''Dragonfly Summer'' is a

smooth Smooth may refer to: Mathematics * Smooth function, a function that is infinitely differentiable; used in calculus and topology * Smooth manifold, a differentiable manifold for which all the transition maps are smooth functions * Smooth algebrai ...

vocal jazz Vocal jazz or jazz singing is a genre within jazz music where the voice is used as an instrument. Vocal jazz began in the early twentieth century. Jazz music has its roots in blues and ragtime and can also traced back to the Dixieland jazz, New Or ...

studio album by American singer-songwriter and musician Michael Franks. It was released in 1993 with

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any re ...

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians and vocalists

* Michael Franks – vocals *

Jeff Lorber Jeffrey H. Lorber (born November 4, 1952) is an American keyboardist, composer, and record producer. After six previous nominations, Lorber won his first Grammy Award on January 28, 2018 for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for ''Prototype'' ...

– keyboards (1, 2, 5, 7) *

Russell Ferrante Yellowjackets is an American jazz fusion band founded in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. History In 1977, guitarist Robben Ford, for his first solo album, recruited keyboardist Russell Ferrante, electric bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer ...

– keyboards (3, 4, 8, 10) *

Gil Goldstein Gil Goldstein (born November 6, 1950, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American jazz pianist and accordionist. He has won 5 Grammy Awards and he was nominated 8 times. Biography He began studying accordion at age 5 after noticing it in The Lawrence ...

– keyboards (6, 12) *

Warren Bernhardt Warren Bernhardt (November 13, 1938 – August 19, 2022) was an American pianist in jazz, pop and classical music. Early life Bernhardt was born in Wausau, Wisconsin. His father was a pianist, leading him to have early childhood exposure to pian ...

– acoustic piano (9, 11) *

Paul Jackson Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American Jazz fusion, fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. In addition to being a recording artist in his own right, Jackson is also a session player, with a career ...

– guitars (1, 2, 5, 7) *

Steve Khan Steve Khan (born Steven Harris Cahn; April 28, 1947) is an American jazz guitarist. Career Steven Harris Cahn was born in Los Angeles. His father, lyricist Sammy Cahn, "loved to hear any and all versions of his songs". He took piano lessons as a ...

– guitars (3, 4, 8, 10) *

Toninho Horta Antônio Maurício Horta de Melo (born December 2, 1948) is a Brazilian jazz guitarist and vocalist. In addition to composing and performing his own work, Horta has worked for many years as arranger or sideman for Brazilian artists such as E ...

– guitars (6, 12) *

John Pisano John Pisano (February 6, 1931 – May 2, 2024) was an American jazz guitarist. Biography John Pisano was born in Staten Island, New York, on February 6, 1931. Pisano worked with Herb Alpert, Billy Bean, Chico Hamilton, Peggy Lee, and Joe Pass. ...

– guitars (9, 11) * Alec Milstein – bass (1, 2, 5, 7) *

Jimmy Haslip James Robert Haslip (born December 31, 1951) is an American bass guitarist who was a founding member of the jazz fusion group the Yellowjackets, which he left in 2012. He was also an early user of the five-string electric bass. Early life and ...

– bass (3, 4, 8, 10) *

Steve Rodby Steve Rodby (born December 9, 1954, in Joliet, Illinois) is an American jazz bassist and producer known for his time with the Pat Metheny Group. Biography Rodby was born in Joliet, Illinois, into a musical family. His father was a music teache ...

– bass (6, 12) *

John Patitucci John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing the electric bass at age 10, performing and composing at age 12, and at age 15, s ...

– bass (9, 11) * John Robinson – drums (1, 2, 5, 7) * William Kennedy – drums (3, 4, 8, 10) *

Alex Acuña Alejandro Neciosup Acuña (born December 12, 1944), known professionally as Alex Acuña, is a Peruvian–American jazz drummer and percussionist. He has also worked as an educator at University of California, Los Angeles, and Berklee College of ...

– drums (9, 11), percussion (9, 11) *

Paulinho da Costa Paulinho da Costa (, born Paulo Roberto da Costa on May 31, 1948) is a Brazilian percussionist. Beginning his career as a samba musician in Brazil, he moved to the United States in the early 1970s and worked with Brazilian bandleader Sérgio Me ...

– percussion (1, 2, 5, 7) *

Mino Cinelu Mino may refer to: Places in Japan * Mino, Gifu, a city in Gifu Prefecture * Mino, Kagawa, a former town in Kagawa Prefecture * Mino, Tokushima, a town in Tokushima Prefecture * Mino, an alternate spelling of Minoh, a city in Osaka Prefecture * ...

