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.

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

Virginia Schenck perfroms the music of Abbey Lincoln at Atlanta's City Winery

The Vocalsit Virginia Schenck

This past Monday evening the vocal stylist Virginia Schenck brought the musical poetry of Abbey Lincoln to life at one of Atlanta’s newest venues, The City Winery. This was my first time at The City Winery and it was a pleasant, sophisticated experience . Patrons sit in communal tables that face the generous stage and the venue serves food and libations. The space is on the lower level of a shopping center adhjacent to the newly renovated Ponce City Market  and is a good approximation of what NYC jazz venues like the Jazz Standard  are like. 

Ms. Schenck, whose latest cd release is title Aminata Moseka, a tribute to Abbey Lincoln, is an Atlanta area resident who studied music therapy at the University of Florida and has her own music therapy practice in Macon, Georgia. This is her third album and on each outing she has employed the artistry of pianist Kevin Bales, bassist Rodney Jordon and drummer/percussionist Marlon Patton.

Ms. Schenck poses a lean, agile figure dressed in a black leotard top with leather pants under a full fringe black leather open skirt, the fringes freely swaying with her every movment. She was barefoot and had a large silver choker, resplendent with semi-precious stones that wrapped her neck and held her head aloft in regal posture. She often danced around the stage between solos adding to the visual.

The crowd was diverse, one made of fans, press and curious first timers like myself. Ms. Schenck is an animated vocal stylist. Her voice is pleasantly mid-range and while limited she has learned to stay confidently within its boundaries, utilizing a spirited delivery and an imaginative use of sound effects- a technique probably developed during her studies with Bobby McFerrin. Her performance is theatrical with roots in cabaret and musical theater more than jazz, but she can swing and shows an intuitive reverence for the music, especially the lyrics. She is at heart a storyteller who on this project has found a fascination with the poetic music of the late Abbey Lincoln. Lincoln herself was both a singer, an actress as well as a social activist.

Rodney Jordan, Virginia Schecnk, Marlon Patton

Schenck started off the evening entering the stage solo, singing the opening breezy, calypso phrases of Lincoln’s “The Music is the Magic” a cappella. Drummer Patton entered and sat in first, adding percussion to the song introducing a bongo-like beat played with his hands on his tom and snare. Bassist Jordan was next to enter, laying down a swaying bass line before pianist Bales joined in adding his rhythmic piano accents.  The effect was dramatic as the group all came together with Ms. Schenck, eventually ending in as a unified group in perfect precision. 

Ms. Lincoln’s haunting “Another World,” -which Ms. Schenck told the audience was inspired by the musical tone poem from Stephen Spielberg’s movie about extra-terrestrial contact Close Encounters of the Third Kind - was led off by a sensitive Jordan bass solo. There was a slow percussive rhythm to Patton’s drums that spoke of mysterious distant vistas. Bales offered a delightfully buoyant solo that energetically elevated the entire piece to a new high. Ms. Schenck vocal offered the song’s hopeful lyrics adding her own dramatic facial expressiveness.

The set included Lincoln’s cabaret-like “Wholly Earth,” a bluesy folk song “Throw it Away” based on the magic book the I Ching which featured an extended and impressive bass solo by Jordan, and “Caged Bird” based on the Maya Angelou book, which had Ms. Schenck don some heavy chains to dramatize the captivity portrayed in the song. She fearlessly mimicked bird sounds and strutted across the stage like an angry peacock oblivious to reaction or judgement. The band added to the aural display of the song by offering a bowed bass by Jordan, plucked keyboard strings by Bales and the rattling of some metal conduits by Patton. Ms. Scheck’s commitment to her performance art included a parry of her bird sounds pitted against pianist Bales piano chirps in a display of musical conversation.  

The only song not attributed to Abbey Lincoln was a theatrical version of “If I Only Had A Brain” from the Wizard of Oz. Ms. Schenck’s animated vocal delivery includes her own interpretive body movements and facial expressions that all add to the storytelling quality of her performance.

The set ended with Ms. Lincoln’s uplifting “Talking to the Sun” from her 1983 album of the same name. Ms.  Schenck’s performance and the stellar work of her backing musicians had the audience captivated and she received a standing ovation at the end of the show.

Ms. Schenck should be commended for her inspired tribute of appreciation for the work of Ms. Lincoln. Ms. Lincoln was not content to offer  love songs in her repertoire preferring to speak her mind  as an activist and at the same time embracing a more forward looking vision in her lyrics. The poetry of  this music offers a positive message in a time when positivity is sorely needed and Ms. Schenck's fearless portrayl is a refreshing reminder we should all remember not take oursleves too seriously.

An Interview with Singer José James as he embarks on his tour "Love in a Time of Madness"

Jose James

There is one thing you can count on when the vocalist José James puts out a new album, it will be unlike anything he has done before. The thirty-nine year old singer has been confounding his audience and critics alike with his insistence on not settling on his past musical laurels. He is first and foremost an artist, who primarily wants to push himself and his art into new and sometimes uncomfortable territory. For him these forays into the unknown are stretching exercises, yoga for his creative spirit. The Minneapolis born singer has always felt singing was his calling and he takes his mission very seriously.

Ever since attending the New School of Contemporary Music in NYC in 2008, James has been on a search to expand his musical horizons. He was mentored by the pianist Junior Mance and the drummer/bandleader Chico Hamilton. He claims his jazz influences as John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, but his lineage also includes the music of Marvin Gaye and A Tribe Called Quest, and you can hear the cadence of Gil Scott-Heron and the silky smoothness of Johnny Hartman in his luxurious baritone.

