bitter/sweet

ERIC COMSTOCK AND RANDY NAPOLEON

Tracks

  1. I Have Dreamed
  2. If I Had You
  3. Somewhere in the Night
  4. Goodbye
  5. Living on Dreams
  6. Gone With the Wind
  7. Two for the Road (with Barbara Fasano)
  8. Too Late Now
  9. This Can’t Be Love
  10. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
  11. Goodbye Is a Lonesome Sound
  12. Bittersweet
  13. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams

The pianist and vocalist Eric Comstock, a star of the Off-Broadway hit Our Sinatraknown for his pop and jazz interpretations, and guitarist Randy Napoleon, currently of the Freddy Cole Quartet, have collaborated on a wonderfully intimate voice/guitar CD.

Co-produced by Comstock and Katherine Miller, BITTER/SWEET features songs by Rodgers and Hart, Jobim (with a lyric by the late Susannah McCorkle), Lane and Lerner, Billy Strayhorn, Henry Mancini, Billy May, Paul Weston and others from the American, Brazilian and English songbooks, all arranged by Comstock and Napoleon. Comstock is joined by his wife, celebrated vocalist Barbara Fasano. He is profiled in Will Friedwald’s book The Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers (Pantheon, 2010).

Napoleon’s arrangements are heard on Cole’s Grammy-nominated salute to Billy Eckstine, Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B. Comstock and Napoleonfirst worked together at a concert for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook in 2003, and felt it was time to record the duets they have performed in concert halls and festivals around the country in the years since. Napoleon says, “This is one of my favorite musical combinations. Whoever first carved a guitar out of a block of wood must have had a singer in mind – guitar and voice are that natural together. Eric is also a first-rate pianist and accompanist, so I was particularly honored when he asked me to record with guitar and voice alone.” Comstock adds, “We live in a noisy world, and Randy and I are trying to show that whatever is worth saying musically can be said softly and slowly. This album is an antidote to stress, and Randy and I are extremely proud of it.”

Eric Comstock’s other albums on Harbinger Records include Young Man of Manhattanand No One Knows.
Listen to sample tracks and purchase at Amazon