if sigmund f's wife was yer ma you'd be dead by now innit

[Serial_Apologist]

S-A

Tania Maria is definitely improvising. There is no doubt that what she is producing is extremely high calibre jazz.
I think she is probably one of the greatest jazz singers of the last thirty years.

Try this track which builds up an amazing head of steam. Shame this is now only available as a SACD whcih, i suppose, can't be played on a normal CD player. Once the band kick in, the tune thunders along. There is a bit of multi-tracking on this disc and she is effectively dueting with herself .


I've seen the Polish singer with the Vienna Art Orchestra several years back and am curious that you conside Christine Tobin to be a jazz singer - I'm more inclined to think of her as a singer who works with jazz musicians very much in the fashion of Joni Mitchell. Neither of these singers are as convincing as jazz musicians as Tania Maria in my opinion. I think the difference is that TM has never forgotten than dance is the inspiration for jazz (especially from a historic persepctive) and this is why her music is always enthused with so much energy. If anything, she gets right down into the spirit of what a jazz artist should be - spontaneous , creative and also inspire the listener. Tobin is too inclined towards folk and , to my ears, neither her voice nor Dudziak's is as good a musical instrument as the Brazilians.

OK Ian I agree to disagree with you on Ms Tobin; but the second Tania Maria track I feel just the same way as about the first. Sure she's improvising on the keyboard, but the scatting merely consists of repeated simple phrases in unison with predictable even regular spaces between, and that. for me, ain't improvisation, sorry.

[Ian Thumwood]

S-A

As a teenager I was something of an addict with Tania Maria's records for the Concord Picante label. At the time my Dad would often buy records from the jazz side of Concord which always seemed to feature Scott Hamilton, Dan Barrett, Ray Brown, Gene Harris or Harry Alden in the various line ups! They always seemed a curiously concervative label when it came to jazz even if the likes of Stan Getz, Art Blakey and Dave Brubeck would also make records for them. However, Tania Maria seemed totally contemporary in comparison. The "live" album was the first that I bought and quickly snapped up the other four within a short space of time. Within about 5 years she had moved from a fiery acoustic musician to someone whose "Love Explosion" verged on pop, albeit heavily laden with jazz solo's. The two tracks I've posted come from "Wild; Tania Maria live" and "Come with me" - the latter is considered a Classic jazz recording by many people . The "simple phrases" to which you refer are part of the melodyand one aspect which I have always felt compelling is her ability to scat and play improvised lines simultaneously. This can be extremely exciting and the energy generated is pretty rare for studio performances. Job to know which style she fits in. Granted there is the Brazilian undercurrent throughout her work yet there are elements of bop as well as influence of Herbie Hancock's more commercial efforts. If you had to rate jazz musicians purely on the basis of ability to swing, I think she would be up there amongst the likes of Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, Johhny Griffin, McCoy Tyner, etc.

As a "scat " singer, I feel Tania Maria probably inhabits the same kind of orbit as Ella, Sarah Vaughan or even Dianne Reeves - that is to say very much within the tradition and eschewing the desire to experiment. I strongly feel that jazz singing in the last 20 years is probably better than it has ever been during the history of the music although the likes of Ella and Billie would still be in anyone's Top Five. There is a lot of experimentation in jazz singing and whilst I think it has never pushed the boat out as far as with other instruments, I feel that the use of the voice in jazz is used in a much braver fashion these days. This applies to male singers such as Kurt Elling or Theo Bleckmann as much as female artists. The notion of a singer with a jazz group being a "canary" is totally redundant and there is clearly a desire to go beyond the boundaries of what jazz would have considered to have been as recently as the 1980's.

Two singers really stick in my mind particularly. The first would have to be Luciana Souza who does use wordless techniques. Two and a half mins into this clip, there is a good example. The wierd thing for me is that she reminds me very much of Norma Winstone (not only the greatest jazz singer this country has ever produced but arguably one of the most original jazz musicians to have come from the UK) although I think her intonation is probably a bit better. She doesn't have the "big" voice of Tania Maria but I think you really thinks about how she uses it as an instrument. I didn't realise that she has been employed by Kenny Wheeler in the past. I'm pretty sure that I saw her with Maria Schneider's orchestra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJpRDiwa0NQ

The other singer is Gretchen Parlato whos I've enthused about before on this board. It's amazing that she has not appeared on over 60 albums in about 5 years with a good proportion of these being with some pretty "full on" jazz musicians. Her scat singing is a million miles away from Ella and incorporates percussive sounds as well as techniques which perhaps owe more to contempoary classical music. All of this is done within a jazz context unlike someone like Maggie Nichols who has nothing to do with jazz. I have been particularly impressed with her singing on David Binney's "Graylen Epicentre," an adventurous approach to jazz what remains faithful to the tenets of the music with regard to matters such as swing yet is re-casting the music in a new and exciting direction for the 21st century. Curiously, if you wanted to compile a list of some of the musicians who are "happening" in jazz at the moment or who might be said to be defining the current generation of jazz musicians in 2012 (Walter Smith III, Ambroke Akinmusire, Lionel Loueke, David Binney, Taylor Eigsti , Esperanza Spalding, etc) you will probably find that Parlato has worked with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49FTQD_ttU