My first exposure to James was at the Carmoor Jazz Festival back in 2010. At that time I was so impressed that I wrote "He is a young artist that needs to be watched." In 2015 I caught James “live” when he came to the Variety theater in Atlanta in support of his Yesterday I Had the Blues, a tribute to Billie Holiday. His stage presence was noticeably more polished and his performance was inspired.

His debut album Dreamer was self-produced and introduced in 2008  to critical acclaim, with James ushering in a new era of jazz vocals that incorporated elements of hip hop into the repertoire. He released Blackmagic, a neo-soul classic that pushed further onto new ground. With little concern about alienating his core audience, James daringly released a sparse duet album of jazz standards with the British pianist Jef Neve, For All We Know. The album received international recognition garnering the Edison Award and L' Accademie du Jazz Grand Prix for best Vocal Jazz Album of 2010. 

In 2012 James was signed to the prestigious Blue Note record label where he released his single “Trouble” and the album No Beginning, No End in 2013 and While You Were Sleeping in 2014. In 2015, in honor of what would have been of Billie Holiday’s One Hundredth birthday, James released the impressive Yesterday I Had the Blues, where the singer skillfully interpreted songs of Lady Day in his own inimitable style. Critics hailed the album and it was named on many best of jazz for 2015 lists including my own.

James most recent album is titled Love in aTime of Madness and once again is a departure from the vocalist’s past outings, taking on a distinctive vibe that explores the soul, R and B, and funk of the late seventies, modernizing it with electronica techniques like trap beat. 

Notes on Jazz spoke to James about his new album and his upcoming tour via telephone on March 8, 2017.

NOJ: You are starting a tour that will kick off in Atlanta, this time at CenterStage, on March 16, 2017. This will be in support of your latest album Love in a Time of Madness. Let’s get started on how this album came about.

JJ: A lot of people will be surprised to know this, but the actual constructive beginning of this album and this process began with the Blue Note catalogue. I was going through a now defunct Spotify app that was amazing. It was all about Blue Note samples. It was this ingenious app that let you hear pretty much every Blue Note sample in the history of the label. It was incredible. I was going through it thinking about, what is some stuff I  haven’t really checked out. I came across all of this great material from the seventies with the Mizzell Brothers producing, Hubert Laws, Donald Byrd and I realized that I knew those albums through hip-hop samples, but I really didn’t actually know the albums. So I spent a lot of time listening to the albums themselves. That actually pointed me in the direction of the kind of funk jams, live your fantasy and all that kind of stuff that you hear on Life in the Time of Madness.

NOJ: You have a tour in support of this album and you starting off that tour right here in Atlanta at Centerstage. Why start in Atlanta?

JJ: Atlanta for me is easily one of the top three places to play in the world. If I had to pick one city in the U.S. to play in the year it would be Atlanta, just on a pure enjoyment level. I find it has the kind of intellectual sophistication and musical appreciation, like New York or LA, but it has that realness of like a Detroit or Chicago. People just really love music. It also has this real spiritual and African American perspective that really puts it in a special place for me all on its own. I love it, I know I have to start strong in Atlanta.

NOJ:  I myself am a transplant to Atlanta from the metro NY area and I was pleased to find a vibrant and strong jazz community that is talented and quite dedicated. Although audience participation in pure jazz is a little weak here.

JJ: I can see that.

NOJ :It is guys like you that I see as a bridge to a wider audience and that is an important aspect to your music and your appeal.

But let’s continue about your new album. The title of your new album Love in a Time of Madness. Is that a conscious derivative of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez book and what is the madness you are referring to?

JJ: For the longest time it was my working title and I wasn’t sure if it was going to be my actual title. It was about two and a half years ago when we started this. We weren’t in the full Trump era yet and all of this extended police brutality against African Americans and people of color hadn’t really hit the point where it is now. I find it almost debilitating. It has been kind of on my mind. Trump had started making remarks about women and I think the concept of trying to find something to hold on to, in a literal time of madness, was really attractive to me and I started to work towards that. 

The madness part started to get totally crazy, it just got totally bananas man. You know the racism, the sexism, the economic instability, the Brexit vote, immigration wow. I just got overwhelmed by the realities of the news every day. So I thought, I don’t know if people want me or need me to put out a political album? It‘s so in your face already. The twenty-four-hour news cycle has been tough for me. So I decided to focus on a solution. For me that’s love. That is trying to connect to someone else, other than yourself. Also there are higher levels of the writing on the album that I hope people pick up on, you know trying to connect to a higher power or a higher source. Also to be honest with yourself. This is an honest album for me, you know it is not all roses and cupcakes.

NOJ: Not at all. I can see the gamut of emotions in this album. You touch on loss, fidelity, infidelity, arrogance, desire, infatuation. I mean it’s all there.

JJ: Yeah.

NOJ: I guess you were trying to convey love and all its messy truths, as an antidote to all the madness around you is that an accurate reading?

"I just got overwhelmed by the realities of the news every day. So I decided to focus on a solution. For me that's love." 

JJ: Absolutely. Really, that is the only solution that I have been able to come up with. The economy is unstable. I perform in like forty countries a year. I have a lot of friends all over. We are all in the same boat. Everyone is just trying to pay the rent and stay focused and have a future. The only constant that I can see that we can draw on is either faith or love. And love is the one thing that sort of crosses not only genres but different religions and faith. Not to get super John Lennon on you, but I think love is the only way forward for all humanity.

NOJ: Love is all there is.

