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Review of CLAIRE MARTIN
Well, it's about time we met
The English singer Claire Martin makes her L.A. debut with an imaginative program.
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times
January 2, 2007
It was hard to believe, from the very first notes she sang, that jazz singer Claire Martin was making her debut Los Angeles performance Sunday night. And making it before a modest-sized audience in the intimate environs of Beverly Hills' Rising Jazz Stars Foundation.
How could it be, one wondered, that this extraordinary artist with a string of highly regarded albums in her professional dossier and a solid reputation as England's most impressive female jazz artist had never been heard before in the Southland?
Whatever the reason, the English-born Martin is a singer who should be must be - heard by anyone with the slightest interest in jazz vocalizing. At a time when the woods are thick with talented distaff jazz artists, she is a standout, instantly recognizable as a unique and impressive creative performer.
Working with the sterling trio led by pianist Tamir Hendelman, Martin could do no wrong. Start with her warm, velvety sound, pliable enough to move from atmospheric ballads to fast-paced, instrument-like up-tempos.
Add her musical precision, driven by flawless pitch and crisp, articulate phrasing. Toss in an imaginative choice of programming embracing material reaching from jazz standards to offbeat pop items and originals.
And all that still doesn't quite separate her from the top level of female singers, a few of whom bring similar credentials to their music.
What raised the bar for Martin's performance was her capacity to combine these
qualities with a captivating onstage persona and a storytelling mastery that
transformed her songs into something more than words and music into musical
miniatures running the gamut from intimate love balladry to high-spirited jazz
inventiveness to sardonic commentary on the state of the world.
She did it via songs such as Joni Mitchell's "Sex Kills" and Betty Carter's "Tight," the whimsical "My Dissipation" (written for her by a friend) and the double entendres of Gino Vannelli's "Gettin' High," and the late-night musings of songs such as Mark Winkler's "Come Back to Me" and a stunning re-phrasing of Mercer and Van Heusen's "I Thought About You."
All of which underscores the question of why Martin is still a relatively unknown quantity in this country. And one can only hope that the reply will be, "Not for long," because she is the real deal, a talent with the skill, imagination, maturity and presence to provide new and compelling definitions for the fascinating art of jazz singing.
Review of GRETA MATASSA
Seattle's hidden gem
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times
August 15, 2006
If the vision of Seattle as grunge city and the spawning ground for acts such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana and the Foo Fighters suggests that the only form of music with a significant presence in the city is rock, think again. Sunday's performance by Seattle singer Greta Matassa in Beverly Hills at a fundraiser for the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation offered convincing evidence of the high-quality jazz in the Northwest's largest metropolis.
Matassa's performance was a marvel of virtuosity. She has been working lately on an album devoted to songs associated with Ray Charles, so numbers such as "Ruby," "Danger Zone" and "Just for a Thrill" were prominent in her program. But the material also varied from Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" and Benny Golson's "Whisper Not" to Henry Mancini's "Two for the Road" and the Mandel-Bergman classic, "Where Do You Start?"
That's a daunting selection of material, but Matassa handled it with ease. On the Charles-related material, she captured the swing, the spirit and the emphatic gospel phrasing of the originals without resorting to mimicry. The instrumentally associated songs were propelled by an irresistible rhythmic drive and some impressive scat singing (including a quirky imitation of blues harmonica on "Baby All the Time"). And the ballads especially her touchingly intimate rendering of "Where Do You Start?" were the product of a singer who understands the significance of songs as slice-of-life mini-dramas.
Matassa's two far-reaching sets also included a fiery romp through "Undecided," in which she scat sang her way through a pair of gripping choruses without accompaniment, lovely renderings of Mel Tormι's "Born to Be Blue," Michel Legrand's "I Will Wait for You" and the standard, "Star Eyes," all of it enhanced by her easygoing between-song comments. Her accompanists pianist Randy Halberstadt, bassist Clipper Anderson and drummer Gary Novak were up to the task of supporting her eclecticism.
The only question remaining at the close of this impressive outing was why Matassa has had so little visibility outside of the Northwest. Maybe life is just too good in Seattle to want to explore elsewhere.
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Review of RACHAEL PRICE
At 20, singer is off to a strong start
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times
August 1, 2006
Jazz singing is often considered a realm best explored by artists who have seen enough years and played enough emotional games to bring authenticity to their music. The last decade's rush of young performers would seem to belie the truism, but the fact is that most of those identified as the iconic jazz vocalists Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, to name only a few were well into the adventurous phases of their careers by the time they hit 20.
So it really wasn't all that unprecedented to hear a 20-year-old singer, Rachael Price, perform with such a degree of maturity on Sunday at a fundraiser for the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation in Beverly Hills.
