The Susan Krebs Band, Everything Must Change

Singers. Jazz singers. There are so many today. Susan Krebs is one. As the Susan Krebs Band, she has an album called Everything Must Change (GreenGig 031). I've been spinning it on my player. I report back to you, my readers.

Susan fronts a band that plays modern, sensitively wrought jazz. Chuck Manning on soprano/tenor and Rich Eames at the piano do much to give Susan a "real jazz" cushioning, but the rhythm section does that too.

They've picked good vehicles. "Up Jumped Spring," the Hubbard classic with Abbey Lincoln's lyrics, sounds carefully phrased and articulated by Ms. Krebs and as the leadoff number it defines her thing: nuance, clean phrasing, pitch control and drama.

From there we get a bunch of great songs, done well for the most part. "What is This Thing Called Love," "A Flower is a Lonesome Thing,""Everything Must Change," and on from there.

Ms. Krebs doesn't strain to get the jazz effect. She lays back and lets her musicality pull her through. The Weil-Anderson "Lost in the Stars" is the only song I don't feel she quite pulls off. And no wonder. It's one of the saddest songs ever written. The feeling of being abandon by God in the Universe (especially after WWII) is not something that is easy to put across. It needs a pathos that Susan does not entirely project. Many others have failed before her, have not quite managed to combine the pathos with a loose jazz approach. So she is in good company.

In the end Susan Krebs is a superior instrument and the album brings it out very well. She has a beautifully cultivated vocal style and a distinctive voice. Yeah!

Macy Chen, "After 75 Years" Fuses Jazz Vocals with Chinese Elements

Macy Chen is doing something unusual, and doing it well. Her recent CD After 75 Years (Twinz) gathers a small jazz-oriented ensemble to set off her vocals and the unique repertoire presented. And that repertoire is what sets the music apart. Six are Shanghai pop-jazz tunes from the '30s, then there are a couple of jazz standards sung in Mandarin and a couple of originals.

The resultant program wears well after many listens. Ms. Chen is in good voice, and the jazz artists expand the late-night tone with lots of nicely done obligatto.

The 75 years in the title refers to her grandfather's career doing jazz in Japan. Seventy-five years later Ms. Chen steps forward with another take on the Asian-jazz nexus.

The CD comes with an elaborate, well-conceived scrapbook-like booklet.

This is different. Different and very well-done.

Aimee Allen Sings "Winters and Mays"

Singers. Some get your attention by their artistry. Some don't. Aimee Allen did for me. She's well educated and is an attorney by day. At night she sings. Her new album Winters & Mays (Azuline Music no cat #) gives you plenty of music, her and a small group that includes Pete McCann and his tasty guitar work, among others.

Aimee's voice is poised, trained, has fine pitch placement and good use of vibrato, goes from a quiet, mellow lower range to some dramatic highs. The album covers some standards and she does a good job imprinting her personality on them. Then there are her originals and they are well put-together songs. Here she stands out from the pack while also being a kind of work in progress. Not every song is earth bending but the best are very good and I suspect this part of her talent is still growing. It's what will boost her above the countless good singers there are out there, I believe.

Meanwhile Winters & Mays is available for you to check out.

Kathleen Kolman Sings "Dream On"

Singers? Sometimes many are chosen; few are called. The jazz world teams with new singers, hopeful, some very talented, some not as talented. Kathleen Kolman belongs to the first category. Her new album Dream On (Walkin' Foot) shows that. This album was her final project for her Masters in Music Education. That's interesting, but the music speaks for itself, as does her vocal style.

The album is a mix of standards, Brazilian classic bossa-sambas, an original and a version of Aerosmith's "Dream On." My youthful musical memories include a time when the jazz-rock interface was just beginning to come into being. Jazz vocalists--and even more so the middle-of-the-road offshoots of jazz vocalists--began trying to bring the rock-pop music of the day into their repertoire. Take even the best. Ella Fitzgerald was a master, of course, but she perhaps was not all that comfortable taking on a Beatles song. Others of lesser talent tried as well but there was a chasm between the vocal styles at that point. Generations came up who had been raised in a world where rock was ever-present. So we come to today and the idea of a singer like Ms. Kolman doing the Aerosmith perennial is not such a leap anymore. And she does a convincing job of it.