JJ: It’s all there is man. The opposite of love is kind of what we’re up against. Distrust and fear, and that is not just a long-term solution.

NOJ:  You have always seem to push yourself musically. a commendable trait. You have always blurred genres and challenged yourself to be true to the music as you saw it at any given time. What was challenging to you about the music in this new album?

JJ: The challenging thing was twofold. First getting out of the way. I have always been such a control freak over my career. I have produced or written most of my albums that were not standards. This was really one of the first times when I said, I just want to be a singer. I want to write a little bit. I want to write as much as I want to and I want to focus on really expanding my voice. I started taking voice lessons again for the first time in twenty years. I started pushing myself the way like an Olympic athlete would push themselves, really specific stuff. The other thing was I had to change the way that I sang completely. I don’t mean technically, but stylistically. In jazz you are way more behind the beat, you have a wide vibrato. There is a wide sense of pitch sometimes, like you slide into notes differently. R andB there is no vibrato, it’s on, it’s a straight eighth note. So I really had to work hard, changing up my style because what I didn’t want it to sound like was someone who came from jazz singing R & B. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I wanted it to be very serious, contemporary R & B. It took a minute to switch over. I had been singing Billie Holiday for a solid year.

NOJ: You have an extraordinary instrument, why change your style so dramatically, embellish the music with so many electronics and effects that it subjugates that instrument to a less prominent role?

JJ: This is the kind of way I want to sing right now. If you look at it in terms of like a writer. If you write a certain kind of fiction, maybe you want to try writing a crime novel. For me its more about trying to expand my craft. It was really the Billie Holiday album; that album, that material, that trio- for me I kind of like I of hit my zenith in jazz right now. I can’t imagine surpassing that album artistically and frankly I am not satisfied with anything less than excellence. So I said ok, what else do I want to do, what is it that I have not done.

NOJ: You were once quoted as saying no other music is as satisfying as jazz. You went to the New School and studied with Junior (Mance) and you studied with Chico (Hamilton). Do you still feel that way about jazz or has it changed?

JJ: I don’t think it has changed per se. I just think change is good. I don’t want to say I will never sing jazz again. The irony of all this is that Fifty Shades Darker the soundtrack is out now and its number one on Bill Board and I am singing “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “You Can’t Take That Away From Me.” So there you go.

NOJ: Yeah, I get it. When you become too enamored with something you stop growing. It’s like when Miles was asked why he stopped playing ballads he answered “because I like them too much.”

JJ: Absolutely.

NOJ: Most singers gravitate toward a good melody and good lyrics. You once said for you music is about the rhythm. Can you expound on that?

JJ: Well, I believe I read Charlie Parker talking about this somewhere. The rhythm is what advances first. If you’re talking about jazz music, you’re talking about Black music your talking about African music or African-American music, then the rhythm has always been the catalyst that really changes everything. So like, swing was this new beat that everyone jumped on and it had endless variations. That evolved into a lot of things, the backbeat, rhythm and blues, and all this other stuff. To me I always get excited by the beat, you know the rhythm. When I was in London, I fell in love with dubstep, drum and bass, broken beat and right now, what is exciting to me, is what we call trap beat, because it’s the newest beat for me since J. Dilla behind the beat hip-hop. Definitely it’s a growing thing. I see Glasper is experimenting with it. Definitely Christian Scott is working it out with Justin Brown and his band. Its interesting for me as a musician to take the parts of popular music and popular culture and put my own thing on top of it. Which is what we did on “Let if Fall” or Last Night.”

"...rhythm has always been the catalyst that really changes everything."

NOJ: Is there any song that you are closest to or particularly fond of on this album ?

JJ: As a performer I really like “What Good is Love” because it is the most operatic. The range is super wide and lyrically ... I have written some of my favorite lyrics. Singing with Oletta Adams, that is just a dream come true. “I’m Yours,” to be able to write a song and give it to an artist of her stature and her not only liking the song, but also wanting to record it and sound so good on it, that’s huge. Both of the collaborations, the one with Mali Music, is really special because I think we actually collaborated, meaning we created something new for each of us.

NOJ: (Robert) Glasper was recently quoted in an interview with Ethan Iverson as saying that he sometimes wanted to forgoe improvisational soloing and just get into long extended grooves.

JJ: It just feels good. You know what I mean. There is a reason why I am touring with just a drummer, because that is the most important part of my setup. Really, it always has been. I am more connected to the drums.

NOJ: So on your concert tour it’s just you and drummer Nate Smith?

JJ: Nate Smith for the U.S. and Richard Spaven for the E.U. and South America. Got to give the drummer some.

NOJ: How do you incorporate the art of improvisation in your music?

JJ: On this particular album?

NOJ: In general.

JJ: I think I am just open to the moment. I have come to the place where I believe it has to mean something for me to leave the written word or the melody. When I was younger, I definitely sang just to hear how it would sound and I was infatuated with Coltrane and Bird like everybody else. There is definitely something to that process, but I think any artist gets to the point where it has to have an emotional resonance. To me that is exciting. If you have done a variation on something that has been done before and to know that it is different because your different, that’s what is cool to me.

NOJ: Your delivery, especially on some of your rap and soul material, is reminiscent of the great Gil Scott-Heron. Was he an influence?

JJ: Yes and no. I was definitely aware of him and loved his catalogue. Early on people said Gil Scott-Heron when the Dreamer came out. He wasn’t anyone that I studied like I did with Billie or Coltrane. There were a few names that always came up right away Terry Callier, Gil Scott-Heron and Jon Lucien.

