I have to thank everyone who voted in my last Battle of the Bands for the great turnout I had. Let’s see how this one goes.
"How Long Has This Been Going On" was written by George and Ira Gershwin for their 1927 musical Funny Face. It’s become a jazz standard, meaning there have been a lot of covers of it. The two covers we’ll be looking at were recorded by two smooth jazz chanteuses in the 1980’s. In my opinion, smooth jazz gets a bad rap for not being "jazz enough," but smooth jazz artists more than hold their own when doing straight-ahead jazz, and I think you’ll agree that these are two high-quality performances.
Patti Austin
Patti did the song on her 1988 album The Real Me.
Diane Schuur
Diane did the song on her 1986 album Timeless.
As always, anyone can vote in these battles, and I’d like to encourage those of you who leave "like"s on these posts to participate. All you have to do is follow these simple directions:
- Listen to the two songs.
- Decide which song you like the best.
- Vote for your favorite by leaving me a comment with your choice. If you feel like telling us why, feel free.
- Then, visit the other participants and vote in their Battles:
- Stephen at STMcC Presents Battle of the Bands
- Arlee at Tossing It Out
- Mike at Mike’s Ramblings
- Cathy at Curious As A Cathy
- Mary B at Jingle Jangle Jungle
- Diedre at Streampebbles
- Debbie at BOTB by Debbie D
You have until next Wednesday, February 22, at noon Eastern (US) Time to cast your vote. At that time, I’ll tally the votes and announce the winner here.
The lines are now open. Good luck to Patti and Diane!
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
Diane Shuur all the way for me! She puts dome oomph into the song while Patti just was boring to me.
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BROTHER JOHN ~
Jazz is my #1 favorite musical genre. My 16-year-old Hard Rock fanatic self would never have believed that I would ever write such a thing! I guess I eventually grew up and my musical tastes matured as well.
I generally agree with you about “Smooth Jazz” getting an undeserved bad rap. Of course that’s not to say I dig it all. I simply can’t listen to stuffs by Kenny G and Dave Koz — that’s just too insipid for me. But when I think of “Smooth Jazz”, guys like Chris Botti and David Sanborn immediately come to mind, and I dig plenty of their recordings. I think one could maybe even place a lot of the earlier Pat Metheny Group recordings in the “Smooth Jazz” category, and that is some of my favorite music ever.
I thought both of these recordings were pretty good, but I preferred DIANE SCHUUR for sure. She seemed to have a bit more emotional angst in the sound of her voice (i.e., I thought Diane was hurting more than Patti was).
~ D-FensDogG
‘Loyal American Underground’
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I’ll go with Diane Schuur. I think her voice is more fitting for a jazz song.
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John,
Patty Austin definitely gets my vote! Her soft vocals are excellent what I like hearing out of female vocalists. Now, I’m curious to listen to more of her music. Thanks for dropping by yesterday to vote in my mid-month BOTB, my friend!
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I don’t love this song in either version but would vote for Diane Schuur
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Patti Austin gets my vote
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I’m not much of a fan of jazz, John, but I think Diane Schuur has a better jazz voice. I’ll go with here
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