And it's not just that she comes out of a different world. She gets interesting arrangements going and sings in convincing ways no matter what kind of song she tackles. Things like Ivan Lin's samba "Somos Todos Iguais Nesta Noite" are perhaps her most convincing numbers. They drive with the lovely lilt that Ms. Kolman handles perfectly. But she has the extended phrasing nuances, the flexible voice color and the pitch control to hold her own on even something as weathered and storm-tossed as "The More I See You." Her original "Until the Very End" is memorable as well.

It's an album with real charm, nice arrangements and a vocalist seemingly with a deep commitment to her repertoire. Kathleen Kolman brings her effective interpretive talents to realize words and music in creative ways, ways that ring true.

I hope we hear more from her soon!

Saalik Ziyad, AACM's Jazz Vocalist

Billie and Lester, Andy Bey and Gary Bartz, Leon Thomas and Pharaoh Sanders, Jeanne Lee and Gunter Hampel, Doug and Jean Carn. . . . when jazz singers and jazz instrumentalists get together on an equal level the results can be very inspired.

AACM's Saalik Ziyad sings well. He also is one of those who prefers to do his singing the the company of accomplished instrumental improvisers. There is his 5 After 7 band for example, which features Fred Jackson Jr. on saxophone and Shaun Johnson on trumpet and flugelhorn. And he's been involved with various other lineups in the past, notably with a group that included Willie Pickens on piano.

Some of his very worthy music can be found at his www.saalikjazz.com and his www.youlistising.blogspot.com sites. Last year he was offering a free download of the files to his Best of Saalik Ziyad Live recording, a 2-cdr offering of some very compelling live music captures. I picked it up and have been listening to it with interest.

He sings and phrases like a horn, a horn that can do the words along with the music (of course, but hey, I mean like a HORN). He scats well and he has a sense of time that you would expect from a very good instrumental soloist. With "Passion Dance," "Black Narcissus" and "Caravan," he does the head melodies with lyrics, some presumably his own. It works! These are gigs where the tapes were rolling and the sound is always clear in a rough and ready state. What's important is that the energy and excitement of the live club gig is there in the best sense. His singing and the playing of his bandmates have the immediacy of the club gig on a great night.

Saalik is one of those Chicago treasures that those not following the Chitown scene on the club level may miss. I don't know if this CD is still available but there is plenty of music to check out on his two sites. He is a musician's singer. He is a real JAZZ singer. He should not be missed if you dig that. Do check him out.

Yuko Ito Sings Brazilian Bossa-Samba Standards

Today a look at Tokyo born-and-bred vocalist Yuko Ito. She started out in a rock context, recording two albums with the all-girl band Sissy Boy. Yuko then moved to the Big Apple in 1994 and has transformed herself into a jazz vocalist of poise and finesse.

Her new release Mania de Voce (Funny Baby Face) tackles ten standards of the bossa-samba variety, great songs arranged well by Yuko and Itaiguara Brandao. You'll find many, if not most of these songs familiar to you if you have listened at any length to Brazilian jazz.

The band has moments of heat and other moments where the light lilt of bossa is foremost. Either way they give good support to Yuko's vocals. She has a very attractive instrument. Her voice has the punchy rhythmic attack that is so essential to this music. Her pitch control is dead-on. Phrasings show subtlety and the sound of her voice is quite attractive.

She is a vocalist that should get attention. This is some very fine music.

Another Look at Billie Holliday in a New Box Set

Originally posted on April 29, 2008

Billie Holliday was surely one of the greatest artists jazz has known. In a career spanning the ‘30s to the late ‘50s, she gave the world some exceptional music. I suspect most if not all the readers of this blog know that. ESP records has compiled a 5-CD set of her live recordings, radio and TV appearances and soundtrack spotlights and there’s a whole heck of a bunch of music. I am not always a fan of her very late work. She can be really on top of things, but she can also sound unhealthy and slightly uninspired. This set doesn’t do anything to change my mind there. Some of the cuts do not do her justice—and some transcend that time period to be terrific.

The first three disks or so, however, really show off her abilities. Beginning with the soundtrack to a Duke Ellington short in the thirties, she handles the lyric and musical content of every song with absolute command and stylistic genius. There are a number of versions of some of her most popular songs as the set covers a chronological survey. That can be fascinating from a comparative point of view. It also means that after repeated hearings one may want to pick and choose cuts rather than blast through all five CDs at a shot. I am glad ESP came out with this set. It compliments her studio sessions and gives you a really well rounded look at her career.