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Personnel includes: Dionne Warwick, El DeBarge, Tyrese, Celia Cruz (vocals); Kevin Dorsey (vocals, keyboards); Damon Elliott, Ray J., Big Daddy Kane, Mic Geronimo, Royal Flush, Coolio (rap vocals); Jonathan Butler (vocals, guitar); Zane Giles (guitar, keyboards, bass, background vocals); Neil Anzalotti, Kevin Afflack, Michael Landau, Lee Valentine (guitar); Ray Fuller (electric guitar); Gerald Albright (flute, soprano & alto saxophones, bass); Sewind Horns, The Pete Escovedo Orchestra (horns); Guy Moon, Joe Kloess (piano); Rob Schrock (organ, keyboards, percussion); Danny Baker, Gregory Williams, Joel Scott (keyboards); Freddie Washington, Wade Short (bass); David Elliott, Ed Smith (drums); Pete Escovedo (percussion); Bobby Brown, Horace Brown (background vocals). Producers include: Steve Tyrell, Zane Giles, Kevin Dorsey, Damon Elliott, Teddy Harmon. Engineers include: Jeffrey "Woody" Woodruff, Bobby Ginsburg, Bobby Brooks. This edition is on MCI. Just as Elvis Costello has helped make Burt Bacharach safe for a world touched by Kurt Cobain, with the collaboration PAINTED FROM MEMORY, so the original (and greatest) Bacharach interpreter attempts to update some of her early hits for the hip-hop generation. 35 years after the fact, Dionne Warwick's timbre has darkened a bit, but all those infomercials and psychic networks have done little to diminish her rhythmic savvy. Contemporary guest artists such as DeBarge and Jonathan Butler do their part, but the most exciting contributor has to be the great salsa singer, Celia Cruz, who enlivens "Do You Know The Way To San Jose" in a high-spirited one-on-one tradeoff of Spanish to English. Also in a Latin mode, Warwick's sensual reprise of Ary Barrosa's classic anthem "Aquarela Do Brasil" allows the singer to revel in a moment of pure non-Bacharach melody and show off a little Portuguese to boot.
