JD Walter - What the World Needs Now - Arkadia Records

This album of overlooked gems reveals JD Walter’s skills as a composer, his mastery of the intimate ballad, his talent for reinventing Pop and Jazz Standards to bring a new depth to these songs, and his ability to swing, scat, and harmonize like no one else. The album delivers a mix of a) three JD original compositions, b) reinterpretations of three pop hits (Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady”, Lennon and McCartney’s “And I Love Her”, Burt Bacharach & Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now”, and c) four poignant romantic Jazz Standards. The implicit hope for this album is a plea for peace and love, as highlighted by the title song “What the World Needs Now”. Although the words seem quite simple as a pop hit, it took Hal David two years to complete them, given that the controversy of the Vietman War was an underlying meaning of his lyrics.