Mark Twain once wrote, "Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." Actor W.C. Fields had another take on happiness, saying, "Start the day with a smile and get it over with." As for jazz singer Tierney Sutton, happiness is just a state of mind. VOA's Doug Levine has more.
Tierney Sutton puts the pursuit of happiness to the test on her latest album, On The Other Side. It's an entire album of happy songs, or at least eight of 13 songs with "happy" in the title, as interpreted by one of today's most engaging performers.
Looking for something different? Check out Tierney's twist on Harold Arlen's "Get Happy."
An upbeat, scat-singing Tierney Sutton is heard on "Get Happy," while Tierney takes on an introspective, torch-singing tone on "Make Someone Happy."
Tierney Sutton worked her way up the usual ranks to achieve leading jazz lady status. She graduated from the Berklee College of Music and was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition. Since 1999, she's recorded almost one album a year, including tribute albums to Bill Evans and Miles Davis.
Her new album On The Other Side, released under the name Tierney Sutton Band, pays tribute to various composers of the Great American Songbook. Among them, Rodgers and Hammerstein who gave us "Happy Talk" from the Broadway musical "South Pacific."
