Eric Comstock’s Recordings

NO ONE KNOWS (Harbinger Records)

A unique mix of standards and rarities by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Paul Simon, Oscar Brown, Jr., and other masters of jazz and pop.

Songs include: Old Devil Moon, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Imagination, Small World, Jump for Joy, Hazel’s Hips, There Will Never Be Another You, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, If I Had My Druthers, Easy on the Heart, To the Ends of the Earth, I Do It For Your Love, Grievin’, I Hear Music, When Lights Are Low, No One Knows

Eric Comstock, piano and vocals

Frank Wess, tenor saxophone and flute

Wycliffe Gordon, trombone

Eric Reed, piano

Peter Bernstein, guitar

Peter Washington, bass

Matt Wilson, drums

PRAISE FOR ERIC COMSTOCK CD "NO ONE KNOWS"
 
"assured...one of the most engaging new vocalists on the scene...cool sophistication...
unpretentious, straightforward vocal style...a breakout effort."
--Dan McClenaghan, AllAboutJazz.com, 28 April 2005
 
"NO ONE KNOWS" is the singer-pianist's third and most jazz-assured album. From cabaret, Comstock has learned 
to value the words and intentions of composers; he approaches lyrics with the care of an actor who has studied the 
back-story of a plot. And he's a resourceful curator of the American jazz and classic pop songbook. Yet he inhabits 
songs easily, eschewing the arch pretensions of 'high' cabaret for the more relaxed approacvh of the saloon singer.... 
There's not a disappointing track on this album, and when the last track, 'I Hear Music', ends, you want to hear it all again.
--George Kanzler, HOT HOUSE, March 2005
 
“The best (popular singers) specialize in the intelligent re-shaping of familiar songs, thinking them through, 
without obvious fireworks, and emerging with something fresh and touching. A recent recorded example is 
Eric Comstock's singing of Imagination, with its whimsically conversational Johnny Burke lyric 
(and matching Jimmy Van Heusen melody). This occurs on No One Knows (Harbinger), a remarkably refreshing 
album that announces something rare: the presence in the genre of a young male singer who's worth taking seriously. 
Comstock is a New York singer-pianist with a talent for landing on the right unexpected word and making it sound logical. 
He seems to have shed what was previously a nondescript preppiness; his voice is still light but it has body, 
and it takes him to most of the places he wants to go; he can swing, crisply and modestly (like the young Jack Jones of
the 1960s, before his style got bloated). His rhythm lets him rescue a potentially maudlin song like To the Ends of the Earth. 
His repertoire is very impressive; it stretches beyond the standard suspects, to Paul Simon and Oscar Brown Jr; 
he has even, most rarely in these latitudes, found an interesting new song, Easy on the Heart, with music by 
Charlie Haden and coherent words by Arthur Hamilton, the man who wrote Cry Me a River and who knows how to 
explore a conceit rather than exhaust it. Even better is Comstock's title track, a magical discovery of a song by 
Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington's cohort that, indeed, No One Knew....Either doing lost-love songs or lost-in-love songs, 
Comstock is excellent. Superb musicians (Wycliffe Gordon and the revered Frank Wess) offer rich support. “
--Robert Cushman, NATIONAL POST (Canada), February 2005
 
As expected, the repertoire is choice and the renditions earnest, but the surprise is in the tasty jazzers backing 
the proceedings. Comstock has amazing taste....Here he expands his reach and hits the mark beautifully.
 --George Evans, PLANET JAZZ, Winter/Spring 2005
 
"Comstock's effortless style...is instantly affecting and irresistably inviting....
Comstock's 16-song offering is pure gold from first note to last....'Small World'
is an absolutely perfect moment in Comstock's understated and unprotracted delivery 
every moment of this album is flawless, and it will be hard to top as the year's best."
--Jeff Rossen, CABARET SCENES/GAY CHICAGO, April 2005
 
It is always satisfying to see a musician grow as a performer, stretching for something new, yet remaining faithful 
to the roots that attracted you in the first place....Comstock's pleasant baritone is easy on the ears, his attention to
lyrics is sublime, and he is developing a keen sense of jazz phrasing.... a quality album of quality songs perfformed 
by quality musicians. 
--Joe Lang, JERSEY JAZZ 
 
Comstock manages to dazzle us not only with his expertise on piano but also with with many-faceted, savvy vocals...
a finger-snapping delight...a most pleasing treat for your ears!
--Dan Singer, IN TUNE INTERNATIONAL (UK), February 2005

All Hart: Songs of Lorenz Hart. (2000, After Nine Records).

An acclaimed Rodgers and Hart collection.

“In the darker corners of that alley of the tin pans, there were rats, horrors real and imagined, and the detritus of countless dreams gone bad. This was home to the lyricist Lorenz Hart, who with Richard Rodgers created some of the most sublimely tortured music in any genre, ever. Comstock, an impossibly gifted young jazz-pop vocalist and pianist, is one of the few artists since Sinatra with the depth, intelligence, and chops to do it justice. Grade: A.” -- David Hajdu, Entertainment Weekly

Songs include: With a Song in My Heart, It Never Entered My Mind, My Heart Stood Still, The Blue Room, Isn’t It Romantic, I Married An Angel, I Wish I Were In Love Again

Young Man Of Manhattan. (1998, Harbinger Records).

Songs include: About a Quarter to Nine, Beyond the Sea, The Way You Look Tonight, S’Wonderful, Ev’rytime We Say Goodbye

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