2006 best jazz vocal releases

[jazz1]

So there is my top 5 or 6 for 2006

(I’ve added a DVD)

After I made my choices, I realized that most of the cds in questions are concept

albums, and I really think that in today’s world of jazz singing

it is what makes the difference between a good cd and a great cd.

1) Ian Shaw “Drawn to all things (The songs of Joni Mitchell)

Not only Ian singing and the band are superb but it also makes one realize that Joni wrote many exceptional songs that deserve to be part of GAS.

2) Karryn Allison “Footprints”

Karryn Allison has taken some of the great jazz standards and put lyrics to it.

It is her best album by far, her singing has improved tremendously, again the band is first class and having Nancy King featured is the cherry on top.

The only negative is Jon Hendricks off key singing.

3) Fay Claassens sings “Two portraits of Chet Baker”

Two cd’s the first one dedicated to Chet ‘s work with the Gerry Mulligan

piano less quartet, Fay scats Chet’s parts.

On the second cd Fay sings a number of pieces of Chet’s vocal repertoire.

Fay to my mind is the most talented of the new crop of young singers.

3) Patricia Barber “Mythologies”

Sponsored by the Guggenheim foundation, 11 original songs where Patricia confirms her artistry as a musician, singer, songwriter and arranger.

Her musicians are surely the best unit working with a singer today.

4) Patricia Barber “A fortnight in France” (DVD)

This DVD will give you a greater insight into Patricia Barber work and persona,

Not only the music is superb but also the filming is artistically as convincing as the music.

6) Nancy King / Fred Hersh “Live at the Jazz Standard”

Off the cuff recording by 2 masters, can get a little tedious but the artistry is undeniable.

[B. Clugston]

Mike Patton on John Zorn's Astronome. I'm only sort of joking because it was the only new release with vocals that I bought.

[Rooster_Ties]

I'm only sort of joking because it was the only new release with vocals that I bought.

That's probably one more than I did.

[Chuck Nessa]

[kh1958]

Magos Herrera and Iraida Noreiga--Soliluna

http://www.magosherrera.com/

I wish I were going to be in New York January 20--

Magos Herrera showcase en New York [2007-01-20]

Magos Herrera Showcase en New York

January 20, 2007

The Gerald W. Lynch Theater

John Jay College

899 Tenth Avenue, (Between 58th & 59th Streets)

New York, NY

showcases at 17:30 y 21:00 hours

[kh1958]

More on Magos (I share the enthusiasm of these writers):

I Listened to Magos Herrera at the International Jazz festival in playa del Carmen, she is an outstanding vocal soloist, manages to create a new style of Latin scat, it is innovative but clearly jazz and when she does her improvisations off the composed melodies it is a “mind-blowing” experience.

Rudy García / The Miami Herald / Nov.2005

I saw her at the Lincoln center out-of –doors, and what a surprise to take in some of the Mexicos newest diva. While cabaret jazz stylings inflect Magos performance, she forges new paths in her repertoir...afro-latin, pop and brazilian influences -all perhaps unifying the Latin experience in a contemporary sense- yert most of all- brilliantly meshing and resonating with Mexicos’ vast, diversified cultural legacies. “This was awesome.”

Evangelina Kim. / New York Time / 2002.

Extraordinary Voice.I stumbled upon her website by accident. Everyone who's heard me play her music wants to know who she is. The best description I can give you is that her voice evokes a blossoming waterfall. Magos music reveals a mature, refined and confident vocalist. Magos is a genuine treasure. Her music will lift your soul.

Just listen.

"redwoodpecker" (Tucson, AZ United States) March 30, 2004

Magos Herrera rises over the stage as fire over the wood, the carpet and the curtains as her soft smile appears and the lowering curtains of her eyelids hide her eyes. Magos conquers the others senses as the spell coming from her voice and moves takes the audiences on a journey over the softness dunes of her love, senses, sweat and skin. The smoothness of her silhouette comes is the place where the hypnotizing beating of the jazz, bossa and Latin rhythms are born, "Is Magos the only woman in the world that can sing a caress." And that is vudu, the most beautifull witchcraft, coming from the black magic of satin and the overwhelming woman that don`t need any accent to become the sensuality herself.

Bicho / Rock Stage / 2004.

The sole existence of Magos Herrera is by itself a provocation. The poetical charm of her melody and the power of a mesmerizing voice take the audience to the sun of Rio de Janeiro and the silver moon of Manhattan. Seeing Magos Herrera and listening her is a caress full of sensuality.

Magos Herrera is the ideal spell for the lovers of the jazzed kiss, the erotic sortilege of the bossa nova, and the pagan conjure of the Afro-Brazilian rhythms. Her sensual and smooth voice of fine shades and colors full of warmth gives a new sense to poetry, converting it into romance and eroticism.

Sergio Monsalvo/ Reforma2003

[mikeweil]

Carla White - A Voice In The Night

(CDBaby has it)

[jazzbo]

Cassandra Wilson, "Thunderbird," if you want to call it jazz. This one grew on me and got into my psyche.

[jazzbo]

And again. . . is it jazz? . . . Monday Michiru, "Routes." I go back and forth about this one whether it's in my very favorite Michirus, but it's fantastic!

