(Reprinted from the January 2021 issue of The New York City Jazz Record)
Out of the misery that was 2020, inspired ways of reaching jazz audiences have emerged. When the pandemic struck last March, Soapbox Gallery—the arty, minimalist concert space in downtown Brooklyn—responded swiftly to artists’ need for high-quality live-streaming performance options. In the 10 months since, the organization has presented its share of premier jazz vocalists: Claudia Acuña, Kendra Shank, Becca Stevens, Allegra Levy, and Nicole Zuraitis among them. Live streams from well-equipped rooms like Soapbox Gallery helped musicians to remain in touch with fans and provided a dignified platform for virtual album releases; eager as we are for in-person performances to return, we just might miss click-and-watch concerts if live-streamed events were to disappear entirely. This modern dilemma is still several months off, however. In the meantime, Soapbox Gallery this month will give us a virtual front-row seat to vocal performances by Audrey Silver (Jan. 8), Paul Jost (Jan. 12), Roseanna Vitro (Jan. 16) and Tessa Souter (Jan. 26).
Likewise, during 2020 vocal jazz educators introduced tremendous innovation to online learning. Singer/composer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, purveyor of the educational platform Orchard of Pomegranates, typically hosts about two dozen singers during her online weekend intensives, each featuring back-to-back workshops on the finer points of improvisatory singing, with prominent guest lecturers like Theo Bleckmann, Jenn Shyu, and Sara Serpa. Gottlieb has held three of these crash courses in creativity so far, with the next slated for April 2021.
Award-winning singer Alexis Cole has adopted a tiered subscription model for her online teaching—through her website JazzVoice.com, singers can choose their level of involvement with the vibrant online community built around Cole’s dynamic presence. From private lessons with elite vocalists like Catherine Russell and Tierney Sutton to master classes with industry veterans like Sara Gazarek and Stephanie Nakasian, Cole’s clearinghouse for vocal education offers unprecedented access to jazz professionals across a spectrum of interests. (Disclosure: Cole has invited me to present a one-off class on music marketing.)
Besides Gottlieb and Cole, those wanting to learn more about vocal jazz can avail themselves of some exceptional web-based instruction this January. Pianist/singer/composer Lauren Lee will teach two masterclasses in January as part of her Sing Like A Horn! educational series, one on using triads and the other on developing syllables for soloing. Through California Jazz Conservatory’s Jazzschool, New Jersey-based Vitro will teach a 10-week online course on how to scat with lyrics in the manner of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, starting Jan. 14. Free improv trailblazer Jay Clayton, too, will present a 10-week online class via CJC: on Jan. 11 she’ll unveil “Singing the Jazz Standards”, a deep dive into the basics of improvising within the traditional jazz canon.
Back in 2015, Gottlieb asked Clayton to guest at The Stone on a moon-inspired song cycle she’d written. The subsequent album, 13 Lunar Meditations: Summoning the Witches (s/p), shows just how adroitly these two master improvisers practice what they teach. Listen, for example, to their duet, “Lotte and the Moon”, the first track of the cycle and a lyrical, romping dialogue of closely intertwined free improv and spoken word. Later in the album, on the electrifying blues tune “Moon Over Gaza”, the two singers explore contrasting registers and rhythms. Finally, on the penultimate track, “Traveler Woman,” Clayton recites the gripping text (by multi-media artist Gem Salsberg) in concert with Gottlieb’s wild vocal interjections and moody backing chorus. Each track on the album issues a different musical statement, one for each full moon of the year. But they all share a poetic through-line: the mysterious pull of celestial bodies. The album drops on Jan. 12, the first new moon of 2021.
Jazz singer/educator Holli Ross passed away in May 2020, just as The Royal Bopsters—one of the many vocal groups she’d sung with over the preceding 30 years—were finalizing their sophomore album, Party of Four (Motema). The September release paid tribute to vocalese pioneers like Annie Ross, who’d sung on the group’s lauded 2017 debut, The Royal Bopsters Project (Motema). Annie (no relation to Holli) also passed away last year—in July, just a month after the death of beloved Songbook singer/pianist Freddy Cole (no relation to Alexis). It’s in facing these losses that we discover a major flaw in the new pandemic-inspired wiring: no way to give a proper good-bye.