The ambient melodiousness of singer Theo Bleckmann’s 2019 release with keyboardist Joseph Branciforte, LP1 (Greyfade) serves as a catalyst for probing introspection. On the album’s four improvised tracks, the co-composers stack barely voiced tones, subtle clicks, and oozing looped sounds to create a supernal mood—a mood that only barely obscures the album’s substrata of deep emotion.
Bleckmann’s interest in electronics continues to evolve with these magnetic compositions, a next step in his sojourn through musical eclecticism. This step takes him away from the 1950s cabaret fare, Weimar art tunes, and jazz-imbued pop songs of his musical past, positioning him firmly in modern experimentalism. He’s not alone there: Later this year he and the superb brass quartet, The Westerlies, will launch a horn-based, electronics-suffused album, Songs of Refuge and Resistance, developed during a joint residency in Vermont in June 2018. Before this release, however, Bleckmann will satisfy his musical wanderlust with a performance of Mixtape, his mash-up of classical, jazz, and rock tunes, as part of the 2020 Winter JazzFest marathon.
Bleckmann’s offbeat show is only one of several smashing vocal performances crammed into different corners of the Village during the marathon weekend. With unlimited one-night passes starting at $50 and unlimited two-night passes at $95, you would quickly ran out of breath trying to take it all in. On Jan. 10, the first night of the marathon, besides Bleckmann at Subculture, you can hear Kendra Shank (like Bleckmann, a protegée of legend Sheila Jordan) at Zinc, singing in tribute to her friend and mentor, Abbey Lincoln, who would have turned 90 this year. A couple of sets later, New Orleans-bred singer Quiana Lynell, winner of the 2017 Sarah Vaughan Competition, will front an all-star lineup with pianist Cyrus Chestnut, guitarist Ed Cherry, bassist George DeLancey, vibraphonist Monte Croft, and drummer/vocalist Jamison Ross in the same space.
Following on Jan. 11, vibrant singer Becca Stevens—fresh off of a fall tour with Snarky Puppy and about to release a full-length indie jazz album Wonderbloom (GroundUP Music)—takes the stage at Le Poisson Rouge. A few doors away, Subculture hosts and exciting triple header: the 2019 Juno-winning Canadian pianist/singer Laila Biali up first, before “vintage pop” singer Kat Edmonson, who is readying her new album Dreamers Do (Spinnerette Records) for release next month, followed by 2016 Grammy nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album, Rene Marie and her hip band Experiment in Truth. Two minutes away, at the Zürcher Gallery, Sara Serpa, whose won Downbeat's Rising Star Female Vocalist award five times, will work again with her band from The Stone series last fall—guitarist André Matos, pianist Dov Manski, and drummer Jessie Simpson. There’s some overlap on these evenings, so you’ll have to pick and choose wisely.
By Jan. 20 the Winter JazzFest will be all but over, though there’s one concert more that evening, at Le Poisson Rouge: Jordan herself starring in From Detroit To The World: Celebrating The Jazz Legacy of Detroit and Honoring Marcus Belgrave. Jordan will sing as one fourth of the Detroit Jazz Royalty Ensemble, with fellow NEA Jazz Masters bassist Ron Carter and drummer Louis Hayes, and pianist Johnny O’Neal—all Detroit-born. In their set—part of a larger event in honor of the late trumpeter Belgrave—the ensemble will offer its respect for his lifetime achievement. (Belgrave was born in Pennsylvania but built his musical career in Detroit).
Brazilian singer Jamile Staevie was still a vocal jazz student at The City College of New York this past spring when trombonist/bandleader Scott Reeves tapped her last minute to sing with his big band at Smalls. Her newly released album, Jamile (s/p), reveals why she can pull off a sophisticated, high-profile gig like this with only short notice—she can sing most anything. On this debut, she nails the tough nuggets (Mary Lou Williams’ “In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee”), the silky pearls (Cole Porter’s “Everything I Love”), and the lilting samba (“O Pato” by Jaime Silva and Neuza Teixeira). One to watch.
With Remember Me, My Dear (ECM) saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble complete what they started 25 years ago with Officium (ECM)—the unusually complementary blending of early music and modern jazz improvisation. Recorded during the group’s final tour in 2014, the album is a lovely sendoff to a memorable collaboration.
(Reprinted from the January 2020 issue of New York City Jazz Record)