other than a sweet song, that is their problem, not Briggs.' Briggs covers a wide variety of artists from

Herb Alpert

trumpet
b.1935

" data-original-title="" title="">Herb Alpert to

Dionne Warwick

vocals
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Dionne Warwick, and her interpretations are generally right down the middle. She relies on accurate intonation and a fetching voice—no drama, really, except, perhaps on songs like "Walk on By" where the lyric is painful. Her rendition of "Alfie" is spot on and can bring on an acute desire to see the original 1966 Michael Caine film: the song is something of an ode to a cad—when was the last time that word appeared in print? "The Look of Love" is a torch song, and Briggs does it justice, a romantic song from a time when delayed gratification was a thing.

Virtually all the tracks come in around three or four minutes, a sensible choice that other singers of standards would be well to emulate. Briggs' band, especially trumpet

Andy Warren

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Andy Warren, sets just the right mood, a sort of Rainbow Room standard that a listener could expect someone like

Rosemary Clooney

vocals
1928 - 2002

" data-original-title="" title="">Rosemary Clooney to sing. This is a very nice job indeed by a person who has a good idea of what a genuine jazz singer once sounded like, and that the world in which she sang is now largely gone.

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Track Listing

Do You Know The Way to San Jose; I'll Never Fall in Love Again; Trop'ns Fin Regen Oif Mein Kop; What the World Needs Now is Love; One Less Bell to Answer; Anyone Who Had a Heart; Uninvited Dream; My Rock and Foundation; Always Something There to Remind Me; Wenn Ich Mir Was Wunschen Durfte; Casino Royale; This Girl's In Love With You; Promises, Promises; Walk On By; Alfie; Close to You; I Say a Little Prayer; The Look of Love; Arthur's Theme; That's What Friends Are For.

Personnel

Allyson Briggs

vocals

Andy Warren

trumpet

Shareef Taher

drums

James Nevan

piano

Michael O'Brien

bass

Peter Traunmueller

drums

Jason Yeager

piano

Julie Benko

vocals

Album information

Title: Promises, Promises and Raindrops | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Self Produced

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