Jazz Vocals

VOICES Notes and news on Jazz Vocals releases

While there's nothing more soulfully iconic than Ray Charles' voice, the sound of his Fender Rhodes keyboard runs a close second. In The Spirit Of Christmas, he uses both to give holiday favorites a unique makeover.

Like Frank Sinatra, who also has a Christmas release featured this month, Charles had the gift of adding his highly personal stamp to a musical style while still respecting the genre. Alternative Christmas records can range from the kicky and fun to the truly bizarre, but Ray embodies the spirit of the season. He sings with hope, sincerity and a lot of heart. But fear not, these holiday chestnuts still get the Ray Charles treatment, complete with the Raelettes and a smoking horn section that has Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Last week, I sat in on a master class where Lamont Dozier, part of Motown's famous Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team, was coaching some young singers. At one point he said, "We're spiritual beings, and our spirits are always reaching out to touch each other's spirit." In "Christmas In My Heart," when Ray Charles sings "That magic reaches out to touch me," his big heart reaches out and touches ours.

Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

Ray Charles, from The Spirit Of Christmas
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢
Born To Be Blue

Freddie Hubbard, from Born To Be Blue
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢
I Hear A Symphony

Various Artists, from Stax Sings Songs Of ...
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢

in this playlist.

PERMALINK • • RSS

The title of Concord Jazz's recent release, By Request: The Best Of Karrin Allyson, is perhaps misleading. When is jazz vocalist Karrin Allyson not at her best? Certainly some tracks fit her exceptionally intimate, exquisitely conceived storytelling style more than others. But everything she sings pairs her innate musical and dramatic intelligence with tasteful arrangements and perfectly paced playing that bring out the best in her unique delivery.

Listen, for example, to the first track, Cole Porter's "Night and Day." Any number of singers have danced their way through this tune, but few have repeated the intro's "You, You, You" in ways that leave no question that this is an immensely seductive, love song rather than a pretty ballad with clever lyrics.

Allyson's remarkable versatility is displayed in tunes as diverse as her signature samba, "O Pato (The Duck)" by Jayme Silva and Jon Hendricks, the Edith Piaf-sounding "Sous Le Ceil De Paris (Under Paris Skies)," and the extremely evocative ballad that I can't get enough of, "Everything Must Change." A special treat is the previously unreleased track, "Next Time Around (Soultrane)." Originally intended for the 2005 album, Footprints, it was omitted because rights for Chris Caswell's new lyrics did not clear in time.

Karrin has a way of drawing you in, voicing lyrics with such passionate clarity and emotional integrity that it's hard to believe that she is singing to more than you alone. Delicious stuff.

Next Time Around (Soultrane)

Karrin Allyson, from By Request: The ...
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢
O Pato (The Duck)

Karrin Allyson, from From Paris To Rio
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢
Everything Must Change

Karrin Allyson, from Daydream
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢

in this playlist.

PERMALINK • • RSS

Unrepentant sap that I am for all things Christmas, new holiday releases get my synapses twinkling. Christmas With Sinatra And Friends, a recent reissue of festive Frank Sinatra chestnuts, is this year's must-have addition to your holiday collection.

Aside from his stellar pipes and swinging delivery, Sinatra had the gift of making you believe every word he sang. So when the city kid from Hoboken asks to be given an "Old Fashioned Christmas" with "wide open spaces covered in snow," each line brims with nostalgia. It's not just that he was a good actor, and he was, but that he served as a conduit for our dreams, shimmering reflections of our collective nostalgia.

And the friends he brings along? Mel Tormé sings "The Christmas Song," the holiday anthem he co-wrote. Ray Charles' and Betty Carter's cheeky duet on "Baby It's Cold Outside" is hands down the hippest version of this wintertime classic. Rosemary Clooney croons "White Christmas" (she co-starred in the 1954 movie). An interesting addition to the collection is Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born," recorded by Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, one of the amazing duo recordings they did in the mid-'70s.

The Christmas Song / Autumn Leaves

Mel Torme, from The Best Of The Concord ...
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢
Baby It's Cold Outside

Ray Charles, from The Spirit Of Christmas
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢
White Christmas

Rosemary Clooney, from White Christmas
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢
A Child Is Born

Tony Bennett & Bill Evans, from The ...
- Preview
- Buy MP3
- 89¢

in this playlist.

PERMALINK • • RSS

Herb Alpert, the chart-topping trumpeter and powerful record executive, could sit back and manage the fruits of his prodigious career. Instead, he continues to explore the boundaries between Latin, pop and jazz, creating a hybrid that's both accessible and musically satisfying. Anything Goes - Live, on which he pairs with vocalist Lani Hall, is his 47th release and it's a winner.

Working in an intimate quintet format, this CD was recorded live at several nationally known jazz spots. The 14 tracks are old standards, precisely rearranged to add new excitement without blurring the beauty of the source material. There's an art to that -- changing a song simply for the sake of change can come off hollow and contrived. No chance of that here, every song clicks with an "Ah, genius!" perfection.

"Laura" opens with an upbeat groove by pianist Bill Cantos before morphing into a samba led by Alpert's cool horn. The normally honky-tonk "Anything Goes" floats slowly over a background theme reminiscent of Monk's Misterioso.

Singer Lani Hall's voice will sound familiar. As a part of Sergio Mendes' Brasil '66, she was lead vocalist on classics like "Fool on The Hill" and "The Look Of Love." Her relaxed style melds perfectly with Alpert's warm tone. Off-stage, for the last 35 years or so, she's also Mrs. Herb Alpert. Musical marriage, indeed.