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Jeanne Lee


jazz1

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I am also not a fan of jazz with vocals, but the disc Nuba, with Lee, Andrew Cyrille and Jimmy Lyons is wonderful! As I posted elsewhere, this might be some of the most lyrical playing I have heard from Lyons and Cyrille spends most of his time playing some fantastic percussion, very influenced by African tribal music, imo. Jeanne Lee really fits in well. I enjoyed her vocals a lot more than I expected to. Very highly recommended

I'm really glad I got that LP in time! I'm not much a fan of "outside" playing, but this one .... :tup

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According to Jazzmatazz:

There´s an upcoming reissue of "The newest sound around" (BMG Germany).

24-bit remastered with four bonus tracks (never released before)

"Never released before"? I'd rather assume these are the four previuosly unreleased tracks that are available since the first CD issue. These careless editors simply copy everything from a previous issue watering the mouth of us collectors for nothing ... :angry:

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  • 1 year later...

I recall being entranced some 30 years ago by Lee's contribution to vibraphonist-composer Gunter Hampel's "The 8th of July 1969," with a band that included Antony Braxton, Willem Breuker, Arjen Gortner, and Steve McCall. According to the 5th Edition of the Penguin Guide, it is (or was) out on CD on the Birth label.

Larry, I had that one in college! Maybe I still have it around somewhere. I remember there was one song that took off, but eventually went over the edge for me.

I saw a picture of Hampel not too many years ago. He looked terrible. The years really got to his face.

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I've long enjoyed Jeanne's duet/vocalist combo work, but I find she's particularly effective as a colorist or guest voice. She adds a moody, dramatic spark to Escalator Over the Hill that transcends the clutter and pretension of the production in toto (which is not to say that the album doesn't have some truly wonderful spots, but that's a whole other deal...). I just recently acquired a copy of Afternoon of a Georgia Faun. Her contributions are astounding--the capacity to project depth in a fundamentally minimalist manner. The pathos in her lines beytrays a supreme technical substance--which, in an oblique, somewhat 'avant' way, superimposes the rustic over impossible precision. I said (in another thread) that Grachan Moncur III is the Monk of the trombone. Jeanne's sorta like the Grachan of the voice, in so many words...

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I just recently acquired a copy of Afternoon of a Georgia Faun. Her contributions are astounding--the capacity to project depth in a fundamentally minimalist manner. The pathos in her lines beytrays a supreme technical substance--which, in an oblique, somewhat 'avant' way, superimposes the rustic over impossible precision.

It's been so many years since I listened to that album, I didn't realize she was on it. I'll have to pull out that LP and give it a spin.

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  • 4 years later...

I was listening to Betty Carter's Droppin' Things this morning (man, Marc Cary is amazing on that one), and then was looking to spin Newest Sound Around, in part because I was imagining what a Carter/Blake duo would have sounded like. Turns out I'd misfiled it. Took me over an hour to find the disc. I don't know how or why, but it was next to T-Bone Walker's Imperial Recordings. :huh: At any rate ...

Why is Lee not as well known as some of creative music's other singers? Too individual? A relative unwillingness to compromise? Sometimes it's impossible to understand how greatness such as hers ends up being marginalized. Or maybe she wouldn't have seen it that way. Maybe being "marginalized" is a blessing in disguise?

Share your thoughts.

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  • 2 months later...

I happened to listen to Andrew Cyrille's NUBA, with Jimmy Lyons and Jeanne Lee, today. Frankly, I thought Jeanne Lee ruined the album. I kept thinking what a cool album it would have been with just Lyons and Cyrille. The worst I can say about her singing (vocalizing?) is that it was boring--and that's a bad place to be.

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I happened to listen to Andrew Cyrille's NUBA, with Jimmy Lyons and Jeanne Lee, today. Frankly, I thought Jeanne Lee ruined the album. I kept thinking what a cool album it would have been with just Lyons and Cyrille. The worst I can say about her singing (vocalizing?) is that it was boring--and that's a bad place to be.