NOJ: Wow, Jon Lucien is a name I haven't heard in quite a long time. He did a magical version of "Dindi" from 1970 that just killed it.

JJ: Yeah, these guys are amazing. So, to get back to your question, Gil wasn’t a huge obvious influence, but he was a very influential person who I respect tremendously. What you said makes sense, he probably influenced a bunch of people who influenced me. Like every person in hip-hop.( Laughing)

NOJ: You always seem to have two or three projects on the burner what can we expect next from you?

JJ: The second I’m finished with one album I start working on the next one, so I am already working on that. I am hoping actually, without giving away too much, I am hoping to work with Christian McBride a little bit closer than I have in the past. We have collaborated on a few things. We really work well together.  He is the busiest man in show business.

NOJ: My wife, who is not the biggest of jazz fans, loves him. We have seen him several times. The man has so much talent its astounding.

JJ: So much talent, so much. I want to do more stuff with him and I don’t know exactly what shape it will take, but we are going to make it happen.

NOJ: You start this tour March 16, 2017 at Center Stage in Atlanta and the how many dates do you have booked?

JJ: We are going through May 18, 20017 ending in Santiago, Chile. We go through April in the U.S ending in Seattle and then we go onto the E.U. for the rest of April and into May and then down to Mexico and South America so it’s a world tour. It’s going to be going all year.

NOJ: That’s quite rigorous. You are married and have a young daughter that must be tough.

JJ: Yeah, you know I love performing. I think anybody who is with a professional performer that is just part of the deal. I wouldn’t be happy if I couldn’t do it. I’m home a week and I start to think about gigs.(Laughs)

NOJ: I read somewhere that you did a bit of acting in the movie Fifty Shades of Darker?

JJ: That was an amazing experience. We recorded the songs for the soundtrack at Capital in studio "B" where Frank Sinatra originally recorded them using the same microphone. I got chills just walking in there with all that history. My first takes were just terrible because there was just too much history. We recorded everything as authentically as possible. I believe the tenor player was the same guy that was on the original Sinatra recording.

NOJ: How did you get into the acting gig?

JJ: In Fifty Shades of Darker, music is like the star in both the book and the movies, which is super cool. They really wanted, the director James Foley, wanted, an authentic feel across the board. The music, the sets, and everything about it. They were looking for a real jazz singer, who could really deliver the song, but also that had a look that was very multi-cultural, super cool and young. Thankfully I got the call. I went to Vancouver, and had an amazing three days of just working on one of the biggest projects I have ever been a part of. To this date, I think it has grossed $350 million dollars worldwide.

NOJ: I also read that you have aspirations to write a novel?

JJ: I do man. I have been taking notes for about eight years at this point. Every year I tell myself I am going to carve out some time to nail to nail down the first chapters, and every year I get busier and busier. The goal is to get busy enough so that I can take an entire year of and then I can sit down and just write this thing. It will be a crime novel based in New York City.

NOJ: Cool. I’m sure your listening fan base would be distraught if you took off a whole year without singing, but you got to do what you got to do. Follow your muse where ever it goes.

JJ: Exactly, but I’ll be happy when I get a book down.

NOJ: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. I appreciate it. Good luck with the album, the tour and your career. 

The Beguiling Voice of Marilyn Scott on "Standard Blue"

The California based singer Marilyn Scott has one of those soft, sultry, beguiling voices that just sends me to another place. In many respects, she reminds me of Julie London with her controlled, simmering delivery that is not about vocal range or gymnastics, but more about heartfelt interpretation of a song’s sentiment. She has been singing since she was eleven years old and credits seeing  Big Mama Thorton play at Newport Beach when she was 15 years old as a life changing experience. It was the blues that spoke to this young woman and for over forty years she has been following that muse. Over the years, Ms. Scott’s voice has been heard backing up Tower of Power and John Mayhall’s Bluesbreakers.

She has been produced by such musical luminaries as Bob James, Bobby Womack and George Duke. Her musical collaborations with Russell Ferrante and Jimmy Haslip of the Yellowjackets has extended her blues roots and help shape a distinctive jazz sensibility to her vocals.

Her latest album is titled Standard Blue with the word standard spelled in reverse mirror image just to let you know there is nothing standard about her treatment of these songs. The band is made up of a superb rhythm section with Russell Ferrante on keyboards, Jimmy Haslip on electric bass, Michael Landau on electric guitar and Gary Novak on drums.  Saxophonist Bob Mintzer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire are also featured on one song, the Kurt Weil/Ogden Nash classic “Speak Low.”  The song list is made up predominantly of songs that were written between 1932-1956, songs that speak to Ms. Scott and “…have in common the reality of the blues.”

Ms.  Scott opens the music with the well-worn “Willow Weep for Me,” but one would be hard pressed to find another version quite as compelling. Mr. Ferrante’s floating arrangement is cloud-like, Ms. Scott’s voice like a siren’s call of sensual loss and pathos. Meanwhile powerhouse drummer Novak is the model of restraint as Landau’s guitar sings with echoed poignancy. Beautiful.

The more orchestrated “Speak Low” features Haslip’s pulsing bass and the bass clarinet and trumpet of Bob Mintzer and Ambrose Akinmusire respectively. The Mintzer arranged intro is unique, running counterpoint to the song’s melody line. Scott navigates the unusually tricky mix with an assured confidence, never losing the song’s core feel. Ferrante adds a short piano solo before Mintzer counters with his own woody, bass clarinet solo.  Landau’s tasty guitar licks are never far from the mix.

