Alexis Cole's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To"

Alexis Cole's You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To Venus VHCD-1046

Full disclosure, I have been following the singer Alexis Cole for some time now. I first heard her when I lived back in the metro New York are and I caught her performing in a local Westchester venue after hearing her sing on a fabulous album I Carry Your Heart : Alexis Cole Sings the Music of Pepper Adams from 2012. The friends that I brought along at the time were so taken by her beguiling voice and charming, unassuming stage manner that they became instant fans and snapped up all of her recordings. At the same time they all wondered how such a fabulous singer had been running so low under the radar. I explained that Cole was serving her country as a member of the armed services for a stretch of six years, where she nonetheless continued to sing, fronting with the Army big band up at West Point. 

She was just getting her professional career started after attending undergraduate studies at William Patterson College and later at Queen’s College for graduate studies. I continued to follow her and saw her perform with the pianist Pete Malinverni at his Jazz Vespers series at the Pound Ridge Community Church, where he is musical director. She continued to impress me with her easy, unforced delivery and vocal acumen. I just loved her voice. By this time, she was snapped up by SUNY Purchase College as an instructor. 

Later that year, I was curating a jazz series for the Stamford Center for the Performing Arts in Stamford CT. I wanted her to be the lead off act for a new jazz series that we were piloting and she enthusiastically obliged bringing with her a fabulous group of musicians that included the guitarist Jack Wilkins, the bassist Andy McKee and the drummer Mike Clark. Predictably she was a big hit.

When I moved to the Atlanta area we stayed in touch via email and I was pleased when she asked me if I would write the liner notes for a Chesky Records project she was doing covering Paul Simon tunes. The album, which was titled Dazzling Blue from 2016, was a fine mix of Simon’s poetic music performed in a bare, roots-based style with Cole’s haunting vocals, Mark Peterson’s bass and Marvin Sewell’s guitar on most of the tracks. Cole was finally beginning to be noticed as the record climbed to 24 on the Billboard jazz charts.

The music on Cole’s latest album, You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To, was recorded back in 2010 at Avatar Studios in New York. Cole’s Japanese label, Venus, released the album in Japan in 2011. It was only available as an import before this year when the album was printed and released in the US. Lucky for us that the Japanese jazz fans didn't just keep this one to themselves, as this is a swinging session with Alexis in excellent form and her band offering inspired support behind her. 

The group is made up of many of the musicians that regularly perform at the upper West Side of Manhattan super club SMOKE. They include tenor star Eric Alexander, versatile trumpeter Jim Rotundi, masterful trombonist Steve Davis, pianist David Hazeltine, bassist John Webber and ubiquitous drummer Joe Farnsworth. 

Alexis has one of those lilting voices that seems to float in the air. Her delivery is so effortless, so natural, so fluid as to bespeak of some innate talent that requires no sweat equity; but be assured she has honed her craft with many hours of diligent study and assiduous practice. She is s a serious student of the music and like many great singers she has trained herself to become an effective storyteller.

Alexis Cole

While in the past Cole has taken some material from more modern sources, on this one she has mined the reliable Great American Songbook.  Composers like Victor Young, Michel LeGrand, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer, Julie Styne, Jerome Kern and of course Cole Porter have their work wonderfully represented by this talented songstress.

My favorite selections include the lead off Victor Young/Jay Livingston composition “Golden Earrings" where Ms. Cole starts out with a short, tasteful scat before introducing the lyrics out front of the three-horn section of Davis, Alexander and Rotundi and the swinging rhythm section of Hazeltine, Webber and Farnsworth. Rotundi’s muted trumpet meshes beautifully with Cole’s melodious voice, before Davis and then Alexander take turns soloing on this swinging piece. Webber’s big round bass leads the way as Farnsworth’s traps keep the time. Just listen to the ease with which Cole’s voice negotiates the lyrics through the changes, impressive.

The Michel Legrand composition, “I Will Wait For You,” is the perfect vehicle to showcase this lady’s wonderful instrument. After a scatted lead accompanied by a walking bass lead in that sets the tone, Cole starts off with the iconic lyrics. She has an astute sense of timing and her inflections are always subtle with no vocal theatrics. Alexander offers a sublime harmonizing tenor solo before the group plays in tight section style behind her; Cole’s years of experience playing in front of the Army Band has obviously paid dividends.

The highlight of Mancini and Mercers’ “Moon River” is a splendid tenor solo by the powerful Eric Alexander.

Another more obscure Young/Livingston composition “Delilah” finds Cole at her most expressive. Her introduction to this theatrical version of Biblically inspired Middle Eastern music is emblematic of her storytelling acumen. Her voice gently sways into the swing of the music as the horn section plays the evocative Alexander arrangement. Rotundi’s open bell trumpet solo is just magic. Farnsworth’s drum solo is punctuated with a synchronous chorus of Cole’s voice and the stellar horn section. Cole is simply hypnotic. Like a snake charmer’s Punghi transfixes a deadly Cobra into docility, Cole’s sultry vocal treatment captivates you like the Biblical Delilah subjugated the mighty Samson. The soporific beat adds to the enchanting effect.