I don't know that record.

She's great elsewhere on any number of albums IMO.

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I happened to listen to Andrew Cyrille's NUBA, with Jimmy Lyons and Jeanne Lee, today. Frankly, I thought Jeanne Lee ruined the album. I kept thinking what a cool album it would have been with just Lyons and Cyrille. The worst I can say about her singing (vocalizing?) is that it was boring--and that's a bad place to be.

I don't know that record.

She's great elsewhere on any number of albums IMO.

Love that record - including her singing. Different strokes, I guess.

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I happened to listen to Andrew Cyrille's NUBA, with Jimmy Lyons and Jeanne Lee, today. Frankly, I thought Jeanne Lee ruined the album. I kept thinking what a cool album it would have been with just Lyons and Cyrille. The worst I can say about her singing (vocalizing?) is that it was boring--and that's a bad place to be.

I don't know that record.

She's great elsewhere on any number of albums IMO.

Love that record - including her singing. Different strokes, I guess.

Very true. Normally I would give it another listen to check my initial reaction, but I could barely make myself flip the LP over to side 2. There are a couple of strong tracks, but stretched out over the entire album, I found Lee's performance tedious. Better as an appetizer than a main course. I dug what Lyons was doing though.

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I happened to listen to Andrew Cyrille's NUBA, with Jimmy Lyons and Jeanne Lee, today. Frankly, I thought Jeanne Lee ruined the album. I kept thinking what a cool album it would have been with just Lyons and Cyrille. The worst I can say about her singing (vocalizing?) is that it was boring--and that's a bad place to be.

I don't know that record.

She's great elsewhere on any number of albums IMO.

Love that record - including her singing. Different strokes, I guess.

Love it, too!

In a way I always saw her as Betty Carter's goal.

Interesting, never looked at them that way!

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I also never looked at Lee and Carter that way.

Am I the only person on the board who saw absolutely transcendent live performances by Betty Carter in the 1978--82 period? They were among the best, and most memorable, musical performances I have ever witnessed by anyone, anytime. I saw her live in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Madison and Kansas City in those years, and she was a fully realized force of nature, to me and to my jazz loving friends who joined me at some of these concerts. There was nothing more for her to do, to be a truly top notch artist, a giant. But virtually every mention of her on this board is accompanied by a chorus of slighting comments. It's fine with me if people didn't like Betty Carter's singing, or find her music lacking. I am not trying to convert anyone--I just don't understand it. I am scratching my head here.

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I saw her live once, in DC, 1981. Transcendent is exactly what it was. Plus, I had a seat slightly behind the bandstand, so I saw those looks she was using to conduct the band as she went along, to get them to where she already was. Scared me more than half to death.

No slights about BC from me, no sir. The woman was bullshit-free as far as I'm concerned.

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I saw her live once, in DC, 1981. Transcendent is exactly what it was. Plus, I had a seat slightly behind the bandstand, so I saw those looks she was using to conduct the band as she went along, to get them to where she already was. Scared me more than half to death.

No slights about BC from me, no sir. The woman was bullshit-free as far as I'm concerned.

Her looks, yes. Once at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, we were seated on metal folding chairs in the front row for the sold out show, a few feet away from Betty. She sang a very romantic love song, and stared deeply into my eyes at the most dramatic moment, for about ten seconds. I will never forget it. I was carried away....somewhere. It was very powerful. She bored right into me with her eyes.

That was the 4th of July weekend in 1980. Some friends and I saw her in Ann Arbor, then in Detroit the next night, and then decided to drive to Chicago to see her two nights later. It occurred to us that this is what Grateful Dead fans were known for doing; only we were doing it with Betty Carter. (The night between Carter shows, we saw Joe Williams at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit). Those were fun days.

Edited by Hot Ptah
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