A Voice to be Savored on Sinne Eeg's "Dreams"

Sinne Eeg Dreams  Artist Share AS0153

At forty years of age, the Danish singer Sinne Eeg is among that rare breed vocalists that can take anything they sing and make it their own. She has a voice to be savored. A force to be reckoned with in her native Scandinavia, her work is little known here in the US. The most recent recording Dreams is just her second release here despite nine outings as a leader. What immediately grabs you about her voice is the natural effortlessness with which she sings. Eeg has a warm supple tone, a wide range, exquisite control and an inherent sense of swing and phrasing that is impeccable. She cites Betty Carter, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughn as influences, and one can certainly find some traces of their styles in her voice, but make no mistake, she is clearly on her own path and it is a refreshing one at that.

Her first US release was a duo album Eeg-Fonnesbaek from 2015 that she did with accomplished Danish double-bassist Thomas Fonnesbaek. The album’s darkly sparse treatment of some of the classics from the Great American Songbook, with Eeg’s gloriously fluid and tonally transcendent voice playing off Fonnesbaek’s warm, bellowing bass was deservedly well received.

Dreams, which just came out in December, took a different tact. It was recorded in Brooklyn, NY in January of 2017. It utilizes the multiple voices of  a very talented backing quartet.  The musicians are some of jazz’s crème de la crème, with the stellar rhythm section of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Joey Baron, the always tasty Larry Koonse on guitar and her longtime collaborator fellow Dane, Jacob Christoffersen holding down the piano chair. If Eeg was hoping to expand her audience on this side of the pond or for that matter around the world, then Dreams should certainly go a long way to achieving that goal.

Of the ten featured songs on the album, two are by Cole Porter, one by Rodgers and Hart and one by Gene De Paul, the remaining six are all Eeg originals and quite compelling.  The opener “The Bitter End” is a slow-cooked, funky blues that features Colley’s bass and Christoffersen’s piano, with Eeg’s expressive voice shining through with authenticity and feeling.

The perky “Head Over High Heels,” written by Eeg and Mads Mathias, has a musical theater, dance-like quality to it.  Eeg’s considerable scat abilities are on display as she and Colley parry in a complementary dialogue that is both slippery and simpatico.

Eeg’s “Love Song” is a torchy ballad that is gorgeously sung with a melancholic expressiveness and also features a gossamer guitar solo by Larry Koonse.

Listening to Eeg and drummer Joey Baron on the imaginative intro to the well-worn Porter standard “What is This Thing Called Love,” is to hear the song with new ears. The walking bass of Colley and the swinging piano of Christoffersen enter the fray with just enough juice to re-energize this classic. Baron’s traps are buoyant and Eeg’s vocals are facile and flawless.

On Richard Rodgers “Falling in Love with Love,” the singer, bassist and guitarist play like a well-oiled trio of seasoned instrumentalists.  Eeg’s vocal scatting is glass-like, so integrated with the music as to be seamless- sliding in and out of the group interplay with ease- you almost forget she’s singing until she returns to the lyrics. Koonse picks another masterful solo.

On the title song “Dreams,” Eeg goes totally wordless, instead using impressionistic vocalization. The song has a nebulous feel to it and Christoffersen’s piano has a  Jarrett influence to it, lightly skipping over the melody, with the rhythm section gently pushing the music along.

As if being such an accomplished vocalist isn’t enough, Eeg’s “Aleppo,” a song she wrote inspired by seeing images of the child victim who was tragically washed up on the seashore while trying to flee the Syrian conflict, is a moving political statement and a testament to this woman’s compositional skills. The evocative music is reverently somber, and her lyrics are sung with an emotional pathos that is quite moving. She proves herself to be a formidable story-teller, a forgotten talent few modern singers seem to have cultivated.  The slow beating bass line, the muted strings on Koonse’s guitar and the delicately sparse Christofferssen piano accompaniment are perfect complements to Eeg’s sincere plaintive verse. “At least we cry for the victims of war and let those children cry no more.”

There is a contemporary pop feel to Eeg’s “Time to Go,” probably my least favorite song on the album.

The arrangement of Gene De Paul’s “I’ll Remember April” is satiny and sleek. Eeg’s voice modulates with a calm assurance, like the steely nerve of an accomplished tightrope walker who works without a net. Her intonations are clear, unstrained and sinewy. Eeg has an abundance of “chops” but what is thoroughly refreshing is her astute awareness of when and how to use them. There is never even a hint of over the top showmanship that seems to be de rigueur with today’s female divas who revel is showing off their range or raspiness. Instead we find nuance, spacing and silky smooth transitions.