“Alone Together” is played as a quick tempo swinger with some wonderful solo work by Davis. Rotundi, whose trumpet work on this album raises the entire program, makes a brilliantly succinct statement. Bassist John Webber's beat is always strong and omnipresent.

The poignant “You’ve Changed” is played like a slow ballad with Cole and company wrenching out all the emotion and pathos that this classic song of lament can muster. Listen to Rotundi’s solo on this and marvel at the man’s ability to play precisely what is needed and then listen to Cole’s crystalline voice at the coda. Just beautiful.

Other songs on the album include “Cry Me a River,” “A Beautiful Friendship,” “All the Things You Are,” “So in Love,” and the title song of the album “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”

For those of you who crave to hear familiar standards played with modern, creative arrangements and featuring a fabulous singer backed by a great band, then look no further than Alexis Cole’s You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To. Believe me this is an album you’ll be glad to come home to.

The Spirit of Shirley Horn: The Jack Wilkins Trio featuring Alexis Cole at the SCA Jazz Alley September 18, 2015

On Friday September 18, 2015 the Stamford Center for the Arts, will launch the first of its new jazz series at its Jazz Alley venue. The Jazz Alley is located on the second floor level of the Palace Theater; an intimate cabaret- setting .

Ms. Shirley Valerie Horn was a jazz pianist and vocalist, often compared to great jazz vocalists like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Although she never reached their popularity with the general public she was praised for her accomplished piano playing, her sensuous ballads and the deliberate phrasing of her vocals. Ms. Horn’s work was so admired by the great Miles Davis that he famously insisted she open for him at Max  Gordon’s Village Gate , refusing to play if Gordon didn’t acquiesce to his demand.  Davis saw in Horn a musician of similar sensibilities, who cherished  the space between sounds allowing songs to linger and breathe. She was a master of the slow burn. She once said of her singing  “ I want you to feel what I feel… I want you to be beside me. Be inside me. That’s the way I feel.”

 She was a principled person who balanced home life with her professional life refusing to tour far from her hometown of Washington, D.C. in favor of raising her daughter Rainy. These choices probably had an effect on her commercial success. But ultimately, Mr. Davis wasn’t the only one to realize Ms. Horn’s talent. Fittingly,. after being nominated nine times for a Grammy Awards, she won the Grammy 1998 for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for her  work on I Remember Miles, a tribute to her late friend and mentor.  She also received the NEA Jazz Masters Award, the highest honor the United States bestows upon jazz musicians, in 2005.

Ms. Horn passed at the age of seventy-one in October of 2005, but her music lives on in recordings and in the spirit she infused into every singer that has been influenced by her penetrating style.

Vocalist Alexis Cole has her own story to tell. After studying music at Miami University, William Patterson College, Queens College and a stint studying classical Indian Music at the Jazz Vocal Institute in Mumbai, Ms. Cole decided to join the Army.  There she auditioned and won the jazz vocalist position at the head of the West Point Jazz Knights band.  A finalist in the prestigious Sarah Vaughan vocal competition in 2012, she has recorded ten albums with some of contemporary jazz’s most celebrated instrumentalists. Her latest album is collaboration between her and eighty-nine year old guitarist extraordinaire Bucky Pizzarelli titled A Beautiful Friendship.  Well known Radio Host Jonathan Schwartz has said of Cole, she has “one of the great voices of today.” Stephen Holden of the New York Times called Ms Cole’s singing “exquisite.”

Ms. Cole has often patterned some of her vocal stylings after Ms. Horn and so felt  it would be fitting  to do a show using some of Ms. Horn’s material for this very special tribute.

Accompanying Ms. Cole is the virtuoso guitarist Jack Wilkins. In addition to being known as a master technician with blazing speed on the guitar, Mr. Wilkins has a long and storied history  playing behind world class jazz vocalists when he was with the great drummer Buddy Rich’s orchestra  Mr. Wilkins has played with Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormḗ, Tony Bennett, Chris Connor and Morgana King to name just a few.  Forever  an admired  contemporary player, Wilkin’s version of Freddie Hubbard’s Classic   “Red Clay”  from his album “Windows” continues to fascinate modern listeners.

The rhythm section is comprised of two accomplished veterans. Bassist Andy McKee likes to say he went to the Elvin Jones School of music having played with John Coltrane’s  legendary drummer  for several years.  Drummer Mike Clark is a man who needs no introduction in the world of jazz and funk. Mr. Clark has played with legends like Chet Baker and Herbie Hancock and is probably one of the most sampled drummers by hip hop artists today.

Ms Cole ,Mr. Wilkins and company should make this opening evening at the Jazz Alley a night to remember.

 https://palacestamford.org/events/events-at-the-palace-stamford/event-details/1164-jazz-alley-alexis-cole-details