Evening Herald 20th July 2006 JAZZ
Matt Nugent
Hession take on Sinatra gems a winner
HOT on the heels of another remarkable sell out Hession performance at the National
Concert Hall - Dublin is the release of his second album, Get out of town.
Sean Hession recently described as having "an obsession with the profession of
vocal virtuosity", left the stage of the NCH last month to a standing ovation,
having showcased many of the songs on the new CD.
Now recognised as the foremost interpreter of all things Sinatra, Hession's latest
recording digs deep into the vast reservoir of material that Ol' Blue Eyes
made his own and came up with long lost gems that Sinatra never recorded but
should have!
With what can only be described as true pioneering spirit or utter foolhardiness,
Hession's gamble to record "unknown" material has
certainly paid off.
STELLAR
On a tight budget for such a project - 16 musicians, arrangements, recording studio
cost for a start - Hession's Get out of town takes the singer and his ensemble
to new levels.
While the first offering, The Hession Session Volume 1 (this is sub-titled Volume
2) was a unique take on the Sinatra Big Band sound, musicians and vocalist.
The production is seamless, the playing confident and Hession's voice a real joy.
Indeed, it would be hard to choose a standout track from the 16 - but personal
favourites include Tangerine, Empty Tables and You Don't Know What Love Is.
Sean Hession and his orchestra are set to play The Helix, Mahony Hall at Dublin
City University on Friday, December 1.
Tickets now on sale at 01
7007000 www.thehelix.ie €25, €35, €40
Seán Hession - Get Out of Town ***
The Ticket
The Irish Times, Friday June 16th, 2006
At a time when Frank Sinatra Jr is releasing his first studio album
in a decade, Sanatraphile Hession has his second out in the last few years. Whatever
about Jr's latest, the bet would still be on Hession. He's is one of
the better of the maestro's musical offspring, derivative certainly, but with
a rich baritone and an unabashed pleasure in donning the mantle of Ol' Blue
Eyes.
Hession is in good form on this latest, with Dave Gold's big band, a
programme drawn from the Great American Song Book and appropriate arrangements
by Gold and Jim Doherty. Fine soloists in guitarist Louis Stewart, tenors Michael
Buckley and Brendan Doyle, trumpeter Aidan Kelly and Davey Martin on fluglhorn
garnish the musical offering and, in what must have been a quite pressured recording
situation, the band does a good job.
Irish master of the great American songbook
Evening Herald
2nd June 2006
Seán Hession is coolness personified. He's sitting over a mid-morning coffee and fielding calls about CD cover notes, gigs and publicity.
He should have his new CD in his hands but it is delayed. He's required to do a gig this Friday at short notice - and then there is the small matter of another one of his epic Hession Session gigs at the National Concert Hall later this month!
Hession's manager/publicist/organiser is Seán Hession. But despite his workload, the affable six-foot plus crooner remains calm and collected. His latest CD, Get Out Of Town (The Hession Session, Volume 2), excites him.
Again it trawls the vast American Songbook as recorded by Frank Sinatra. But here you will find some hidden gems wonderfully interpreted by Hession in big band, quartet and duo mode.
Hession believes that in all departments - musicianship, arrangements, production - it's a step up from his previous work.
DETERMINED
Having had a sneak preview of the new record, it's clear that Hession, who is one of our most talented vocalists, is not bragging.
There is a joyousness about the playing that suggest that this was a labour of love. It helps, of course, when you have the country's best musicians to help the whole project move along smoothly, like Louis Stewart, Jim Doherty, Honor Heffernan, Michael Buckley, Brendan Doyle and arranger Dave Gold.
I have had the pleasure of catching Hession's latest masterpiece. You may have to wait slightly longer. But the album will be available by the time he takes his big band and special guests back to the NCH on June 15 where he will showcase much of the new material and many old favourites.
Tickets (priced from €25) are currently available from the NCH to catch one of our national treasures.
MATT NUGENT
Red hot licks from a sublime Hession
The Hession Session
Tower Records
Matt Nugent
Evening Herald
16th December 2004
Seán Hession has been nothing short of shocked
by the critical acclaim that has been heaped on his new album, The Hession
Session. It has 16 tracks – of
which at least half have been seen as the personal fiefdom of one Francis Albert
Sinatra for almost six decades.
But Hession’s interpretation of the ‘Great American (Sinatra)
Songbook’ on an album that was a long time in the making, now marks out
the Dublin –born singer – once and for all – as a true artist
in his own right.
This is not a re-working of Sinatra favourites. What we have here is a gifted
Irish musician bringing something new to evergreen classics, breathing vitality
back into them, ably assisted by a stellar Irish 16-piece orchestra.
Conductor and producer Dave Gold leads this ensemble, which includes luminaries
like Noel Kelehan, Louis Stewart, Brendan Doyle, Jim Farley, Derek O’Connor
and Karl Ronan, playing from uncluttered charts.
Every note counts; there is no waste. Hession is in top form, relaxed and
obviously enjoying himself, which adds tremendously to a recording that’s
gets this critics’ vote as the best Irish album of 2004. We have produced
some great small ensemble albums in recent years.
Now we have a big band as good as they get. It is currently available on the
internet (www.franklysinatra.com) and in branches of Tower Records.
In the meantime, judge for yourself just how good band and singer are at their
two Helix Mahony Hall gigs on December 17 and 18 at 8pm. Tickets are priced €30
and €35.
- MATT NUGENT
The Ticket
JAZZ - Ray Comiskey
The Irish Times
3rd December 2004
SEÁN HESSION
The Hession Session SHP ****
Singer Hession is an unabashed Sinatraphiliac, and one of the best of them.