Scott and company obviously have a thing for Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington as she has included three songs by the songwriters, “A Flower is A Lovesome Thing,” Day Dream” and “I’ve Got It Bad and That A’int Good.” On Stray’s lamenting “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” Landau’s guitar cries out on a beautifully realized solo of sublime sensitivity. Scott’s voice has those rarest of qualities, true of all great storytellers, earnestness.  

“Never Let Me Go” is played in a buoyant shuffle by Novak and Haslip with Ferrante’s keyboards painting a dreamy soundscape over which Scott’s voice pleads.

“Day Dream” is one of my favorites on the album. Ms.  Scott’s slow, smoky delivery draws you in like a bee to a fragrant blossom. Mr. Ferrante’s arrangements are lush with electronic orchestration. Mr. Landau’s guitar weeps with emotion.

“Blue Prelude” is a Gordon Jenkins song that is right in Ms. Scott’s blues wheelhouse. Her understated delivery has a cool, Michael Frank’s-like removed feel that works into the changes of the song with a laid-back assuredness. At the apex of the song she decides to assert herself, stabbing at the lyrics with authority, matching her voice pointedly with Novak’s synchronous drums. This one is a keeper.

Unfortunately, the album tails off starting with “I Wouldn’t Change It,” which is the only Scott/Ferrante composition on the album. Ms. Scott sings this in a more pop adult contemporary vein losing some of her blues bite-not my cup of tea. The set ends with a disco-esque “East of the Sun,” a lumpy “I’ve Got it Bad And That A’int Good” and a pseudo honky-tonk “The Joint is Jumpin’.” 

Ms. Scott’s Standard Blue, backed by an all-star band, offers some compelling renditions of blues-based, jazz standards sung by a unique songstress that knows how to bring new life to old stalwarts.

   

Kate McGarry and Tierney Sutton Bring the Art of Song to The Velvet Note in Alpharetta, GA

Keith Ganz, Kate McGarry, Tierney Sutton and Serge Merlaud

Two women of song brought their own unique styles to the intimate living room that is known as The Velvet Note in Alpharetta, Georgia this past Saturday. Kate McGarry and Tierney Sutton are both Grammy nominated vocalists that fall loosely under the banner of jazz singers. Whatever it is they sing you can be assured you want to listen. 

Ms. Sutton is a chanteuse whose modern interpretations of songbook classics veer towards the styles of Peggy Lee, Julie London and a touch of Helen Merrill. Ms. McGarry brings her own more eclectic repertoire, possessing an earnest, plaintive sound that reminds you more of Joni Mitchell with the vocal excursions of a tempered Betty Carter. The two women were joined by their respective significant others/guitarists. Keith Ganz with Ms. McGarry and Serge Merlaud with Ms. Sutton.

This was the last performance of a two-night run at The Velvet Note and unfortunately Ms. Sutton was fighting a minor bout of laryngitis, which limited her ability to reach some notes. Despite the handicap, Ms. Sutton valiantly braved on to the delight of the expectant crowd. Consequently, it was left to Ms. McGarry to do all the talking from the bandstand. Despite knowing each other for years, the four musicians had never played before their first performance together at the Note the night before. Tamara Fuller, introduced the couples, likening the meeting to two couples on a blind double date. There was a definite impromptu feel to the start of the show with each couple finding their own musical way within the boundaries of each other’s space.

The set opened with the Stept/Brown/Tobias number “Comes Love” which was made famous by Billie Holiday and later sung by Joni Mitchell. Ganz started the intro with Sutton quietly singing/scatting and McGarry responding on alternate lines. As with most solo artists, Sutton seemed
more accustomed to having free reign to explore improvisations on the lyrics according to her own muse. McGarry used some cautious hesitancy when responding with the alternating verse, making sure to leave enough room for Sutton to complete her thoughts. Sutton often draws out notes and phrases toward the end of the verse for emphasis, where as McGarry is more definitive in completing her endings preferring to modulate within the verse. When the women tried to improvise to the coda, their unfamiliarity with each others intentions provided for a bit of a disconnect, each one struggling to find where the other was heading. Like true professionals their interplay got better as the evening went on.

Mr. Ganz strapped on his electric bass for the next song, Cole Porter’s classic “Get Out of Town.” A well travelled piece of music, the great Shirley Horn’s sensuously torrid take from her Close Enough for Love  is for my money "the" definitive version. Mr. Ganz opened with the first verse in upbeat, swinging fashion as Ms. McGarry snapped her fingers in time. Ms. Sutton followed gingerly using her huskier chops to vocalize her way up and down the scale. In hipster fashion Ms. McGarry cleverly inserted a snippet of Monk’s “Round Midnight” as her basis for improvising on the lyrics. The singers went back and forth as the guitarists provided the rhythmic background for this musical duel/duet. You could hear how each singer was starting to intuit where the other was leading them with each passing attempt.

Mr. Ganz returned to the guitar at the start of the Kenny Dorham composition “Fair Weather” offering a beautifully sensitive opening intro before Ms. McGarry continued with a marvelously moving vocal performance. It is this type of heartfelt song that finds the vocalist at her best. Her voice has an earnest quality that captivates the listener, spinning imagery and wonder that recalls the best qualities of a great storyteller.

Ms. Sutton was obviously still suffering with her vocal limitations, jesting with the audience that the show was now being presented with the aid of Chloraseptic. The audience, many of whom had come specifically to hear her, were graciously thankful that she chose to soldier on. She and her partner Mr. Merlaud chose to do a samba, which Mr. Merlaud played with acute sensitivity. Mr. Ganz was also featured on a spirited bass solo. Ms. Sutton seemed most at home when she was free to more easily find her own groove, scatting freely and improvising within the song's breezy form.