The finale is a sparse upbeat duo version of Porter’s “Anything Goes” featuring Sinne’s lilting voice and her accomplished pianist Christoffersen. The two musically dance with each other and around the melody in a comfortable rendering that accentuates the Porter wit.

If Dreams doesn’t make this Danish wonder woman, Sinne Eeg, into a familiar name in the world of jazz music than people are simply not listening.

Jazzmeia Horn's "Social Call" A Impressive New Voice

Jazzmeia Horn  A Social Call Prestige PRS 00112

It should be no surprise that twenty-six-year old jazz vocalist Jazzmeia Horn is one of the most impressive new voices on the music scene today. In 2013, then twenty-two-year old Horn won the impressive Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition. Then again in 2015 she captured the even more impressive Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition, which led to a recording contract with the historic Prestige label and her debut album  A Social Call. While the title references Gigi Gryce’s composition Social Call – a song about a one on one interaction between two individual people trying to find a connection-Horn has expanded the concept of “social” on this album to be a timely call for social responsibility.

The woman has a beautiful, supple vocal instrument with a tremendous range and an intonation that has elements of some of her influences-Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter and Nancy Wilson. She recorded this album while she was still pregnant with her daughter. There is a matriarchal strength to the way she sings some of the songs on the album like the gospel tinged “Lift Every Voice and Sing/Moanin’,” (which features a steamin’ trumpet solo by Josh Evans). 

I was especially moved by her poignant and spectral rendition of Jimmy Rowles’ haunting classic “The Peacocks,” a beautiful song that is not an easy to sing well.  Victor Gould should be singled out for his intuitively sensitive rendition of Rowles shimmering pianistic beauty and how well he comps Ms. Horn’s performance. Ms. Horn’s high register inflections at the coda are perhaps the only evidence of her showing some excess of technique where less is warranted.

The opening tune is a splendidly authentic version of Betty Carter’s gymnastic “Tight.” It’s especially grand to hear her elastic rapport with Stacy Dillard’s fluid tenor. She shows equal affinity to the pliable bass work of Ben Williams on her duet openings of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” and on the title tune “Social Call.” Ms. Horn has an easy, unforced scat style that is instrumental at heart and her unique phrasing emotes a deep understanding of the meaning of a finely crafted lyric. She clearly has a gift for the art, but scatting is best served in tasteful moderation, so as she gestates her vocal personality I am sure she will become more judicious in its use as she matures. The horn section of Dillard on tenor, Josh Evans on trumpet and Frank Lacy on trombone is tight, bright and swinging in the tradition of Cannonball Adderley’s work with Nancy Wilson.

Ms. Horn’s heartening monologue on the intro to the Stylistic’s “People Make the World Go Round,” her gospel/free-form vocalizations- in communication with the African drum and percussion work of Jerome Jennings-that Ms. Horn contribute to “Afro Blue/Eye See You/Wade in the Water," gives the album its’ social context. Ms. Horn’s high register squeaks and trills remind me of the expressive yodeling work of Leon Thomas and her spoken word sections conjures up the poetic work of Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone. There is no doubt that she has been studying her vocal history in all its splendid variations. Her voice holds great prospect for the future. Not only has she absorbed these traditions, she has enough vocal discipline and range to pull off the most difficult of these techniques and enough personal assurance to make the end-product sound like her own invention.

Ms. Horn does her own take on the Scherzinger/Mercer pop classic “I Remember You” and on the soulful “I’m Going Down” originally sung by Rose Royce, on the influential soundtrack to the movie Car Wash. Ms. Horn and her formidable horn section make this last one a rousing exclamation point to this wonderful album. I for one will be looking forward to hearing more from this promising young artist

The Trumpeter Sean Jones Excels with his New "Im.pro.vise"

Sean Jones Im- pro-vise Mac 1080

Trumpeter Sean Jones was a featured voice on Nancy Wilson’s Grammy award winning album, Turned to Blue , from 2006. Since then he has been associated with Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra lending his taut, clean lines to the sound of that formidable ensemble.  Now, at thirty-six years of age, he has released his seventh album as a leader, titled Im-Pro-Vise, on the progressive Mack Avenue Label.  Mr. Jones  is maturing into a leading voice on the instrument and has developed as a talented leader and composer in the genre.

