(Reprinted from the May 2022 issue of New York City Jazz Record)
Singer Cecile McLorin Salvant ponders our connection with the afterlife on Ghost Song, her Nonesuch debut and an artistic juggernaut. Each track evinces a different aspect of loss and longing, in expression, perhaps, of the mortal apprehension rumbling through the zeitgeist these last two years. There are so many ways to hurt, it seems.
Salvant wrote seven of the 12 tracks on the album, again distinguishing herself as a modern jazz composer for the voice. On the title track, for instance, she opens with a shout and a gritty blues head before settling into the sweet sway of a rueful refrain; the extended outro is a children’s choir repeating this haunting melody. In a similarly deft approach to song-mapping, she opens “I Lost My Mind” with what sounds like a warm, traditional jazz verse, only to flip into an eerily harmonized, organ-based chorus with high-pitched, pleading antiphons—a brilliant rendering of dystopian angst. Notably, she uses delightful reversals like these on almost all of the album’s tunes, even those by other composers (like Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill and Kate Bush).
Salvant’s imaginative use of space and color in her music reflects her like interests in the visual arts: She typically acts as creative director and illustrator for her physical releases, leaning towards abstraction, expressionism and vibrancy in her designs. Under this album’s title, too, she’s created a collection of artworks (ink on paper or thread on textiles) that reveal how deeply she’s contemplated her theme. These pieces—collectively, the Ghost Song exhibition—are on display at the Picture Room gallery in Brooklyn only until May 1. But on May 12-13 Salvant will perform from Ghost Song in an album release concert at JALC’s Rose Theater.
Tierney Sutton extracts new meaning from cherished songs on Paris Sessions 2, her sequel to 2014’s successful Paris Sessions with (now husband) classical guitarist Serge Merlaud, both on BFM Jazz. When singing known tunes, Sutton, like Salvant, changes the feel and focus to emphasize the poetry, as on the medley of Vernon Duke’s “April in Paris” and Joni Mitchell’s “Free Man in Paris.” In Sutton’s blended version of these two tunes, a string-voice ballad with generous rubato sections, the melancholy hidden behind the shine of the originals predominates. Later, a subdued setting for “Beautiful Love” emphasizes the mysterious nature of romantic attraction. And her blue take on “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” hints at the seduction intent inherent in Cole Porter’s lyrics. The album drops on May 6, and Sutton will present it at Birdland on May 24-28.
Singer-songwriter Kristen Lee Sergeant will officially launch her third self-produced album, Falling, at Birdland, too, on May 12. Sergeant, fronting an exceptional band (JALC saxophonist Ted Nash, pianist Helen Sung, bassist Hannah Marks and drummer Jay Sawyer), will likely recap some of her clever originals from the album, like the flirtatious “Let’s Fall” and the confrontational “Better Off”. One hopes that she’ll include her arrangement of Arlen’s “That Old Black Magic”—a bold interpretation vibrating with passion, laughter and brio.
Back in 2013, vocalists Catherine Russell, Brianna Thomas and Charenee Wade first presented Ladies Sing The Blues at JALC, in a live-streamed performance long before remote concertizing was a regular thing. With this show, using horn charts from original 1920s recordings, the singers honors the work and lives of Bessie Smith ("the Empress of the Blues"), Mamie Smith ("the Queen of the Blues"), Ma Rainey ("the Mother of the Blues") and film legend Ethel Waters. The modern trio will reprise this concert at Kupferberg Center For Arts at Queens College on May 6.
Post-Grammy gigs: Jazz/R&B artist Jon Batiste’s album We Are (Verve)—with its funky anthem title cut—earned eight nominations and four wins this year, including Best American Roots Performance, Best American Roots Song, Best Music Video, and Album of the Year. (Batiste also won Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for the 2020 Disney-Pixar film Soul). The singer/composer will play Carnegie Hall on May 7.
Pianist/vocalist Eliane Elias won Best Latin Jazz Album this year for her Mirror Mirror (Candid), a series of four-handed piano duets featuring bandleader Elias with pianists Chick Corea and Chucho Valdés. Recorded in New York in early 2021, Corea passed away before the album was released in September of that year. This winning album was piano-only—Elias’s first in almost 30 years—but no doubt she’ll show off her smoky vocals at Birdland, where she plays May 17-21.