Girl Singers

[Tenor Freak]

Yes, ironic title ahoy in honour of Trevor Cooper formerly of this parish.

Earlier this evening I found an unmarked CD which I put in the player and this was one of the tracks that came out of the speakers. It must have been a disk I burned from iTunes (yes! a legal download - I do pay for this stuff occasionally). One of those lovely moments.

I am sure I must have heard this on the radio some time but forgot about it completely. I think Anita Baker is great and I'd rather listen to her or Erykah Badu than many "girl" "singers" still stuck in teh Grate American Songbook (sic).

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er ditto innit

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Anita Baker Rapture, Sade in pub toilets, Hugo Boss bwankers aged eleven drunk on Intercity trains, Dakker Noir aftershave, Nigel Twat Lawson, Edwina handjob Currie,

The 1980s...never undersold.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

Bruce

I think your comment about girl singers and "the Great American songbook" is really wide of the mark in 2012. It's strange to read the hostility towards singers although I grew up listening to jazz through the influence of my Dad who , at that time, was never a fan of any singers other than the likes of Jimmy Rushing or Jimmy Witherspoon. For me, too, it was these singers that initially impressed and seemed "genuine" jazz musicians whilst anyone else seemed suspect. My ears were subesequently turned by Norma Winstone's singing with the BBC Big Band where her appearances were the highlight of their regular Thursday night sessions on Radio 2. By the time I was about 16 I was mad about Tania Maria and it was then through regularly going to the New York Pizza company in Winchester where they always played 1930's Billie Holiday records that I got into Lady Day. Since then, I've always liked jazz singers but none of the singers that I've been into have really been exponents of Broadway material other than Billie Holiday and that wasn't 100% representative of her work.

Since the 1990's, hearing Betty Carter sing live on the radio (the concert later came out on the exceptional "Feed the fire" CD which is one of the best albums of that decade full stop) I love checking out contemporary jazz singers. In my opinion, the last 20 years has been the greatest era for singers in the history of the music but it is staggering how the best singers have almost totally moved away from Broadway material. Someone like Cassandra Wilson covers a lot of Country Blues and Dianne Reeves tends to perform a significant amount of pop material. Both these singers also write their own material. I think it's little unfortunate that the most popular "jazz" singers like Nora Jones, Diana Krall or Melody Gardot aren't really jazz at all even of they too don't sing standards.

By and large, I think the standard repertoire is usually the domain of the less important jazz singers of today although ypu would have to make an exception for someone like Roberta Gambarini who has been described as a technically superior singer to Ella Fitzgerald. Using musicians like James Moody and Gerald Clayton on her records also tends to pitch her work more squarely into the jazz mainstream than Ella. Where singers to tackle works by major songwriters someone like Luciana Souza performs Brazilian songwriters as well as recently issuing the "New Bossa" album which featured works by song writers as diverse as Donald Fagen, Sting, Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, etc, etc.

Recently I've been snapping up everything I can with Gretchen Parlato on and she is also someone who has nothing to do with the sandard's repertoire. For me, she is a fascinating talent and tackles everything from Hancock and Shorter compositions to more pop material albeit twisted in such a fashion that belies it's origins. You could also add someone like Esperanza Spalding to the mix even of the last CD of originals fell between jazz and soul without really hitting either target.

What I want to say is that there are plenty of jazz singers around today who are totally relevent to the contemporary scene and who are producing a body of work that is as impressive as instrumentalists were producing in jazz during the 50's and 60's. The notion that jazz singing is inferior to other types of jazz or than it is commercial and / or lazy no longer applies when youstart to listen to what is actually being performed as opposed to what is played ona station like Jazz FM - which itself is more likely to play Anita Baker, Sade and Erykah Badu.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Big Maybelle...Maybelle's Blues. Okeh records. Available on Utubes.

As a top jazz accordianist I can truly say Maybelle cuts the dirty Dijon mustard whereas other femme jazz singers are often Waitrose mayo and pink shrimp paste.

Cept Anita Oday at Ñèwport. Not S. Wales.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

Bluesnik

I like that kind of stuff too but don't close my ears to other possibilities. Some of the best gigs I've been too have been by singers such as Dianne Reeves (one of the best live gigs on the current jazz scene), the late Shirley Horn and seeing Roberta Gambarini with Roy Hardgrove's big band. Far better than listening to someone lazily running the changes on "Cherokee" any day of the week and more in keeping with what jazz should be about than going around the block on a 32-bar theme.

NP Gregory Porter ~ "Be good."

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

One of my laugh out loud moments was hearing Cleo Lane call Betty Carter "mannered" on R3.

Cleo Lane! More tics than Big Ben.

BN.

[Tenor Freak]

Anita Baker Rapture, Sade in pub toilets, Hugo Boss bwankers aged eleven drunk on Intercity trains, Dakker Noir aftershave, Nigel Twat Lawson, Edwina handjob Currie,

The 1980s...never undersold.

BN.

Bluesie baby I probably have far more reason to hate the 1980s than you, but one of the few highlights from my perspective (working shite temp jobs in Heathrow warehouses, airliner noise a constant din, a definite feeling of demi-anomie even before I knew what it was called) from 1986/87 was Anita Baker's music blaring from a PA when at work in one of those LHR sheds.

I always hated Sade. Anita was sheer class in comparison.

Yet the Yanks love Sade and not Anita. Go figure, as they say.

The rest of your rant, I'll grant you.

[Tenor Freak]

Bruce

I think your comment about girl singers and "the Great American songbook" is really wide of the mark in 2012.[M A S S I V E SNIP].

Ian, I had in mind the kind of singers Trevor regularly lambasted such as Tina May.

For any musician or singer, as I get older I am less impressed by technique and more impressed by my own emotional reaction to their work. I <heart> the singing of Norma Winstone or Shirley Horn.

That is not to say that I don't think that a singer today can express themselves effectively through the work of Cole Porter or Rodgers and Hart, but that the state of the art has moved on somewhat to include other composers - some of which you noted above.

As an example of what I think is unimpeachable here is my favourite version of a hoary old standard.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Bruce, Anita B's Rapture was everywhere in the late 80s, an over produced yuppie horror only matched by Tina
Turner's fkng dire Private Dancer...

I think Ike Turner had the real chops!

Best,

BN...I now refuse to play Rapture on my accordian no matter what the society gig.

[Tenor Freak]

OK.

That time (85-87) was a personal low-point. Amidst the Blue Note reissues, Anita's music was a highlight. Don't blame the messenger if the consumers (mostly) are wnakers.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Shaw nuff... I was working in Swindon, things dont get much worse than that! As Jackie Mac said about Prestige...working for the Nazis.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

One for Bluesnik:-

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Two for the show...

"The Death of Rhythm and Blues" - Nelson George, 1988.

BN.

[cloughie]

Like the sound of Carmen Lundy but Joyce Sims does little for me. I have for a long time liked Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson but also think Cheryl Bentyne and Jane Monheit worth a listen - Roberta Gambarini may be described as technically better than Ella but I don't think she is and prolonged listening to her would not be pleasant. I like Norma Winstone but at times strays uncomfortably off the note. Not a jazz singer and so probably not attractive to you purists on this thread but I've enjoyed listening to June Tabor recently.