| Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music of Michael Jackson | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 14, 2010 (2010-09-14) | |||
| Recorded | June 5–6, 2010 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 59:24 | |||
| Label | HighNote | |||
| Producer | Glenn Ferracone, Joey DeFrancesco | |||
| Joey DeFrancesco chronology | ||||
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Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music of Michael Jackson is an album byjazzorganistJoey DeFrancesco, atribute to deceased entertainerMichael Jackson.[1] The album was released in 2010 onHighNote Records and was produced by DeFrancesco and Glenn Ferracone. It was nominated for the2011Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
This album is one of several tribute albums released by DeFrancesco; in 2002 he paid tribute to fellow PhiladelphianDon Patterson,[2] plusJimmy Smith in 1999,[3]Frank Sinatra in 2004[4] andHorace Silver in 2009.[5]
Along with DeFrancesco on variousorgans, and trumpet on "Beat It",[6] the band consists ofPaul Bollenback onguitars, Byron Landham ondrums, Pat Bianchi onkeyboards, andpercussionist Carmen Intorre.[7]
The album was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album[8] but lost to theStanley Clarke albumThe Stanley Clarke Band.[9][10]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
| The Buffalo News | [11] |
| The Philadelphia Inquirer | [6] |
| All About Jazz | [7] |
Glen Astarita ofAll About Jazz gave the album a positive review writing that it "renders a happy medium by jazzing up the [Michael Jackson] songbook...with jazz, funk and rock stylizations, while retaining its inherent components" and calls it a "tunefully upbeat program".[7]
Jeff Tamarkin commented inAllMusic that the tracks "depart from [the originals] substantially enough that they never feel like copies" and that "some of these tracks...seriously rock". He also praised guitarist Paul Bollenback, proclaiming him to be "on fire".[1]
Jeff Simon wrote a mixed review forThe Buffalo News. He lamented that Jackson's "music isn’t nearly as adaptable to chitlin circuit Hammond B-3 wails and screams and staccato stabs as you might assume" and the songs "are just a little too pretty for this kind of organ funk". He also poked fun at DeFrancesco's attempt to recreateVincent Price's narration on "Thriller", quipping that it makes "you want to moonwalk all over his head". He did praise Bollenback's guitar playing, writing "you’d have to be made of granite not to enjoy the heck out of it" and closes his review by calling the album "great jazz fun".[11]
Karl Stark wrote inThe Philadelphia Inquirer that DeFrancisco takes "a few commercial layers off [Jackson's songs] and appl[ies] some verve from a jazz-soul point of view". He did complain that "Rock with You" is "pretty commercial" but did praise the drumming of Byron Landham writing that he "really rocks the house".[6]
Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music of Michael Jackson atAllMusic