The group went back to the well with a Keith Ganz arrangement of the standard “Whatever Lola Wants.” Ms. McGarry amusingly likened a “Lola” to a bad habit that one couldn’t quit. This sensuous song depicting a sultry siren who could get whatever she put her mind to, was done playfully by the two singers. The Sutton/McGarry connection was most intuitive on this one, especially when the two played off each others lines. When Ms. McGarry’s voice mimicked Mr. Ganz’s solo guitar lines perfectly you could tell these two had been through this one many times before. Ms. Sutton interjected humor into the song and where the song challenged her impaired range she skillfully scatted around those parts.

As if  by inspiration, Ms. McGarry spontaneously decided to do an obscure folk song from the singer/songwriter Paul Curreri titled “God Moves on the City.” Mr. Ganz, a facile and versatile guitarist, started the song with its delicately finger-picked opening. Ms. McGarry’s voice was transcendent, evoking an Appalachian flavor and pulling the homespun lines from the deepest part of her being like water from a well.While she often traverses the boundaries of jazz, pop, musical theater and folk I find Ms. McGarry’s voice and delivery to be most authentically appealing when she finds material like this that seems to resonate with her folk-oriented roots. It was her moving rendering of Jim Webb’s “The Moon Is a Mean Mistress” from John Hollenbeck’s fabulous Song’s I Like a Lot, sung with Theo Bleckman and the HR Big Band that garnered a Grammy nomination.

The four musicians returned to the American songbook with a duet version of the 1936 song “Pennies from Heaven.”  Ms. Sutton started the easy swinger with a deft combination of verse and scat. Ms. McGarry joined with her own alternating scat. The two traded licks for a couple of choruses and the guitarists then each took their turns at soloing.

“Flor De Lis,” by the Brazilian artist Djavan, is a slow samba that as Ms. McGarry explained, despite being rhythmically upbeat, spoke of a frustrated suitor and his plight with an intractably cold lover. She sang in both flawless Portuguese and English and again the inherent musical connection between her and Mr. Ganz was palpable. Mr. Merlaud providing a wonderfully fluid solo of his own, as Ms. Sutton added some skillful scatting and percussive effects at the coda.

The finale was a dual interpretation of Bill Evans’ “Blue in Green.” Both Sutton and McGarry have previously recorded this song, so it was interesting to compare the two takes on the same music. Ms. Sutton’s version used lyrics that evoked loss and jealousy. Her whispered voice appropriately evoked the song’s meandering melancholic feel. Ms. Sutton is at her best on these type of jazz standards where her empathetic connection to loss and love exudes from the emotional core of her being and she makes the song convincingly her own.  Ms. McGarry version focused on the circular nature of the song and used the lyrics she wrote, a song she called “Road So Long,” taking the song in a more hopeful direction. Both versions sent the audience to their feet.

While it was a disappointment not to be able to experience Ms. Sutton at her best, the evening was a complete delight. Mr. Ganz and Mr. Merlaud were both extremely effective accompanist’s. Ms. Sutton is a consummate professional whose body of work speaks for itself. It is also easy to see why Ms. McGarry was recently awarded Downbeat’s rising star award.

Kate McGarry and Tierney Sutton Bring the Art of Song to The Velvet Note in Alpharetta, GA

Keith Ganz, Kate McGarry, Tierney Sutton and Serge Merlaud

Two women of song brought their own unique styles to the intimate living room that is known as The Velvet Note in Alpharetta, Georgia this past Saturday. Kate McGarry and Tierney Sutton are both Grammy nominated vocalists that fall loosely under the banner of jazz singers. Whatever it is they sing you can be assured you want to listen. 

Ms. Sutton is a chanteuse whose modern interpretations of songbook classics veer towards the styles of Peggy Lee, Julie London and a touch of Helen Merrill. Ms. McGarry brings her own more eclectic repertoire, possessing an earnest, plaintive sound that reminds you more of Joni Mitchell with the vocal excursions of a tempered Betty Carter. The two women were joined by their respective significant others/guitarists. Keith Ganz with Ms. McGarry and Serge Merlaud with Ms. Sutton.

This was the last performance of a two-night run at The Velvet Note and unfortunately Ms. Sutton was fighting a minor bout of laryngitis, which limited her ability to reach some notes. Despite the handicap, Ms. Sutton valiantly braved on to the delight of the expectant crowd. Consequently, it was left to Ms. McGarry to do all the talking from the bandstand. Despite knowing each other for years, the four musicians had never played before their first performance together at the Note the night before. Tamara Fuller, introduced the couples, likening the meeting to two couples on a blind double date. There was a definite impromptu feel to the start of the show with each couple finding their own musical way within the boundaries of each other’s space.

The set opened with the Stept/Brown/Tobias number “Comes Love” which was made famous by Billie Holiday and later sung by Joni Mitchell. Ganz started the intro with Sutton quietly singing/scatting and McGarry responding on alternate lines. As with most solo artists, Sutton seemed
more accustomed to having free reign to explore improvisations on the lyrics according to her own muse. McGarry used some cautious hesitancy when responding with the alternating verse, making sure to leave enough room for Sutton to complete her thoughts. Sutton often draws out notes and phrases toward the end of the verse for emphasis, where as McGarry is more definitive in completing her endings preferring to modulate within the verse. When the women tried to improvise to the coda, their unfamiliarity with each others intentions provided for a bit of a disconnect, each one struggling to find where the other was heading. Like true professionals their interplay got better as the evening went on.

