Jazz Vocalists - CD/SD

https://youtu.be/LjTqqL8p7t8

https://youtube.com/LjTqqL8p7t8

Aargh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjTqqL8p7t8

I think I like her vocals better than his

Think she has lots of upside to her career right now. I like him fine, have seen him sing to the accompaniment of cats I really dig. Now that I think about it, he played the last night ever at one of my favorite places ever, a place called Cachaça, I must have posted about it a few times when it was still going.

been on a big Chet Baker/Blossom Dearie/Astrud Gilberto sorta vibe lately - anybody got any recommendations for similar stuff

Try Daryl Sherman for a Blossom Dearie-type approach.

From the The Future Is Now! thread some KK vids posted there too:

From press sheet:

Karin Krog
Don't Just Sing | An Anthology: 1963-1999

2xLP & CD Available: June 30, 2015 (Digital: June 16th)
Light In The Attic

The work of Karin Krog may be unfamiliar to much of the world, but in her native Norway and Scandinavia at large, she’s practically a household name. This says much about the local enthusiasm for post-bop jazz but also about the tyranny of distribution: until 1994, Krog’s albums weren’t available in the USA or UK, meaning three decades of recordings were waiting to be discovered. In theory, until now, she hasn’t had any regularly distributed albums in the US or the UK–this is certainly the first one even marketed/promoted in here and in England. With this anthology of her best recordings from 1963 to 1999–curated with Krog’s own input–we hope to set the record straight.

To listen to opening track “As A Wife Has A Cow” is to jump into the deep end. It’s 54 seconds of words, voice, and technology, a looped, echoing reading of a Gertrude Stein poem. The effect is disquieting and alien but deeply rhythmic, too–and that’s Krog’s USP. Don’t Just Sing takes in these spoken experiments along with free jazz, improvisation, standards, contemporary covers, and electronic manipulation. It features some of the best regarded jazz players in Europe, not least her partner, John Surman, the English saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist and composer. Like Annette Peacock, Krog experiments with solo vocals run through electronics and performs with progressive electric jazz combos and traditional acoustic groups as well.

Krog began singing jazz in the 1950s and started her first band in 1962. She not only had two tracks on the first ever Norwegian jazz LP, Metropol Jazz, but also became the first Norwegian jazz artist to record and release a full album (1964’s By Myself on the Philips label). Her sound developed as technological advances made new recording techniques possible, and she quickly embraced the album as the perfect form to contain her sonic experiments. “There is such a thing as too much manipulation,” says Krog today.

Recorded with tenor saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bass player Arild Andersen, 1968’s Joy is regarded as her masterwork. Tracks from it can be found on this compilation, as can a couple of interesting covers: Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want” and Bobby Gentry’s “Ode To Billy Joe,” both of which show how Krog brought jazz aesthetics to pop songs of the day. “I remember that there was a lot of buzz around Blue, and Joni Mitchell is, as everybody knows, a very talented singer and songwriter,” says Krog in the new liner notes.

“Glass" and “Tystnaden" are the two previously unreleased finds from the archives, the former written for a British documentary in 1997, the latter a soundscape improvisation from a 1963 studio session with Lars Werner on piano, Kurt Lindgren on bass, and Janne Carlsson on drums. The compilation rounds off with the “Psalm” movement from John Coltrane’s monumental piece, A Love Supreme. Krog’s version came at suggestion of the man himself. “It was John who pointed to the text on the inner sleeve of the Impulse! LP and said, ‘Karin, look. Why don’t you sing this?’” she remembers.

Krog remains fiercely productive, recording, performing, and running Meantime Records from her and John’s villa near Oslo. Now 77, she’s showing no signs of slowing down. “Everybody has to retire at some point, but I believe that once a musician, you’re always a musician,” she says. “If I can’t stand up and sing on stage anymore, I can always do it sitting down!”