If it wasn't surprising, it was impressive, nonetheless, in the sense that she is clearly a talent with extraordinary potential. It was apparent, from the start of her first tune "Comes Love" that Price had a lot of the pieces in place. Her warm sound and buoyant sense of rhythm carried her smoothly through an upbeat, well-crafted reading, followed by equally dynamic versions of "The Trolley Song" and "People Will Say We're in Love."
Ballads were rendered atmospherically, emphasizing Price's rich, dark tones in standards such as "Serenade in Blue," "Every Time We Say Goodbye" and the bolero "Solamente Una Vez." And her perky, quick-time rhythms enhanced by Mike Garson's rhapsodic piano work, the bass playing of Erik Privert and
the drumming of Dave Brophy were on full display in "You Hit the Spot" and "Love You Madly."
That's a notable collection of standards, and there were numerous others in a program that didn't include any of the music that accompanies the lives of most 20-year-olds. As she becomes more established, more secure in the sense of who
she is as an artist, Price would do well to apply her unquestioned skills to the interpretation of more contemporary material as well as standards.
She also needs to understand that one of the great blessings of youth is the freedom to take chances and, perhaps most important, to remember that in the best jazz performances songs are stories with music, sung through the filter of a singer's life.
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REVIEW OF ENRICO PIERANUNZI
Pieranunzi must be seen to be heard
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times
April 3, 2006
The thought that kept coming to mind Saturday night while listening to the extraordinary piano playing of Enrico Pieranunzi was the question of why this remarkable player has been so little known to the larger American jazz audience.
Part of the problem undoubtedly traces to the relative rarity of his appearances in the U.S. compounded for Southern California listeners by his program at the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation in Beverly Hills being the first Los Angeles appearance for the 56-year-old Roman artist.
Performing with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron, Pieranunzi immediately established his credentials as a world-class jazz player with an impressive rendering of "Someday My Prince Will Come." Here, as in several other ballads (most notably "Autumn Leaves"), he offered postmodern deconstructions of the songs, beginning with the disassembled pieces, examining and evaluating their elements, gradually pulling them together into his own illuminating musical visions of the material.
Other pieces (especially "Body and Soul" and Wayne Shorter's "Footprints") revealed other aspects of Pieranunzi's art an irrepressible sense of swing and an inventive, be-bop-saturated approach to improvised, up-tempo melodies.
Add to that a subtle harmonic imagination, a feel for piano tone and, perhaps most important of all, a capacity to maintain the cultural lyricism of the Italian canzone within the framework of propulsive, straight-ahead jazz.
He was aided immensely by Johnson and Baron, who have made a long string of albums with Pieranunzi. Johnson, a veteran associate of Bill Evans, is particularly sensitive to the piano trio format. And Baron is one of the short list of drummers (think Bill Stewart, Brian Blade, Billy Kilson and Jack DeJohnette) who approach the drum kit as a complex, multitimbered instrument of sound and musicality.
It's hard to imagine why a player such as Pieranunzi one who has made dozens of recordings and performed with everyone from Chet Baker and Art Farmer to Charlie Haden, Kenny Clarke and Phil Woods has never previously been booked in the Southland.
So all the more credit to the nonprofit Rising Jazz Stars Foundation for having showcased such a worthy talent. One hopes Saturday night's appearance will be the first of many more Pieranunzi performances.
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Review of ELIANE ELIAS QUARTET
Exemplary piano talent and she sings too
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times
March 22, 2006
Eliane Elias hasn't been heard often enough in the Southland. And her previous recent appearance, a relatively brief set last summer at the Hollywood Bowl in a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim, was obscured by unnecessarily distracting orchestral accompaniment.
So it was particularly pleasant to hear the gifted Brazilian pianist and singer in a far more intimate setting Sunday afternoon at the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation in Beverly Hills.Performing with bassist Marc Johnson (her husband), drummer Satoshi Takeishi and guitarist Freddie Bryant, she offered a succulent menu of tunes showcasing her considerable skills.
Unlike virtually every female jazz singer-pianist who comes to mind, Elias plays with enough improvisational inventiveness and hard-driving swing to establish her musical credibility without ever singing another note. Her soloing on "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Desafinado" filled with well-paced, spontaneously crafted melodies, soaring freely across the top of the harmonies was gripping, more than compensating for her tendency to rely a bit too much (especially in the vocals) on overly dramatic two-handed chording.
In the early part of her career, Elias' singing had the sound of a lower-pitched Astrud Gilberto. More recently, she has begun to find a warmer, darker vocal texture. And when she emphasized that quality on numbers such as "Tangerine" one sensed her singing finally beginning to find its own focus.
