Electronic Press Kit

My Undivided Attention

A combination of witty-serious stories and warmhearted ballads makes Rob McGilton’s new jazz vocal album a play-it-again listening experience.

The record was produced and co-arranged by Portland jazz pianist Randy Porter, two-time Grammy winner. Other top musicians on the album are drummer Todd Strait, guitarist Jack Radsliff, trumpet and flugelhorn players Dick Titterington and Dmitri Matheny, bassists Patrick Golicnik and Dan Dean, and saxophonist David Evans. Evans wrote sparkling horn arrangements for the songs.

Influenced by Dave Frishberg, Randy Newman, and Lorraine Feather, McGilton’s lyrics often use an “untrustworthy narrator” to comment on human foibles and 21st-century issues: Examples: a brief Supermarket Love Affair, a guy whose complete history from the Department of Lies totals 30 boxes, and a cell phone-obsessed dude whose Undivided Attention is anything but. Infatuation with a Little Plastic Card turns to desperation, a radio guru reveals the three magic words for getting un-stuck, Do It Anyway, and an older man has a Bucket List focused on life’s “small sweet pleasures.” I Always Had a Thing For You, a lovely ballad by Shelly Berg and Lorraine Feather, closes the album.