Curated with Krog’s own input, this anthology showcases her best recordings from 1963 to 1999, including songs from 1968’s groundbreaking Joy, her 1970 Dexter Gordon collaboration Some Other Spring, her pop-jazz masterwork 1974’s We Could Be Flying, tracks from the Japanese only Different Days, Different Ways which focus on 1970-72 experimental vocal works, and previously unreleased tracks.

― dow, Tuesday, April 21, 2015 6:07 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow, that is great! (interested in the g. stein piece especially)

― no lime tangier, Tuesday, April 21, 2015 6:48 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― no lime tangier, Tuesday, April 21, 2015 6:52 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just listened to the promo of the xpost Karin Krog antholgy, good stuff. "Ode To Billy Joe" doesn't really suit her, but otherwise yeah: she sounds like she's been around, all the more reason to go for the finer things in life, o baby. The more cosmic (more atmospheric, less earthy), still sensuous tracks later on--fave so far: "Don't Just Sing," with her tonal shifts mirrored and/or aided & abetted by studio and synth effects---rec. to fans of Sheila Jordan, maybe more than Annette Peacock, who's got something of a different (or just more) attitude. Krog sounds smart, sometimes sly, confident, like the lady who runs the detective's favorite bar (might be a bar with weed).

― dow, Wednesday, April 22, 2015 3:09 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not so crazy about the sax solos on here, but usually she's just got keys, bass, drums, occasionally other percussion, that's all she needs.

― dow, Wednesday, April 22, 2015 3:13 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It def sounds like a bar with weed.

― dow, Wednesday, April 22, 2015 3:14 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's an article on her in the new issue of The Wire.

I am liking some of Jose James' new album Yesterday I Had The Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday that features Jason Moran on piano, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Eric Harland, and is produced by David Was. Some of it is too measured and stiff, but other cuts work

i saw a hugely enjoyable outdoor concert by cyrille aimee a couple of weeks ago. brought the house down with her scatting. really into rhythm. the guitars were hot too.

http://bandwidth.wamu.org/first-listen-cecile-mclorin-salvant-for-one-to-love/

Jose James new one is growing on me (plus his older stuff). Still need to listen to new Mclorin Salvant, and track down and try that Karin Krog anthology

Also want to hear the new Lizz Wright, although it might not quite be "jazz." She's working with Joni's colleague-- from the press release Without a doubt, Wright certainly made it happen with Freedom & Surrender, her sexiest, most sensual album yet. She wrote ten of the disc's 15 songs, six with Klein and Batteau. The three penned "The New Game" - the disc's original working title - a rollicking, country-blues ditty with poetic lyrics and verses. The album as a whole touches upon fresher emotional terrain, especially the ethereal, acoustic guitar and Hammond organ-powered "Somewhere Down the Mystic," the beautiful lament "Here and Now," (which was inspired in part by the passing of Maya Angelou), the salty and spiteful "You" and the tender R&B ballad "Blessed the Brave."

Written by Wright, Klein and celebrated songwriter J.D. Souther, "Right Where You Are" is a mesmerizing love slow jam featuring Wright in an amorous duet with Gregory Porter, while "Real Life Painting," written by Wright and Maia Sharp, is a bucolic evocation about dwelling in the momentary carnal bliss of a love affair.

Nina Simone and Anita O'Day

different styles but I love at least 90% of what I've heard.

x-post-- the new Lizz Wright is often kind of a mournful adult r'n'b/neo-soul thing w/ a tinge of Toshi Reagon and also Toshi's Mom's group Sweet Honey in the Rock

Big tribute to Mark Murphy at St. Peter's tomorrow evening for what would have been his 84th birthday, featuring a host of other singers . They are talking about it WBGO right now.

Did ya go?

Happening in an hour or two. Don't know if I would be able to get in.

You gotta hit the lottery and retire and attend all of these events

Ha dontiknowit

Lots of fun photos from that tribute on FB.

a friend of mine went, reported there were nice singing tributes by sheila jordan, kurt elling & jay clayton among others

FB page is called Mark Murphy -Jazz Daddy.