Happily, the performance also had distinctly Brazilian overtones. Elias' strengths as a jazz artist, combined with her roots in Sγo Paulo, make her one of the most impressive interpreters of jazz-linked bossa novas, sambas and choros notably apparent in tunes such as "Doralice," "Chega de Saudade" and an unexpected, bossa nova rendering of the old Petula Clark hit "Call Me."
She was exceptionally well aided by Bryant, whose crisp articulation and rhythmic lift, enhanced by his lively interaction with Elias, took these numbers up another level. Johnson and Takeishi, deeply familiar with the adventurous twists and turns of Elias' musical pathways, provided strong, supportive accompaniment throughout.
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Review of BRAZILIAN VOYAGE
JAZZ REVIEW
Voyaging into parallel expressions of sound
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times
February 28, 2006
It was carnival time over the weekend, and sequined and feathered dancers,in sync with celebrations throughout Brazil, were vibrating to the rhythms of the samba from the Queen Mary to the Palladium. Always a hedonist's delight, it was
a weekend loaded with sensory stimuli.
On Sunday afternoon, it also was a time to experience another aspect of Brazil's rich culture through the music of the group Brasilian Voyage.
Performing at the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation in Beverly Hills, the quartet: guitarist Romero Lubambo, pianist Helio Alves, bassist Nilson Matta
and drummer Chris Eddleton, illuminated the romance between jazz and Brazilian music that has been finding new forms of expression for more than a half century.
Lubambo, the featured artist, has been a first-call guitarist since he moved to New York City in the mid-'80s, working first with Astrud Gilberto, then with a list of luminaries including Kathleen Battle, Michael Brecker, Al Jarreau and
an empathetic pairing with singer Luciana Souza on two duo recordings.
Brasilian Voyage, in many respects, continues and expands on Lubambo's work with Matta and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca in Trio Da Paz. Performing originals by Lubambo, Alves and Matta as well as Luiz Bonfα's "Manhγ de Carnaval," they played with stunning ιlan, improvising freely over of Brazilian rhythms.
Most fascinating, however, was the clear sense of this uniquely Brazilian take on jazz. Only loosely connected with the blues roots so important to American jazz, it is more indebted to the fast-paced, virtuosic techniques of choro, the
early (and still very much alive) Brazilian music roughly parallel to New Orleans jazz. Swinging in their own fashion, generating quick-paced melodies
and sudden rhythmic accents, the Brasilian Voyage players affirmed the capacity of jazz to become a global form of musical expression.
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Review of STEVE KUHN TRIO
Steve Kuhn delivers a master class in piano
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times
January 17, 2006
Steve Kuhn approaches the piano with a calm and confident demeanor. Well into his sixth decade as a professional jazz artist, he has a virtual lifetime relationship with his instrument, a connection reaching well beyond the mechanics of technique and deeply into the collaborative art of making music.
On Sunday afternoon Kuhn made one of his rare Southland appearances at the Rising Stars Jazz Foundation in Beverly Hills, performing with bassist David Finck and drummer Joe La Barbera. And the results were splendid, one example after another of a mature, inventive improvisational mind at work.
Kuhn, who studied as a child with the highly regarded Boston teacher Margaret Chaloff, clearly has the dexterity to play anything. And there were moments of finger-flashing brilliance bursting through his solos from time to time. But more often Kuhn's piano mastery took a more subtle approach, weaving complex tapestries of musical imagination, enhanced by the remarkably luminous sound of the foundation's superb Fazioli instrument.
Each selection received a treatment that was deeply empathic to the material. In standards such as "Stella by Starlight," "There Is No Greater Love" and "Like Someone in Love," Kuhn's improvisations always remained in contact either by direct statement, by paraphrase or by tone and mood with the original material. Jazz-based numbers such as Sonny Rollins' "Airegin," Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa" and Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" triggered more free-flying excursions, often spiced with witty quotes from other tunes. Less
familiar originals from Kuhn and frequent associate Steve Swallow added even more texture to a continually fascinating program.
Both Finck and La Barbera are experts in the challenging subtleties of the piano trio, an instrumentation demanding emotional levels ranging from whisper-soft gentleness to full-out power. Finck added solos that flowed smoothly in and around Kuhn's piano textures. La Barbera's beautifully transparent accompaniment passages intensified into expressive, layered percussion in his individual moments of exposition.
At 67, Kuhn has been a visible jazz presence since, barely out of his teens, he worked with the likes of John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Art Farmer. But his extraordinary abilities have never quite received the full acknowledgment that is long overdue.
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