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Tania Grubbs: The Sound of Love

By John Chacona
January 16, 2025
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Meet a person from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and you are likely to get a Chamber of Commerce-worthy commendation of their city's greatness. When it comes to jazz, the civic pride is more than warranted; the Steel City was home to immortals such as

Earl Hines

piano
1903 - 1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Earl Hines,

Mary Lou Williams

piano
1910 - 1981

" data-original-title="" title="">Mary Lou Williams,

Art Blakey

drums
1919 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Blakey and

Kenny Clarke

drums
1914 - 1985

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Clarke. Vocalist

Tania Grubbs

vocals
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Tania Grubbs grew up just over the state line in Ohio, but she has lived and worked in The 'Burgh, as natives affectionately call it, for some years. And though she might not have intended it as such, The Sound of Love (TRAVLIN' Music, 2024) arrives as a love letter to her adopted hometown.

Henry Mancini

composer / conductor
1924 - 1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Henry Mancini, who grew up just downriver of Pittsburgh in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, wrote lovely melodies that are beginning to get their due from singers and instrumentalists alike. "Dreamsville" and "Two For The Road" have been turning up a lot lately and they get balmy, effective interpretations here. But Grubbs makes an excellent case for a Mancini rarity, "Slow Hot Wind," in a sultry, nearly R&B arrangement by her bassist husband

Jeff Grubbs

bass
b.1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Jeff Grubbs that recalls the minimalist suavity of

Bob James

piano
b.1939

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob James' CTI-era charts (that's a compliment, by the way).

Pittsburgher

Billy Strayhorn

piano
1915 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Strayhorn is represented by a single ballad chorus of "Something To Live For" with the essential verse, but one could make the case that the pastel harmonies of

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love," easily could have been dedicated to the man

Duke Ellington

piano
1899 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Duke Ellington called "Sweet Pea." Grubbs navigates the intervallic leaps of Mingus' swooping, chromatic melody without fear. Though "If You Could See Me Now," was composed by Cleveland native

Tadd Dameron

piano
1917 - 1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Tadd Dameron, it was long associated with its first great interpreter,

Billy Eckstine

vocals
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Eckstine, who grew up in Pittsburgh's Highland Park neighborhood.

A great deal of the allure of The Sound of Love comes from the close rapport of the band. Pianist

David Budway

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">David Budway's instincts as an accompanist were honed to a fine polish on the Pittsburgh scene in the '80s and '90s, often with his late sister

Maureen Budway

" data-original-title="" title="">Maureen Budway. As a composer, Budway's "I Can Tell You Are Always There" is a soul-tinged quiet stormer. Guitarist

Ron Affif

guitar
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Ron Affif, now based in Los Angeles, dips into the blues lexicon of fellow Steel City guitarists such as

George Benson

guitar
b.1943

" data-original-title="" title="">George Benson and

Jimmy Ponder

guitar
1946 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimmy Ponder while Pittsburgh drummer

James Johnson III

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">James Johnson III is a model of restraint and taste. Singers dream of drummers like him. Jeff Grubbs, who has a side hustle in the bass section of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, contributes arrangements that transform the session's ballads into miniature tone poems.

The up-tempo numbers are sprightly, too, with Grubbs' crisp articulation accenting the piquancy of lyrics written by Iola Brubeck for her husband Dave's "Strange Meadowlark" and

Jon Hendricks

vocals
1921 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Jon Hendricks' to

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' bebop line "Four." Grubbs is a poetic lyricist herself on the program's sole original composition, the singer-songwriter-y "The Sculptor's Hands."

Something else to make Pittsburghers proud: the clear and atmospheric recording by engineer Jay Dudt.

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Track Listing

But Not For Me; Slow Hot Wind; (A Rhyme) This Time; Duke Ellington��s Sound of Love; Strange Meadowlark; The Sculptor��s Hands; Something To Live For; Blackbird; Sunshine on My Shoulders; I Can Tell You Are Always There; Four; Dreamsville; If You Could See Me Now; Two For The Road.

Personnel

Tania Grubbs

vocals

David Budway

piano

Jeff Grubbs

bass

Ron Affif

guitar

James Johnson III

drums

Album information

Title: The Sound of Love | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: TRAVLIN' Music

Tania Grubbs Jazz Vocalist �� The Sound of Love

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