RIP Ernestine Anderson. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/jazz-great-ernestine-anderson-dies/

I'm finding the new Gregory Porter album pretty nice

ctrl-f Terry Callier no matches :(

a little on this thread

terry callier: what do you think of him?

x-post--- Porter has that jazzier Bill Withers thing going nicely

Really enjoying Porter's latest Take Me to the Alley plus his prior one Liquid Spirit,

I hear some Donny Hathaway as well in his voice

Day Dream is a top jam, so is most of the album. Will be checking out some more Porter.

Gregory Porter is at the Howard Theatre in W. DC tonight Monday

Gregory Porter was pretty good at that sold-out almost hour and a half Howard Theatre gig. Didn't catch the names of the bandmembers--piano, bassist (acoustic mostly but electric on a few) and drums. He covered the Temps "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," and did a bit of Sly Stone "Thank You", a number of songs from the new one and various older cuts. He's got a warm Bill Withers meets Donny Hathaway thing going and I like it, plus a bit of jazz scat and swing.

The Jazz Times and Downbeat writers I was talking to at the Jazz Singers exhibit at the Library of Congress, like Porter but love Cecile Mclorin Salvant

Turns out the First Lady was there with gal pals at the Gregory Porter show I saw.

x-post-

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jazz-singers/

the impression I got from Cecile Mclorin Salvant's last album was that she has a wonderful voice + bluesy mannerisms, but she is too much of a stylist and doesn't put enough of herself into the songs.

Still going through Gregory Porter's catalog, will get to Salvant soon

Camila Meza adds some nice vox to the latest Ryan Keberle & Catharsis album. Each song on the album is a tribute to a different South American composer and it is all very nice.

Interesting review of her Traces effort here, will check her singing and guitar playing out:

http://www.popmatters.com/review/camila-meza-traces/

Traces is her third outing as a leader but her first in New York. The trio behind her (Shai Maestro on keys, Matt Penman on bass, and Kendrick Scott’s drums) is fleet and fantastic, and she supplements it with some harmony vocal from Sachal Vasandani, as well as percussion and cello. But at its core, this is a quartet record that puts Meza out front as a singer, a songwriter, and a guitarist — with both strong and appealing ideas in each role.

...That is to say, Meza is not like the talented but oh-so-throwback-sounding Cecile McLorin Savant, whose updating of Sarah Vaughan is big at Jazz at Lincoln Center but sounds unaffected by the last 50 years of jazz singing. Her instrument, however, is less affected than that of Gretchen Parlato, less soul-driven than Somi, and less avant-pop than Cassandra Wilson. Meza manages to suggest her connection to Ella and Joni Mitchell at the same time while being tied to singing from other cultures too. The current singer she reminds me of most may be Luciana Souza, from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

All the players on that Catharsis record are super nice people in addition to being great musicians. Still haven't got around to listening to it myself.

I have just been listening to the velvet huskiness of Pauline Jean (a NYC based singer with Haitian roots) on her Nwayo album, top stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O6ilK9lwHA

Annie Ross is turning 86 tomorrow. Here is a very interesting interview with her from last year:
http://jazztimes.com/articles/167330-a-conversation-with-vocal-legend-annie-ross

killer free show at noon this thursday in Brooklyn with Charenee Wade, Brianna Thomas and Catherine Russell
http://www.bam.org/music/2016/ladies-sing-the-blues
if you dig female vocalists and live in the nyc area, this is not to be missed.

Ah. Would go. But noon doesn't work. Loved hearing Catherine Russell interviewed a few months ago on WBGO on Singers Unlimited, which I am listening to right now, about her mother and her project with Carolyn Leonhart and one other vocalist.

Tanya Hall

Aargh.
La Tanya Hall

Also, don't want to turn into the street team, but Gabrielle Stravelli's Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer tribute at Kitano the Wednesday before last was killer.