Mr. Ganz strapped on his electric bass for the next song, Cole Porter’s classic “Get Out of Town.” A well travelled piece of music, the great Shirley Horn’s sensuously torrid take from her Close Enough for Love  is for my money "the" definitive version. Mr. Ganz opened with the first verse in upbeat, swinging fashion as Ms. McGarry snapped her fingers in time. Ms. Sutton followed gingerly using her huskier chops to vocalize her way up and down the scale. In hipster fashion Ms. McGarry cleverly inserted a snippet of Monk’s “Round Midnight” as her basis for improvising on the lyrics. The singers went back and forth as the guitarists provided the rhythmic background for this musical duel/duet. You could hear how each singer was starting to intuit where the other was leading them with each passing attempt.

Mr. Ganz returned to the guitar at the start of the Kenny Dorham composition “Fair Weather” offering a beautifully sensitive opening intro before Ms. McGarry continued with a marvelously moving vocal performance. It is this type of heartfelt song that finds the vocalist at her best. Her voice has an earnest quality that captivates the listener, spinning imagery and wonder that recalls the best qualities of a great storyteller.

Ms. Sutton was obviously still suffering with her vocal limitations, jesting with the audience that the show was now being presented with the aid of Chloraseptic. The audience, many of whom had come specifically to hear her, were graciously thankful that she chose to soldier on. She and her partner Mr. Merlaud chose to do a samba, which Mr. Merlaud played with acute sensitivity. Mr. Ganz was also featured on a spirited bass solo. Ms. Sutton seemed most at home when she was free to more easily find her own groove, scatting freely and improvising within the song's breezy form.

The group went back to the well with a Keith Ganz arrangement of the standard “Whatever Lola Wants.” Ms. McGarry amusingly likened a “Lola” to a bad habit that one couldn’t quit. This sensuous song depicting a sultry siren who could get whatever she put her mind to, was done playfully by the two singers. The Sutton/McGarry connection was most intuitive on this one, especially when the two played off each others lines. When Ms. McGarry’s voice mimicked Mr. Ganz’s solo guitar lines perfectly you could tell these two had been through this one many times before. Ms. Sutton interjected humor into the song and where the song challenged her impaired range she skillfully scatted around those parts.

As if  by inspiration, Ms. McGarry spontaneously decided to do an obscure folk song from the singer/songwriter Paul Curreri titled “God Moves on the City.” Mr. Ganz, a facile and versatile guitarist, started the song with its delicately finger-picked opening. Ms. McGarry’s voice was transcendent, evoking an Appalachian flavor and pulling the homespun lines from the deepest part of her being like water from a well.While she often traverses the boundaries of jazz, pop, musical theater and folk I find Ms. McGarry’s voice and delivery to be most authentically appealing when she finds material like this that seems to resonate with her folk-oriented roots. It was her moving rendering of Jim Webb’s “The Moon Is a Mean Mistress” from John Hollenbeck’s fabulous Song’s I Like a Lot, sung with Theo Bleckman and the HR Big Band that garnered a Grammy nomination.

The four musicians returned to the American songbook with a duet version of the 1936 song “Pennies from Heaven.”  Ms. Sutton started the easy swinger with a deft combination of verse and scat. Ms. McGarry joined with her own alternating scat. The two traded licks for a couple of choruses and the guitarists then each took their turns at soloing.

“Flor De Lis,” by the Brazilian artist Djavan, is a slow samba that as Ms. McGarry explained, despite being rhythmically upbeat, spoke of a frustrated suitor and his plight with an intractably cold lover. She sang in both flawless Portuguese and English and again the inherent musical connection between her and Mr. Ganz was palpable. Mr. Merlaud providing a wonderfully fluid solo of his own, as Ms. Sutton added some skillful scatting and percussive effects at the coda.

The finale was a dual interpretation of Bill Evans’ “Blue in Green.” Both Sutton and McGarry have previously recorded this song, so it was interesting to compare the two takes on the same music. Ms. Sutton’s version used lyrics that evoked loss and jealousy. Her whispered voice appropriately evoked the song’s meandering melancholic feel. Ms. McGarry version focused on the circular nature of the song and used the lyrics she wrote, a song she called “Road So Long,” taking the song in a more hopeful direction. Both versions sent the audience to their feet.

While it was a disappointment not to be able to experience Ms. Sutton at her best, the evening was a complete delight. Mr. Ganz and Mr. Merlaud were both extremely effective accompanist’s. Ms. Sutton is a consummate professional whose body of work speaks for itself. It is also easy to see why Ms. McGarry was recently awarded Downbeat’s rising star award.

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

The Incomparable Dianne Reeves plays Jazz in July at Stamford's Columbus Park

Dianne Reeves

This past Wednesday, July 31, 2013,  on one of those perfectly moderate summer evenings we rarely get to experience, the  stars were aligned for an outdoor concert in Stamford's Columbus Park featuring Ms. Dianne Reeves. A walk through the crowd and one could find every type of fan, from young hipsters to seasoned octogenarians, who all came for a rare opportunity to see up close and be touched by the magic of Ms Reeves.

Ms. Reeves is a once in a generation singer who possess's a rare combination of an excellent voice, impeccable timing, a great range and the innate ability to deliver a song with a feeling that makes it an intimate experience between her and her audience. At the age of fifty-six it is not hyperbole to consider her in the same breath as singers of the stature of Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington or Carmen McRae and indeed even Ella Fitzgerald or her idol Sarah Vaughn could be considered peers.