Mr. Jones has chosen a solid rhythm section comprised of the bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Obed Calvaire and a worthy foil, in the impressive Orrin Evans on piano.  Jones offers an inspiring collection of music that pulses, soars, at times intrigues and challenges just enough to titillate the ears and stimulate the mind.

Compositions like the opener “60th & Broadway,”  a tip of the hat to his tenure at JALC, sail on a powerful flow created by Curtis and Calvaire. The tight rhythm section pulls you along comfortably while soloists Jones and Evans offer you surprising aural excursions along the way.

The Akinmusire-like pensive and haunting “Dark Times,” could easily become a standard in its own right. Evans approaches his lines with a singularly introspective touch  as he explores the outer boundaries of harmony. Jones and Evans have a strange but powerful simpatico that is on majestic display here as they counter each other’s ideas over drum rolls by Calvaire. Evans rattling the keyboard in an agitated response to Jones calls. The trumpeter has great command of the high register of his voice producing piercing but clarion clear notes to great effect.

On” Interior Motives”  Jones takes up the mute on his bell creating a distinctive Miles-inspired sound, at times sparse and lingering and at times flowing and mellifluous. Calvaire rims and toms rattle with pronounced syncopated lines and a variety accented timbres.  Evans plays a percussive solo that twists and turns in interesting and surprising ways, at times teasing with almost familiar melodic fragments that appear and just as quickly disappear from his solo.

Jones composition “The Morning After” is a beautiful hymn with roots in the reflective music of worship. It has a Americana feel and could easily be played at a religious ceremony or at a dedication. Initially reflective and respectful, the song slowly blossoms into an eruption of euphoric-like playing by Jones over Evans’ deft ‘comping chords. Explosive rhythmic burst by Calvaire come to a powerfully expressive conclusion.

Under the walking bass line of Curtis and the gentle intro of Evans piano, Jones plays a down home blues that could easily be from an earlier time on “I Don’t Give A Damn Blues.”

“Dr. Jekyll” is a three plus minute exercise in musical tachycardia. It features a double time bass line by Curtis that leads into an Evans intro that sets up a jagged, buzzing-bee type statement by Jones, who plays flawlessly in high register with speed, precision and control.

Jones takes on the Lewis/Hamilton standard “How High the Moon” making it into a vehicle for abstract expression. Pianist Evans is particularly angular in his approach to the melody creating a parallel path to the head that holds to its edges without tracking it too closely to the main theme  A brief bass solo by Curtis  and then Jones returns to state the melody with a muted horn in sparse beauty and with little variation.Calvaire plays his brushes with a gossamer touch.

Another Jones composition “We’ll Meet Under the Stars,” played with a muted bell by Jones,is a ruminative and melancholy song that is played in a laconic style that saunters about in no apparent direction .  Despite the wandering feeling Evans piano is expressively soft and sensitive here.

“New Journey” has a lively drive supplied by Calvaire’s  busy trap work, he could do well to tone down the cacophony a bit here to my ears. Jones uses the quick pace to show some impressive Hubbard-like runs on trumpet. Evans, once again provides a nice counterpoint to Jones solo, taking a more divergent path.

On Orrin Evan’s “Don’t Fall Off the L.E.J.” the group seems to be in total sync as they precisely play the breaks and the spaces in between. Jones enters his solo with a smooth confidence that is paced perfectly with controlled slurs that are deeply expressive.  Evans is at his funkiest here in great contrast to the otherwise cool sound of the piece.

The final piece is a composition by Stephen Sondheim “Not While I‘m Around.”  Evans opens the song with a sparse piano intro that leads to the solemn sound of Jones’ trumpet. The two play the melody in a tasty duet that is expressive, imaginative and just plain beautiful. These musicians have an affinity for each other. They obviously respect the emotive power of this song as they play it with a reverence and sensitivity that cannot be easily duplicated. The performance is both captivating and sincere.

Miss Nancy Wilson Live at BB King's Times Square

Review of Ms Nancy Wilson at BB King’s Blues Club & Grill;

Times Square at night, resplendent in its pixelated luminosity, was clogged with tourists as well as the curious, this despite the recently thwarted bomb attempt on May 1st. The massive showing of police on the scene made it seem like a surreal sequence from a Bruce Willis action film; a city waiting for something ominous to happen.