[Serial_Apologist]

S-A

As a teenager I was something of an addict with Tania Maria's records for the Concord Picante label. At the time my Dad would often buy records from the jazz side of Concord which always seemed to feature Scott Hamilton, Dan Barrett, Ray Brown, Gene Harris or Harry Alden in the various line ups! They always seemed a curiously concervative label when it came to jazz even if the likes of Stan Getz, Art Blakey and Dave Brubeck would also make records for them. However, Tania Maria seemed totally contemporary in comparison. The "live" album was the first that I bought and quickly snapped up the other four within a short space of time. Within about 5 years she had moved from a fiery acoustic musician to someone whose "Love Explosion" verged on pop, albeit heavily laden with jazz solo's. The two tracks I've posted come from "Wild; Tania Maria live" and "Come with me" - the latter is considered a Classic jazz recording by many people . The "simple phrases" to which you refer are part of the melodyand one aspect which I have always felt compelling is her ability to scat and play improvised lines simultaneously. This can be extremely exciting and the energy generated is pretty rare for studio performances. Job to know which style she fits in. Granted there is the Brazilian undercurrent throughout her work yet there are elements of bop as well as influence of Herbie Hancock's more commercial efforts. If you had to rate jazz musicians purely on the basis of ability to swing, I think she would be up there amongst the likes of Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, Johhny Griffin, McCoy Tyner, etc.

As a "scat " singer, I feel Tania Maria probably inhabits the same kind of orbit as Ella, Sarah Vaughan or even Dianne Reeves - that is to say very much within the tradition and eschewing the desire to experiment. I strongly feel that jazz singing in the last 20 years is probably better than it has ever been during the history of the music although the likes of Ella and Billie would still be in anyone's Top Five. There is a lot of experimentation in jazz singing and whilst I think it has never pushed the boat out as far as with other instruments, I feel that the use of the voice in jazz is used in a much braver fashion these days. This applies to male singers such as Kurt Elling or Theo Bleckmann as much as female artists. The notion of a singer with a jazz group being a "canary" is totally redundant and there is clearly a desire to go beyond the boundaries of what jazz would have considered to have been as recently as the 1980's.

Two singers really stick in my mind particularly. The first would have to be Luciana Souza who does use wordless techniques. Two and a half mins into this clip, there is a good example. The wierd thing for me is that she reminds me very much of Norma Winstone (not only the greatest jazz singer this country has ever produced but arguably one of the most original jazz musicians to have come from the UK) although I think her intonation is probably a bit better. She doesn't have the "big" voice of Tania Maria but I think you really thinks about how she uses it as an instrument. I didn't realise that she has been employed by Kenny Wheeler in the past. I'm pretty sure that I saw her with Maria Schneider's orchestra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJpRDiwa0NQ

The other singer is Gretchen Parlato whos I've enthused about before on this board. It's amazing that she has not appeared on over 60 albums in about 5 years with a good proportion of these being with some pretty "full on" jazz musicians. Her scat singing is a million miles away from Ella and incorporates percussive sounds as well as techniques which perhaps owe more to contempoary classical music. All of this is done within a jazz context unlike someone like Maggie Nichols who has nothing to do with jazz. I have been particularly impressed with her singing on David Binney's "Graylen Epicentre," an adventurous approach to jazz what remains faithful to the tenets of the music with regard to matters such as swing yet is re-casting the music in a new and exciting direction for the 21st century. Curiously, if you wanted to compile a list of some of the musicians who are "happening" in jazz at the moment or who might be said to be defining the current generation of jazz musicians in 2012 (Walter Smith III, Ambroke Akinmusire, Lionel Loueke, David Binney, Taylor Eigsti , Esperanza Spalding, etc) you will probably find that Parlato has worked with them.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49FTQD_ttU

You're absolutely right about the Norma Winstone comparison with Luciana, Ian. (I wrongly took her to be Canadian from her cultured speaking voice and the KW connection you draw attention to!) The direction from that recording sesh brings Norma's recent work with Glauco Vennier and Klaus Gessing and to mind as well - exceptionally exquisite, though I honestly haven't competely made up my mind as to whether it's all a bit too smooth and pure! I saw her at St Cyprians with those two a couople of years ago opposite Maria Pia da Vito accompanied by Huw Warren, and although Maria appeared very stressed her performance reminded me of the sparkier Norma W in company with her ex.

Anyway, back to Gretchen P and we discussed her awhile back I now remember - was it on the old bored? - and I made a comparison with another singer I've always been Brazilianly nutty for, Flora Purim, someone else from what I recall saying her tone was lighter - possibly you. Notice from that clip how she makes use of the inbreath - an interesting compilation of singers of both genders who've done that could also be made!

Cheers