The four time Grammy award winner was born in Detroit but raised in Denver, Colorado to a musical family. Her father was a singer and her mother played trumpet, Her uncle was a bass player in the Denver Symphony Orchestra and she is a cousin to the respected fusion keyboard master George Duke, who sadly just past away on August 5, 2013. As a young woman Reeves had a penchant for Latin Music and played with Eduardo del Barrio's group Caldera, Sergio Mendes and later Harry Belafonte. Her solo career took off in 1987 when she signed with a reinvigorated Blue Note Records.

Ms. Reeves brought a group of top notch musicians with her to Stamford to help her weave her spell. The drummer Teri-Lyne Carrington, the bassist Reginald Veal, the pianist Peter Martin and Brazilian guitar virtuoso Romero Lumbambo are members of her latest quartet, the same core group  from her latest album When You Know.

The set started out with the band warming up with a rousing version of the Gershwin classic "Summertime" featuring some soulful walking bass lines by Reginald Veal and beautiful acoustic guitar work by Lumbambo. Ms. Reeves entered the Bud Light stage to generous applause and she greeted the crowd warmly. She started off her set with the tune "Dreams,"  written and made famous by Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks. The song started with Peter Martin using a Bruce Hornsby-style opening on piano and featured some symbiotic interplay between Ms. Reeves marvelously flexible voice and Reginald Veal's supple, fleet fingered electric bass lines. Fans in the crowd mouthed the familiar words that were somehow transformed by Ms. Reeves into a most personal statement. Scatting acrobatically throughout the bridge of the tune, the band enthusiastically provided a driving rhythm behind her. With the cool crisp night's perfect weather, Ms Reeves assured the crowd that this night would be like a private concert in her own outdoor living room.

The second song of the set was a sensuous ballad once made famous by Lena Horne, from her evocative role in the 1943 motion picture of the same name Stormy Weather. Ms. Reeves has amazing vocal control and can leap a full octave flawlessly if her mood suits her and to great effect. Pianist Peter Martin offered a gorgeously lush cascade of well placed notes during his solo adding to the dreamy mood created by Ms. Reeves and her pliant rhythm section. At one point Ms. Reeves found herself trying to hold the intimate mood of the song despite a battalion of screaming fire trucks rushing down the street behind the stage. Like the consummate professional, she took it all in stride and humanized the situation with her grace and humor laughing at the ridiculously adverse conditions of the moment. Ms. Reeves modulates her voice bringing an inherent sense of  emotional power to her interpretation of a song. Despite the familiarity of the music she personalizes making it her own.

Her love of Latin music was showcased on the next song, a samba style rhythm and she sang in what appeared to be a pseudo-Spanish vocalese. Mr. Veal changed from electric to upright bass and Mr. Lumbambo played a beautifully fluid flamenco-style guitar solo. Like all good entertainers Ms. Reeves tells a story. In this case the story was about her love of Latin music and about how when she would  listens to some of it, she would often times not understand a word the singer was saying. It didn't seem to matter since the soul of the song was all about the emotion and the rhythm that it evoked. Despite the lack of understandable lyrics, Ms Reeves proved that the music could connect to the audience on a very personal level wordlessly.

Ms. Reeves then introduced a song written by the young phenon bass player Esperanza Spalding, titled "Wild Rose." The song had a lilting, bouncy beat that had descending bridge, the perfect vehicle for Ms. Reeves, who can navigate swift changes with the aplomb of a seasoned sea captain in treacherous waters. Ms.Carrington accentuated the music while a series of rolling toms as Mr. Martin comped on what sounded like a Rhodes electric piano.

The next song, the powerful, "I've Grown Cold," started with Ms. Reeves speaking to the audience about the meaning of the song's lyrics, a true ending of a relationship. Mr. Veal produced a thumping lead-in bass line and contributed an accompanying duet vocal with Ms Reeves on the chorus.

Introducing the Brazilian guitarist Romero Lumbambo as her brother from another mother, Ms. Reeves started the unnamed bossa by vocalizing, almost operatically, over Mr. Lumbambo's breezy guitar rhythms. Ms. Reeves affinity for both Latin and Brazilian music is clearly reinforced by Lumbambo presence in her band . He offers a creative counter voice to Ms. Reeves and the two share a musical symbiosis that Downbeat's John Murph likened to the relationship Billie Holiday had with Lester Young.

One of the highlights of the show was Ms. Reeves creative rendition of Bob Marley's classic
"Waiting In Vain." The familiar reggae tune was brought to life by Mr. Martin's stirring piano solo, Mr. Veal's rock steady pulse and Ms. Carrington's propelling drums. But it was all Ms. Reeves show as she wailed "Ooo girl" Ooo girl" with convincing anguish and then went into an authentic Jamaican rap that had the crowd swaying. All we needed was a rum cocktail with a tiny umbrella to complete the journey.

The finale was a slow blues burner that allowed Ms. Reeves to beckon on her Gospel and blues roots. "Your Love is King" featured some soulful organ work by Peter Martin and a scorching Lumbambo solo on electric guitar that was a tour-de-force of melancholic artistry. Ms. Reeves can belt out the blues with the best of them, getting a raspy, snarling sound at will and singing with the command of a Baptist preacher at a revival meeting.The concert was a huge success as Ms. Reeves once again proved she is the premier female jazz vocalist of her generation. If you haven't yet caught her she will be performing with her marvelous quartet at the Tarrytown Music Hall on September 28, 2013. A word to the wise, don't miss the chance to see this fantastic performer when you can.