(Reprinted from the September 2020 issue of The New York City Jazz Record)
Over the 80+ years of her career, Annie Ross succeeded in changing the course of vocal jazz history. Following in the footsteps of Eddie Jefferson, she was an early pioneer of vocalese, penning lyrics to, most famously, “Twisted”, sax player Wardell Gray’s bebop head by that name. Later, she became a founding member of the ground-breaking vocalese group, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, whose tight jazz voicings and crisp, syncopated grooves helped to popularize the new form of vocal jazz. Ross died in July, less than a week shy of her 90th birthday.
Ross’ vocalese legacy lives on in contemporary jazz singers like Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling and Giacomo Gates, and in vocal groups like The Manhattan Transfer and New York Voices. Singer Lorraine Feather, whose father, noted jazz journalist Leonard Feather, coined the term “vocalese”, also stands out as a superb practitioner of the art. And newcomers like Jazzmeia Horn and Veronica Swift, who grew up immersed in Jon Hendrick’s music, are likely candidates to bring vocalese to the next generation of singers. Today, though, we can observe that the vocal tradition that Ross helped birth with “Twisted” has become, like scatting, one of the hallmarks of a great jazz singer.
Singer/pianist Diana Krall, too, has succeeded in changing the course of vocal jazz history with her unprecedented success as a crossover jazz artist in a post-rock world. That success derived in no small part from the creative collaboration with her longtime producer, Tommy LiPuma, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 80. Krall will release the next installment of her impressive oeuvre with LiPuma, The Dream of You (Verve), on Sept. 25.
By the time of LiPuma passing, he and Krall had turned out about a dozen top-selling, critically lauded albums. There were some other tracks, though, that LiPuma had worked on with Krall in 2016-17, shortly before his death, that were never released; the new record comprises a dozen of these tracks—all standards and pop tunes—featuring various finely calibrated duos, trios, quartets and a string ensemble, with Krall often on piano, always on vocals. How wonderful that there are more gifts from the Krall-LiPuma partnership to unwrap.
Vocalist Seth MacFarlane, with five studio albums to his name, long ago proved his worth as a crooner of the highest order. Not to diminish his contributions as a TV creator and actor, but dude can sing. His sixth studio recording, Great Songs From Stage & Screen (Republic/Verve), delivers just as the title suggests: a slew of hummable tunes first played on the boards and silver screen. Backed by full orchestrations, MacFarlane applies his fine baritone to re-interpreted tunes like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Ten Minutes Ago”, Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” and Lerner and Loewe’s “I Loved You Once In Silence”.
A third must-hear Verve release this month: The Lost Berlin Tapes, a new Ella Fitzgerald recording from a March 1962 concert at Berlin’s Sportpalast, held just a few months after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Two years earlier Fitzgerald had recorded one of her most beloved records of all time in that city—the Grammy-winning Mack The Knife: Ella in Berlin, also on Verve. (This album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for its historical significance in 1999.) On the latest finding, she sings from her usual set list at the time, with only a small overlap in tunes from the earlier release. The later recording also includes some rarities for Fitzgerald: Leslie Bricusse’s “My Kind Of Boy”, Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah, I Love Him So” and Big Joe Turner’s “Wee Baby Blues”.
Singer/pianist Champian Fulton acknowledges Charlie Parker’s centennial with Birdsong (Champian Records), a hip collection of 11 classic tunes that Parker either wrote or popularized. For this effort Fulton added saxophonist Scott Hamilton to her usual quartet (besides Champian on piano, bassist Hide Tanaka, drummer Fukushi Tainaka and flugelhorn player Stephen Fulton). Ever inspired, Fulton’s renditions of these tricky Parker favorites radiate warmth and charisma.
Pandemic PSAs: The ninth annual Sarah Vaughan Competition, scheduled for Nov. 22 in Newark, N.J., remains in play. Deadline for this year’s submissions is September 8 at 5PM. The Jazz WaHi Vocal Series, too, continues as planned, with singer Beat Keastli up next on Sept. 3, via the Jazz WaHi website.