Di Anne Price's To Hell With Love

Like all great standard interpreters from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, Di Anne Price doesn't sing a song so much as seize it, finding something new in a decades-old lyric and making the song wholly her own. Sometimes she'll do it with subtle bit of phrasing, stretching a syllable here, or adding some gospel melisma there. Mostly, though, it's simply the "sound" of her voice, the kind of voice you turn to in the wee, small hours - dark and smoky like your favorite bar, warm and smooth as a glass of good bourbon. It's the voice of romance and desire, of loneliness and loss.

On "To Hell With Love", Price's third album, the Memphis-born chanteuse and pianist explores the full spectrum of romantic tragedy and bliss, from the abject despair of "Lonely Avenue" to the tingly erotica of "Just For a Thrill" to the ribald carnality of "Long John." By pulling together songs from a wide range of sources -- among them Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Louis Prima, and Lyle Lovett -- Price has created a concept album that follows a young woman through the various stages of a relationship: The intoxicating rush of that initial first meeting; the titillation of that relationship flourishing; the disillusionment that arrives after realizing she's nothing more than the "other woman"; and the renewed sexual liberation she somehow manages to achieve following the hardship that is best described in Price's aching version of "Two Years of Torture.

Whether or not you pick up the plot, "To Hell With Love" is both a hell of a song cycle and a remarkable show case for Price's stunning vocals and her gracefully artful keyboard work, which can caress you with the gentle touch of Charles Brown or throttle you with an outpouring of notes worthy of Champion Jack Dupree. And her accompanists in the Boyfriends pull off similarly dazzling feats. The rhythm section of bassist Tim Goodwin and drummer Tom Lonardo have complete command over urbane jump blues and smoldering torch songs, whether pounding out the funeral riff of "Lonely Avenue", or falling into a slinky, sauntering groove on "Room With A View." Saxophonist Jim Spake, meanwhile, blows hot and cool throughout the set, honking and wailing on the group's piledriving version of "Sing Sing Sing," and gliding gently alongside Price on the crushingly melancholic "Let Me Go."

Mostly, though, *To Hell With Love* is all about that voice, the way it oozes with pathos, the way it growls with anger and moans in anguish, the way it tingles with raw sexuality and bristles with resilience and confidence. The way it tells a story you've heard before -- maybe a story you've even lived -- in a manner that is distinctly Di Anne's. That she turns such personal emotional exorcisms into something so moving and beautiful is the mark of pure genius.

John Floyd

John Floyd is a Memphis-based writer and, the author of "Sun Records: an Oral History."

1. Sing, Sing, Sing - Louis Prima
2. Love Come and Go - Ernest Lawler
3. When You Love Me -Ernest Lawler
4. She's No Lady, She's My Wife - Lyle Lovett
5. Just For A Thrill - Lil Hardin Armstrong
6. Sticks And Stones - Titus Turner/Henry Glover
7. Lonesome Shack - Minnie McCoy
8. You Won't Let Me Go - Allen/Johnson
9. Lonly Avenue - Doc Promus
10. Room With A View - Lowell Fulson/Billy Vera
11. Two Years of Torture - Percy Mayfield
12. Sugar In My Bowl - Nina Simone
13. Home Of The Blues - Kathryn Price
14. At The Club - Percy Mayfield
15. Long John - Tommy George
16. Alone On My Own - Tom Webster
17. To Hell With Love - Doc Promus/Mac Rebennack

Di Anne Price: Vocals/Piano
Jim Spake: Saxophones
Tom Lonardo: Drums
Jim Goodwin: Bass