AprilCadence2013

JOE SARDARO
THE PHOTOGRAPH
NO LABEL NAME / NO
CATALOG #
THE DAYS OF WINE AND
ROSES / THE END OF A LOVE
AFFAIR / ALL OR NOTHING
AT ALL / THE PHOTOGRAPH
/ STAR EYES / THE MORE I
SEE YOU / I CAN'T BELIEVE
THAT YOU'RE IN LOVE
WITH ME / WHEN SUNNY
GETS BLUE / THE NIGHT
HAS A THOUSAND EYES /
SKYLARK / BUT NOT FOR
ME / SUMMERTIME / ONCE
I LOVED / THERE'S NO YOU /
SECRET LOVE. 60:35.
Joe Sardaro, vcl; Doug
McDonald, g; Harvey
Newmark, b; Jack LeCompte,
d; Charlie Shoemake,
vib; Bob Summers, tpt,
flgh. Recording date(s)
unspecified; Woodland Hills,
CA.
New Issues
177 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013
This is Joe Sardaro's third CD release ( 7/09, p. 91;
10/10, p. 198 ) and pretty much par for his course.
From what I can piece together from the liner notes (
"In Joe's Own Words" ), he was born in the late 1930s
or very early 1940s which makes him over 70 now. He
started singing professionally when he was 20 (in or
around 1960?) and some quarter of a century later, in
1986, Leonard Feather wrote ( as quoted in the CD's
liner) - "He leaves no doubt about his potential." OK,
let's stipulate that Feather was talking about Sardaro.
I'm willing to overlook the ambiguity in the assertion.
(That this singer has chosen to publish the comment out
of context seems to make clear that he sees no ambiguity.)
Of course, the anonymous creator of the overall
mini-LP package, has also chosen to quote Sardaro, himself,
as follows: "Hip, but not over-hip." No idea when,
and under what circumstances, Joe uttered those words.
Was he being modest, defensive or boastful?
Sardaro sings the title tune backed only by co-producer
Doug McDonald's tranquil guitar. It's the only nonstandard
on the program and there is nary a word about
it in the liner. The authors of the song are only partially
identified: their first initials and last names only - "D.
Caymm/T. Mann." Does this refer to Dori Caymmi and
Trudi Mann, with Dori's last name misspelled? If not, I
beg their pardons. This was the song that Sardaro chose
to be the album's titular representative, so to speak - a
dreary ode of regret with a rather convoluted lyric - "a
moment in a picture lasts forever / full of promises that
never / chased the shadows from the daylight / in a
photograph of what we might have been." I find no
other mention or recording of this song anywhere, so
this would seem to be its premiere, but still not a word
in the liner notes. And, getting back to the issue of
unrealized potential, does the lyric's "what we might
have been" have some resonance? OK, that's a stretch, I
admit.
Now, another quarter of a century since Feather's
validation of Sardaro's potential, it's remains just
potential. His heart is in the right place, but his vocal
skills are still in a formative stage. He has intonation
issues with less than confident phrasing compounding
his problem. His lyric interpretations bring nothing