Roger Cairns continues to chart for 3 weeks on the RMR jazz chart

Roger Cairns has put together a collection of well-chosen standards in an intimate setting with pianist Gary Fukushima.

This week Cairns continues to win ears across the U.S. and Canada landing at #47 on the RMR jazz chart, this is Cairns 3rd week with a peak spot of #34 thus far.

Written By: C. Michael Bailey, Senior Contributor, All About Jazz, 2010

There are two things compelling about the art of Roger Cairns; his singular, rich voice and his studied knowledge of popular song. Each element informs the other in a way that invents a self-sustaining, Perpetuum Mobile of musical creativity.

Raised in the Edinburgh suburb of Moredun in the dawn of the post-World War II-baby boom, Roger was reared in a largely unmusical household and at 15, began an apprenticeship in mining engineering with the UK National Coal Board. After a little over a year of coal mining, he left the subterranean for London and his songful calling, where he met with success singing a variety of genres.

Leaving music for a number of years leading an offshore communications business, Roger again had the opportunity to return to music full time. In 1992, he auditioned with the Los Angeles-based Dirk Fischer Big Band, with whom he performed until 2005.

Fully vested on the West Coast, with arranger/pianist/composer Gary Fukushima, Roger began performing with small groups resulting in 2006's self-produced A Scot In L.A., featuring guitarist Larry Koonse and bassist Darek Oles, both of whom would also join the singer on his excellent 2008 recording, Let's.... Circuitously, this brings him to his present The Dream of Olwen, an ideal solo recital with musical soul mate, Fukushima.

The Dream of Olwen betrays a musical psyche steeped in the Great American Songbook. Not content in simply recasting its core, the singer draws on a life-time of listening and singing to the Songbook, choosing those songs that speak to him personally. His recorded repertoire is populated with sonic nuggets of surprise, songs that while certainly popular, have not been exhausted by overuse Roger’s distinctive voice pleasures these songs with a comfortable familiarity, one that provides the welcome sense of acceptance and recognition. He breathes vibrant life into nostalgic tunes like the 1934 Coots/Lewis piece, "For All We Know" and Rodgers and Hart's "Wait 'Til You See Her," from the 1942 show By Jupiter. Gary Fukushima provides perfectly modern accompaniment to these songs, sharing the care of selection and performance. The two musicians are well suited to one another, a nuclear empathy.

While encyclopedic in his musical knowledge, Cairns does play favorites. Johnny Mandel and Alec Wilder tunes make up almost half of the twelve selections present. Spare readings "Where Do You Start," "Solitary Moon," and "Don't Look Back," represent Mandel's lyrical genius amply, while Wilder is honored with the superb "Blackberry Winter" and "I'll Be Around." The singer and pianist meld into harmonic--lyric oneness.

Cairns also addresses music from his youth in the title piece, a Charles Williams tune featured in the 1947 John Harlow movie, While I Live and the 1953 Sigmund and Maxwell standard, "Ebb Tide." Roger Cairns treats all of these songs as if they were poetry deserving prominent reading. No matter the song, the composer, the mood: his voice, that voice, always has a smile in it.