Riding with Junior McGee
Charlie Barnett recalls just where he was in 1974. click here
Charlie Barnett
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Chaise Lounge on NPR's Sunday Edition
Where is Dick Cavett?
Charlie and Marilyn talk about Second Hand Smoke with NPR’s Liane Hansen. Click here
Rehearsal at the Lounge
Had a great rehearsal in preparation for the “Marquee” tour of Maryland. One of the most fun parts of it was getting a handle on Marilyn’s new song. You heard that right, my friends! Mo has a new tune for you. We will be springing that one on you in the summer. Can’t wait to play in Baltimore tomorrow night at the Patterson and at Bethesda’s new club, Bethesda Blues and Jazz on Saturday night.
Chaise Lounge in the News(eum)
Looking forward to a really cool gig at the Newseum tomorrow night. We are playing for the opening of the new Kennedy exhibit. And from what I’ve been told a whole slew of Kennedys will be there! Can’t wait.
All Blues
All Blues- Tommy and Charlie from Chaise Lounge Really cool photo from Erika Horn/ CoZmiK Photography
Xmas album "channels joy of holiday season," WaPo says
Catherine P. Lewis of The Washington Post praises our Christmas album:
The “lounge” in Chaise Lounge’s name is no accident: This local sextet plays a cool blend of jazz and lounge that’s as easy to listen to as it is to recline in a comfy chair. On the group’s new album, “A Very Chaise Lounge Christmas,” the band tackles traditional holiday classics, lesser-known covers and a few original compositions.
Coupled with arrangements by the group’s pianist, Charlie Barnett, singer Marilyn Older’s voice is charming here. Chaise Lounge’s versions of “Good King Wenceslas” and “The Little Drummer Boy” give a fresh pep to those overplayed songs, and Older’s take on “Mister Santa” (a holiday song with the “Mr. Sandman” melody) is delightfully sweet. Chaise Lounge revives an old Jimmy Charles hit, “Christmasville, U.S.A.,” with twinkling piano and sassy horns, and later gives a modern flair to the fun retro lyrics of Steve Allen’s “Cool Yule.”
Surprisingly for a holiday album, though, Chaise Lounge’s original songs are the most memorable. Barnett’s piano melody beautifully complements Older on the ballad “The Heart of December,” while the whole group conveys a lively restraint on the horn-filled “December 25.” But the most charming composition is “Snow Day,” which channels the joy of the holiday season with a youthful innocence that’s usually impossible to capture outside of the genre of children’s music.