Sting fans might be interested in Joshua Bell’s new album entitled At Home With Friends. Sting lends his vocals to the song “Come Again”, and a few other musicians affiliated with Sting also contributed on this album, including Chris Botti playing trumpet for “I Loves You Porgy” and Anoushka Shankar playing sitar for “Variant Moods”.
The song “Come Again” was previously featured on Sting’s classical lute album Songs From The Labyrinth and has been rearranged beautifully for Joshua Bell’s new CD. And Sting fans will recognize Anoushka Shankar from her sitar performance on “Book Of My Life” from Sting’s album Sacred Love.
Joshua Bell must have a lot of musical “friends”, because many more amazing singers and musicians appear on this album, including Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, Regina Spektor, Dave Grusin, and Marvin Hamlisch among others.
This is a lovely classical CD showcasing the Grammy award-winning talent of violinist Joshua Bell, and you can actually listen to the entire album on his website. There are 16 songs total with a nice mix of instrumental-only songs and songs with vocals, and there are several easily recognizable favorites like the delightful “My Funny Valentine” and crowd-pleaser “Eleanor Rigby”. At Home With Friends touches on many different styles of music, from classical, jazz and bluegrass to pop, broadway and world music. Take a listen and you just might find something you like from this Midwesterner originally from Bloomington, Indiana.