[Hot Ptah]

Edited January 3, 2007 by Hot Ptah

[Larry Kart]

Tough to compete with what Ms. Giambarini is packing, but Meredith D'Ambrosio's "Wishing On The Moon" (Sunnyside), which I believe came out in 2006, is something else (and beautifully recorded by RVG):

http://www.sunnysiderecords.com/release_de...p?releaseID=319

Here's an email I sent to a friend about it:

Just picked up a newish Meredith D'Ambrosio album, "Wishing On The Moon" (Sunnyside) album. All the tunes are hers (words and music), except for one where she wrote words to an instrumentnal by Deena De Rose. I don't know everything that Meredith has recorded (I have maybe five of her albums), but I think she's been moving toward where she is here for a long time, and it's a special place. It sounds like (though I don't know at all if this is how she actually works) she begins as a writer with a musical framework, and to a perhaps lesser extent a template of words, that both spring from yet make somewhat abstract (in their relative irregularity) the familiar music-and-words patterns of "standard era" chorus structure material (for instance, her lyrics don't always rhyme and/or the rhyme words fall at the end of one line and the beginning or the middle of another -- e.g. "I remember you./You made me think you cared./So, What was I to do?/For a while I would somehow be/Spared from sorrow" etc. Meanwhile, or perhaps that should be "then," Meredith takes what she's got so far and I would guess regards it as an improvising instrumentalist would a tune that she or he is going to blow on -- not only modifying/varying the given material as it seems attractive to do but also doing so in what might be thought of as a specifically jazz-like manner, i.e. at this stage she discreetly introduces phrasing and harmonic choices that are both more overtly "swinging" and (sorry, can't think of another term) more "hip" in their relative obliqueness than was the case in the piece as originally conceived/sketched out. Then, having literally or in effect "performed on" the musical-verbal

structure with which she began/had sketched out, she goes back and adds to the original sketched-out piece whatever from the "performed on it" version she feels is worth adding and preserving. And then, when satisfied (probably working from a good many "performed on it" attempts/variations), she essentially fixes and preserves what she's got. Thus, the recorded performances we hear occupy an interestingly equivocal place between composition and improvisation; on the one hand, their musical and verbal details are almost as fixed or pre-determined as, say, Richard Rodgers wanted those aspects of his songs to be; on the other hand, in Meredith's songs those details speak of and from a very jazz-like sense of looseness, freedom and "in the moment" choice -- though if I'm right, most if not all of her in-the-moment choices were made in the course of the compositional process, not in the course of the performance that we're hearing. A footnote about the "hip" aspect of all this, which I brought up but shied away from above. Building those genuinely "hip" (as in genuinely tasty) gestures into the texture of the songs themselves, she does not at all let (or hardly ever lets) "hipness" crop up in her performances of them (no scatting, finger-popping, note-bending, etc.). The effect of this restraint, in its own quiet way, is quite powerful -- the hipness is there, both musical and emotional, but D'Ambrosio presents it (and we encounter it) reflectively and a bit ruefully, at arm's length.

Just to be clear, I'm only guessing about what Meredith's methods are, based on how the results sound to me. Probably she does it with eye of newt, toe of frog.

BTW, she and Eddie Higgins are married. Also BTW, though it's a bit of headscratcher given Meredith's rather ethereal voice, her bio in The Penguin Enyclopedia of Popular Music says that she "met John Coltrane [in] '63, who invited her to join his quartet for a Japanese tour, but she had a 17-month-old daughter [by a marriage previous to hers with Higgins; they hooked up much later] to look after, so she declined." Guess Trane couldn't get Blossom Dearie.

Edited January 3, 2007 by Larry Kart

[gslade]

Theo Bleckmann and Fumio Yasuda, Las Vegas Rhapsody—The Night They Invented Champagne (Winter & Winter)

[Chuck Nessa]

Don't care.

[Hot Ptah]

Tough to compete with what Ms. Giambarini is packing, but Meredith D'Ambrosio's "Wishing On The Moon" (Sunnyside), which I believe came out in 2006, is something else (and beautifully recorded by RVG):

For the record, I like Ms. Giambarini's vocals. I hadn't noticed that she was packing anything. What do you mean?

[T.D.]

Tough to compete with what Ms. Giambarini is packing, but Meredith D'Ambrosio's "Wishing On The Moon" (Sunnyside), which I believe came out in 2006, is something else (and beautifully recorded by RVG):

For the record, I like Ms. Giambarini's vocals. I hadn't noticed that she was packing anything. What do you mean?

Uh, the rather, er, buxom cover photo?

[Disclaimer: Although I very rarely buy vocal CDs, I like the little I've heard of Ms. Gambarini, and have considered purchasing the disc in question.]

Edited January 4, 2007 by T.D.

[ghost of miles]

Larry, completely agree with you about that D'Ambrosio cd--in fact, tapped a track off it for an Afterglow that's airing this week. Eager to hear the Gambarini (she has a new one w/Hank Jones coming out in Japan... not sure about a U.S. release).

[White Lightning]

The Roberta Gambarini CD is a favorite of mine as well. I really like her singing, it's in the Ella-Sarah territory - Classical Female Vocals. I think we have too little of that sort of Female singers these days.