Here, on what is clearly a labour of love, he pays homage to his master's voice
with a collection of superior standards indelibly associated with Ol' Blue
Eyes. Soaring happily over a shouting big band full of the cream of local
talent, duetting hand-in-glove with guitarist Louis Stewart and pianist Noel
Kelehan, and fitting snugly into a couple of jazz quartet settings, he emerges
unscathed. Dave Gold's and Jim Doherty's arrangements recall the 1950s' and
early-1960s' big band idiom of Sinatra's finest era and, with Stewart playing
superb rhythm guitar and Hession swinging and phrasing in fine voice, this is a piece of nostalgia brimming with life.
www.franklysinatra.com
Ray Comiskey
Go on, eat your heart out Ol' blue eyes
Jazz - Grainne Farren
Sunday Independent
28th November 2004
Frankly Sinatra: The Hession Session (Seán Hession Productions)
Seán Hession (vocals) with the Dave Gold Big Band. Featuring soloists: Karl
Ronan (trombone), Derek O'Connor (alto sax) and Louis Stewart (guitar).
Seán Hession's amazingly accurate reproduction of the Frank Sinatra vocal style
is well known by now. Not only the voice, but the timing, inflections and
nuances have been studied over the years until a casual listener can be momentarily
deceived into thinking that this is the real thing.
It's not that the Dublin singer slavishly imitates the master, bar by bar; rather
he has internalised Sinatra's approach so completely that he can interpret
a song in a way that Ol' Blue Eyes might well have thought of himself. This
selection includes such all time favourites as The Tender Trap, Night and
Day, Willow Weep for Me and Angel Eyes. The Dave Gold Big Band fills the Nelson
Riddle role, playing arrangements by Jim Doherty and Dave Gold himself.
Seán Hession and The Dave Gold Big Band will play two concerts in The Helix, Mahony Hall, DCU, on Friday, December 17 and Saturday 18.
Jazz - Matt Nugent
Evening Herald
11th Nov 2004
It's finally arrived ... the long-awaited debut album from vocalist Seán Hession.
Aptly named The Hession Session, the CD (currently only available through Seán's
website www.franklysinatra.com) manages to catch the intimacy and sound that
makes a "Hession Session " so memorable.
The 16 piece backing band includes many of Ireland's finest jazz musicians, including
Louis Stewart and Noel Kelehan. But the star of the show is Hession's rendition
of 16 compositions from the Great American Songbook,made famous by Frank Sinatra.
The album would make a great Christmas gift for Hession's many fans - as would a pair of tickets for his two festive concerts at the Helix's Mahony Hall on December 17 and 18 at 8pm.
Now regarded as one of the country's top vocalists, Hession returns to the venue he sold out during June and December appearances last year.
Again he will be accompanied by the Dave Gold 16-piece Big Band for a surefire Sinatrafest.
Seán and the Sinatra sound
Jazz - Matt Nugent
Evening Herald
August 17 1999
There are three and even four generations of the one family worldwide who
are ardent Frank Sinatra fans, attracted to Old Blue Eyes’ music, whether it
be in the big band setting of Tommy Dorsey in the ‘30s, through the classic,
soulful albums with Nelson Riddle of the ‘50s, or the top 10 hits of the ‘60s
and ‘70s.
And he is still
big business. There are hundreds of
‘performers’ worldwide making a good living as either lookalikes or mimics,
copying the great man’s every nuance and vocal inflections. Yet they all seem to lack that ability to
capture what Sinatra was all about as a singer.
All except our
own Seán Hession, whose critically acclaimed Frankly Sinatra show at Renard’s
last month makes a welcome - and early - return to the venue tomorrow night and
next Wednesday as well.
There is more to
Hession than just his uncanny resemblance to the sound of Sinatra. He is a musician who is a confirmed Sinatra
follower, who interprets the master’s repertoire with great dedication and
feeling.
His programme
tends to concentrate on the first three wonderful decades of Sinatra’s career
and with a trio of John Wadham (drums),
Dave Fleming (double bass) and Myles Drennan (piano), he has the perfect small
‘small orchestra’ to show off his not inconsiderable talents.
This is currently one of the best night’s entertainment in any genre in the
Capital. So get to Renard’s early not to be disappointed.
Capturing the Sinatra sound
Jazz - Matt Nugent
Evening Herald
August 13 1999
With seriously good vocalist Seán Hession and his Frankly Sinatra tribute
tonight and the distinctive sound of Scottish tenor sax player Bobby Wellins
tomorrow and Thursday, Renard’s Jazz Club once again offers a very diverse programme
this week.
It was standing room only for Hession last week with his wonderful interpretation
of the best of Sinatra.
Sounds Like Sinatra….
JAZZ: Colm O’Sullivan has been fixing his tux for the ‘Frankly Sinatra’ show
this week.
Sunday Tribune
August 21 1999
Singer Seán Hession, an uncanny Sinatra soundalike who has surrounded himself
with some of the country’s finest and most experienced jazz musicians, is busy
these days purveying his quality show Frankly Sinatra to enthusiastic audiences.
Keep an eye out for him as his performances this week
includeRenard’s and the Gaiety (see Listings).
Recognise This GUY?
Deadline Magazine
July 1999
He’s the man with the plan who’s done signature tunes for such brands as Finches
Orange – “I’ve got you under my skin” and Toyota Ireland - “ That’s Life”.
He the local voice who crooned the tune
asking “Who wants to be a millionaire” for the National Lottery and most
recently he’s been working hard takin’ things “ Nice ‘n’ Easy” for
Easygold. Any Ideas? Top marks to those who recognise not so Ol’
Blue Eyes himself. Mr. Seán “as good as
Frankie Sinatra any day, chief” – Hession.
Let's
face the music