Songs

1. The Man She Loves                   (Listen)

2. Wrapped Up In Your Kiss           (Listen)

3. Sand & Sea

4. Things Haven't Been The Same  (Listen)

5. The Man of My Dreams

6. Breezy Summer Night                (Listen)

Quintessence

JENNIFER LIND IVESTER (Vocals) is one of the most sought-after vocal recording artists in the Pacific Northwest and has performed on a virtual Who’s Who of jingles, film scores and radio station I.D. packages for music production companies across North America.  Her voice is featured prominently on Spectrasonics' ground-breaking vocal sampler CD Symphony of Voices which is frequently used on major motion picture film scores since its debut on James Horner’s score for The Titanic.  She is also featured on jingles for clients such as T-Mobile, Dole, Sleep Country USA, Macy’s and Pierre Money Mart.  Recordings she appears on include Grammy Award winner Nancy Rumbel’s Notes from the Tree of Life and the compilation CD Christmas in the Northwest.

HANS TEUBER (Sax) has been playing sax, flute, and clarinet on the Pacific Northwest jazz scene for over a decade, working with a variety of musicians and groups.  Hans also teaches at Cornish College of the Arts.  Recent CDs he plays on include:  Portal (Origin Records) with the Deardorf/Peterson Group, Canto do Rio (Liquid City) with Jovino Santos Neto (nominated for a Latin Grammy), and his own CD Lucky (Origin Records).

MARK IVESTER (Drums) is a first call studio musician in the Seattle area.  He has worked with Mel Torme, Charlie Byrd, Buddy DeFranco, Freddie Hubbard, Michael Brecker, Larry Coryell, Clare Fischer, Cannonball Adderley, Bud Shank, Mose Allison, and Herb Ellis.  Mark also teaches at Cornish College of the Arts.  Along with Hans Teuber, Mark appears on Canto do Rio (Liquid City) with Jovino Santos Neto (nominated for a Latin Grammy).  He also appears on Favorites From A Long Walk and All This And Heaven Too with Greta Matassa (Origin Records), and on Two For The Road with Mimi Fox and Greta Matassa (Origin Records).

DOUGLAS BARNETT (Bass) is a versatile freelance musician who began playing the bass guitar in 1972.  He has since recorded and performed internationally with, among others:  Deniece Williams, Hank Crawford and Phillip Bailey, as well as two of the hottest performers in Smooth Jazz today, Jeff Kashiwa and Joyce Cooling.
 

EUGENE BIEN (Piano) is one of the top keyboard players in the Pacific Northwest.  CDs that he plays on include Relax Your Mind with Darren Motamedy, and Down Home and Violet's Lane with Nadine Shanti.

 

Review

Wrapped Up In Your Kiss marks Steve Millard’s debut as both composer and lyricist. In Quintessence, Millard has found the quintessential group to convey the depth and variety of his compositions.  The CD opens with The Man She Loves, a driving up-tempo bossa nova. Hans Teuber’s rich, full-bodied tenor sax, Eugen Bien’s crisp piano, and Mark Ivester’s clean beat recall the Getz/Gilberto/Jobim collaborations of the early 1960’s.  The title track, featuring silky vocalist Jennifer Ivester, is a smoky midnight ballad of sensuous memory and anticipation, highlighted by Teuber’s beautiful and haunting tenor solo.  Sand & Sea brings us back to a lighter bossa nova, à la Jobim’s Wave, featuring Bien (pronounce BEE-EN) on piano, with Douglas Barnett as always providing a solid bass line.  On Things Haven’t Been The Same, Jennifer sings a tale of love lost with a 9/8 feel. Barnett’s descending bass lines provide a compelling synchronicity.  The Man of My Dreams is an upbeat big band tune in the spirit of Ellington, with Teuber and Bien delivering solid solos and Jennifer singing tongue-in-cheek.  The final track, Breezy Summer Night, has Teuber switching to alto and conveying a couple walking hand-in-hand on a gorgeous quiet summer evening with a hint of wind whispering in the trees. Barnett shows off his melodic chops on this one as well.

When recording engineer Rick Fisher (whose clientele has included The Steve Miller Band and Pearl Jam) was mastering this CD, he said, “This is really nice, but why would anyone in this day and age write Jazz Standards?” Steve Millard answers: “Why not?”