(Reprinted from the July 2022 issue of Downbeat magazine)
Standards, blues, theater, rock, R&B—jazz singers find musical incentive everywhere that groove and verse intersect. Six new releases show how this incentive, in a skilled vocalist’s hands, leads to artistic revelation. Since her 2011 win at the Montreux vocal jazz competition, Italian singer Chiara Izzi has led two label-sponsored releases, both showcases for her dexterous vocals and sleek arrangements. Her third such release, Live In Bremen (Dot Time), is riskier: just seven tunes recorded in a simple piano-voice session four years ago. Immediate and unfiltered, Izzi’s performances lay all the more exposed for the open setting, as on a breathily improvised “Poinciana,” in Spanish, or the bittersweet “Samba in Preludio,” in Italian. She sings just once in English, on “Pavane for Peaceful Times,” her own lyrics superimposed on composer Gabriel Fauré’s famous flute melody. “Don’t let the dark shut out the light,” she advises, as the tremolo in her voice shifts to resolve.
Giacomo Gates, a standout among traditional scatters, rhapsodizes the romantic other on You (Savant), a collection of 18 tightly packed standards and his tenth solo release. As is his wont, Gates handily diverts with funny lyric deviations (“It Had To Be You”), clever interpolations (“Exactly Like You”), and sultry flirtation (“I Want To Talk About You”). Underneath this light-heartedness, however, Gates advances a cool musicianship, with his innate feel for back-phrasing (“I Didn’t Know About You”), effortless melodicism (“You’ve Changed”), and consummate soloing (“I’ve Got News For You”). Not surprisingly, his deep-textured voice is perfectly suited for the blues (“You Never Miss the Water 'Till the Well Runs Dry”), even as a smile informs his growl.
An experienced theater professional, Kristen Lee Sergeant brings a strong sense of story to her vocal jazz performances. Already an adept arranger—listen to Inside/Out and Smolder, her first two self-releases—Sergeant steps fully into her own as a songwriter on Falling (Tiger Turn), her newest offering. The album’s eight contemporary jazz originals and two masterful remakes set forth the concept behind the title: how we manage the dips, plunges, and surrenders of everyday life. The music provides the visceral context for Sergeant’s smart lyrics, where the blues evoke both the torment of bad romance (“Honey”); a fluid, recurring melody the resignation of being stuck (“Sisyphus”); and gorgeous legit vocals the yearning of past love (“Autumn Nocturne”).
Wonderfully eclectic singer Kristina Koller unearths a new side of Cole Porter on Get Out Of Town, her third self-released record. You won’t necessarily recognize the album’s most familiar tunes right away, so fresh is her understanding of these classics. But in Koller’s unexpected melodic choices and smoky, soulful delivery you’ll hear what is essential to Porter: the barely concealed pain of “What Is This Thing Called Love,” the romantic detachment of “It’s Alright With Me,” and the inherent longing of “In The Still Of The Night.” Two surprises are her cheery ukulele self-accompaniment on “Every Time We Say Goodbye” and the inclusion of the hardly-ever-heard jazz waltz “Greek To You.”
Like Koller, Canadian neo-soul singer—and two-time Juno Award nominee—Tanika Charles occupies the common ground between R&B and jazz. The 11 co-written tracks on her newest record, Papillon de Nuit: The Night Butterfly (Record Kicks), not only put her enormous vocal talent on full display but show how easily she finesses both retro idioms and contemporary issues. In her vocal lines she’ll often reference traditional funk or soul singers, as on “Don’t Be So Entitled” and “Hold Me (Like A Grudge).” But she uses these devices in service to modern notions, like emotional awareness (“Frustration”) and self-identity (“Paintbrush And A Palette”). Charles’ lyrics on the title cut, a smoothly shaded ballad, aptly summarize this approach to singer-songwriting: “I’m not lost, I’m breaking ground.”
Grammy-nominated UK vocalist James Hunter, too, commands a retro R&B sound on his originals, albeit one that is closer to rock-blues than Koller’s modern syncretism or Charles’ flawless soul. The 12 tunes with his regular quintet on With Love (Daptone) captivate with mid-century pop conventions like coordinated horn riffs (“Heartbreak”), harmonizing vocal backgrounds (“He’s Your Could Have Been”), and tremoring electric organ (“This Is Where We Came In”). It’s the grainy voice belting out a seemingly limitless profusion of infectious, blues-derived melodies, though, that firmly establishes Hunter as one of the foremost European rhythm & soul artists. Just when you think he’s said everything there is to say about love, loss, and moving on, he comes back with another idea. It’s impossible not to listen. DB