Despite the eerie mood, the marquis at BB King’s Blues Club & Grill announced to the world that Miss Nancy Wilson was making her first New York appearance in several years. An orderly line of well-dressed, sophisticated New Yorkers spanned from the box office, halfway down forty-second street, patiently awaiting entrance to this sold out show. 

BB King’s is a spacious venue, seating approximately five hundred patrons, located  at 42^nd street between 7^th & 8^th Avenues. It has an excellent sound system with unobstructed viewing from almost any vantage point.

Her long-time rhythm section of Llew Mathews on piano, John B. Williams on bass and Roy Mc Curdy on drums, accompanied the classy and beautiful Miss Wilson. As the house settled in, the trio warmed up with a swinging version of “Yesterdays”. The tight interaction of these fine musicians showed their mutual affinity.

Miss Wilson entered the stage in a sleek and clinging red gown in great form, looking both radiant and beautiful, belying her true age (she is seventy three this year).

Her mobility was somewhat hampered by a broken ankle which was girded by a soft, black cast which she proudly displayed on her right ankle. This display of gritty showmanship endeared her even more to her already enraptured audience.

The set started off with the Van Morrison classic “Moondance”, with Ms Wilson inflecting her voice in her own special way, having  only slight difficulty on some of the higher passages. She prefers to be thought of as a “song stylist” as opposed to a singer.

True to this concept, she seems to be able to internalize the lyric of a song, personalizing it with carefully placed changes in intonation, sometimes introducing subtle growls or wavering inflections to give the words a life of their own. The magic is due in no small part to the accompaniment of Mr. Mathews on piano, who seems to know how to deftly fill in the spaces that Miss Wilson deliberately leaves between words.

On “I Wish I’d  Met You”, Ms. Wilson  engages her audience with the personal footnote that it was dedicated to her husband. Her voice gives the  listener a glimpse into her own inner most thoughts and feelings about the song and its relevance and the audience responds accordingly. She is scrupulous in her choice of material. She has easy conversationalist manner which is totally disarming. A case in point is her introduction to Duke Ellington’s “ Take Love Easy” where she quips to the audience that at her age that is the only way to take love, nice and easy.  Her vocal control became increasingly more refined as the evening progressed; by her own account she has not sung in public for several years.

Perhaps the most moving song of the evening was “Come Home to Me”, a slow blues that she was able to drench in emotion, pathos and sensuality.  She followed this with a slow moving ballad “Don’t Misunderstand” and then as if to prove she hadn’t lost her swing she sang “ I Thought About You” with up beat solos by bassist Williams and pianist Mathews. For most of the evening drummer Roy McCurdy was content to anchoring the beat only occasionally breaking out and soloing briefly. Llew Mathews switched to electric piano for Ms Wilson’s version of Bonnie Raitt’s poignant “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, which for me caught Ms. Wilson a bit out of her element.  

On “Day in Day Out” Ms Wilson’s voice was strong and spunky provoking memories of her ability to work fronting a big band as she once did with the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band on this number.

A duo on “Blame it on My Youth”, with bassist John B. Williams using his upright electric bass, featured a playful interchange, as Williams penchant for sliding bass lines seem to put a smile of Ms. Wilson’s face.

Ms. Wilson made it a point of telling the audience that her rhythm section band members had been with her for at least the last twenty years, quipping with a wink that “…she knew how to hold ‘em, and she didn’t mean poker.”  She is the consummate entertainer and on her next number “Guess Who I Saw Today”, a song she first recorded on her Capitol record Something Wonderful from 1960, she becomes the master storyteller. A sly song of deception, infidelity and discovery, she sings the lyrics with a telling feigned naivete that pulls the listener into the scene she creates with her fetching vocals.  

On the final three songs “How Long Has this Been Going On”, “Teach Me Tonight”( a request that she did with some trepidation)  and “If I Could” her voice was surprisingly elastic, and wonderfully controlled, despite some loss of range. She creates urgency without ever breaking into a screech, knowing full well her own limitations, with Mr. Mathews obligingly lowering the key to accommodate her range when she deemed necessary.I was somewhat disappointed that she didn't sing my personal favorite "Save Your Love for Me" from the seminal album with Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. 

Nevertheless  the show was superb.If there were any doubts as to Ms. Wilson’s vitality and her ability to enthrall her audiences, they were put to rest on Sunday at BB King’s.One look at the line of gentlemen fans that waited for a chance to talk to her or get her autograph at the end of the show left little doubt about her retained popularity. She remains one of the most engaging performers, a true treasure and her return to New York after so many years was nothing short of triumphant.