LIVE AT BLUE LLAMA JAZZ CLUB

Allan Harris. Love Productions Records.

I have to admit the first thing that caught my attention about this album was the fact it was recorded at one of the region’s premier venues, Ann Arbor’s Blue Llama Jazz Club.

That little tidbit aside, it didn’t take long to fall in love with the recording itself, which is being released this Friday.

There are a lot of great things going on with this album, the first live recording Harris - known as the “Jazz Vocal King of New York” has issued in 13 years.

First, Allan Harris is every bit of an outstanding vocalist as one might believe from the moniker.

On this 10-song disc, drawn from two live performances at the Blue Llama in January, he performs classics such as “Sunny,” “The Very Thought of You,” “So What?” and “Spain” to go along with several fine originals, each performed with skillful and intriguing jazz rhythm and textures.

His band is stunning throughout, with some really hot solos by keyboardist Arcoiris Sandoval, bassist Marty Kenney, drummer Norman Edwards, Jr., and saxophonist Irwin Hall.

They really cut loose on the final song, “Nature Boy,” the Eden Ahbez classic that the great Nat King Cole turned into a hit way back in 1948.

Consider this unbelievable short list of superstars who have covered “Nature Boy” since then, including Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Bobby Darin, George Benson, Peggy Lee, Celine Dion, Grace Slick, Aaron Neville, the Tony Bennett-Lady Gaga duet, and Cole’s daughter, Natalie Cole.

Amazingly, Harris and his other four band members come up with an arrangement that has a cool, spicy vibe and is distinctive from past versions.

This is a great album recorded only about an hour from most of Toledo. Harris said in his liner notes there was minimal editing beyond some of the distracting audience sounds being filtered out and is “the way we performed it live with all the grit and glory.”

First Published July 26, 2023, 10:00 a.m.