– percussion (6, 12) *

Dave Koz David Stephen Koz (born March 27, 1963) is an American saxophonist, composer, record producer, and radio personality based in Los Angeles, California. Early life Dave Koz was born in Encino, California, to Jewish parents: Norman, a dermatologis ...

– alto saxophone (1, 2, 5, 7) *

Bob Mintzer Robert Alan Mintzer (born January 27, 1953) is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader. Early life Mintzer was born and raised in a Jewish family in New Rochelle, New York, on January 27, 1953. He attended the Inte ...

– soprano saxophone (3, 4, 8, 10), tenor saxophone (3, 4, 8, 10) * Chris Hunter – alto saxophone (9, 11) *

Marvin Stamm Marvin Louis Stamm (born May 23, 1939) is an American jazz trumpeter. Career Stamm was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Stamm began on trumpet at age twelve. He attended North Texas State University, where he was a member of the One ...

– trumpet (3, 4, 8, 10),

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

(3, 4, 8, 10) * Eric Benét Jordan – backing vocals (1, 2, 5, 7) *

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (1951–2023), professor of classics at Brigham Young Univ ...

– backing vocals (3, 4, 8, 10) * Lance Hoppen – backing vocals (3, 4, 8, 10) *

Larry Hoppen Orleans is an American pop rock band formed in 1972 in Woodstock, New York by John Hall, Larry Hoppen and Wells Kelly. Larry's younger brother, bassist Lance Hoppen and drummer Jerry Marotta joined the band in 1972 and 1976, respectively. The ba ...

– backing vocals (3, 4, 8, 10) * Dan Hicks – guest vocals (9) *

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...

– guest vocals (11) Orchestra (Tracks 6 & 12) * Gil Goldstein – arrangements and conductor * Harvey Estrin and Lawrence Feldman –

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

* Jesse Levy, Richard Locker, Charles McCracken and Nathan Stutch – cello * Lamar Alsop, Ronald Carbone, Harold Coletta Karen Dreyfus, Olivia Koppell and

Emanuel Vardi Emanuel Vardi (21 April 1915 – 29 January 2011), an American violist, was considered to have been one of the great viola players of the 20th century. Early life Emanuel Vardi was born April 21, 1915, in Jerusalem. His mother, Anna Joffa Va ...

– viola

Production

* Michael Franks – executive producer * Jeff Lorber – producer (1, 2, 5, 7), arrangements (1, 2, 5, 7), recording (1, 2, 5, 7) * Yellowjackets – producers (3, 4, 8, 10), arrangements (3, 4, 8, 10) * Gil Goldstein – producer (6, 12), arrangements (6, 12) * Ben Sidran – producer (9, 11) * Alan Meyerson – mixing (1, 2, 5, 7) * James Farber – recording (3, 4, 6, 8-12), mixing (6, 9, 11, 12) * Thomas Mark – recording (3, 4, 8, 10) * Dan Garcia – mixing (3, 4, 8, 10) * Allen Sides – recording (9, 11) * Michael Reiter – assistant engineer * Eric Rudd – assistant engineer * David Schiffman – assistant engineer * Willie Will – assistant engineer * Dan Sheperd – original demo recording at Soundcheck Studio (New York, NY) *

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...

– mastering at Sterling Sound (New York, NY) * Chris Anderson – sequence assembling at Nevessa Studios (Saugerties, NY) * Sally Poppe – album coordinator * Christine Cano – art direction, design * Kip Lott – photography * Margaret Kimura – hair, make-up * Borman Entertainment – management

Reception

Music critic Alex Henderson had mixed feelings for the album, writing in

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

that it "isn't one of the pop/jazz singer's better albums, but it has its moments." He was critical of

's duet in "You Were Meant for Me", but thought highly of the "String of Pearls" and "Monk's New Tune" tracks produced by

The Yellowjackets Yellowjackets is an American jazz fusion band founded in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. History In 1977, guitarist Robben Ford, for his first solo album, recruited keyboardist Russell Ferrante, electric bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer R ...

. Stanton was more positive for his review on

Audioholics Audioholics is an audio/video (A/V) and home theater technology review site and Internet forum. The website publishes detailed technical reviews of commercial audio, video and other electronics equipment. Product of the Year Awards is Audioholi ...

, commenting that "Michael Franks was in top form for this release: catchy, cynical lyrics and great music from great musicians."

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Michael Franks (musician) albums 1993 albums Reprise Records albums