heart of gold - The New York City Jazz Record

Dream
Mary Stallings (HighNote)
by Andrew Vélez
The New York Times said, “Perhaps the best jazz singer
alive today is a woman almost everybody seems to
have missed. Her name is Mary Stallings.” Singing
since childhood, by her teens in San Francisco she had
gigged with Dizzy Gillespie. Her collaborations with
Cal Tjader led to the memorable album Cal Tjader
Plays, Mary Stallings Sings (Fantasy, 1961) and she was
the ‘girl singer’ with Count Basie’s band from 1969-72,
followed by a lengthy hiatus until the late ‘80s to raise
her daughter, singer Adriana Evans.
Dream is the latest in a series of fine recordings
that includes the earlier, blues-rooted I Waited For You,
which memorably paired her with pianist Gene Harris.
Stallings’ sound is rich and full with more than a little
passing resemblance to one of her idols, Carmen
McRae. And like McRae her delivery is forceful as she
chisels lyrics. The bluesy tone is mighty, a powerhouse
wrapped in velvet.
The opener is Johnny Mandel-Paul Williams’
intimate gem “Close Enough For Love”. She’s
swinging solidly straight on through and only
occasionally interrupting her breathtaking pace to
draw out “close enough” and “love” like attention-
Michael Blake
"Hellbent" (Label of Love)
Available at CD Baby
www.cdbaby.com/cd/MichaelBlake1
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST
ALBUMS OF 2010 BY
ALLABOUTJAZZ-NEW YORK
"Mr. Blake, on tenor
especially, is an endlessly
engaging improviser,
and an inquisitive one."
- New York Times
January 15 with Ben Allison Band
The Falcon, Marlboro NY
www.michaelblake.net
www.michaelblakemusic.blogspot.com
demanding word grenades as pianist Eric Reed lends
her solidly rocking accompaniment.
If you imagined that you could do without
another version of Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer’s
overly-flogged “That Old Black Magic”, think again.
Stallings and Reed have cooked something up as
totally unexpected as it is completely engrossing.
Stripped of the usual histrionics, voice and piano
really talk to each other, beginning conversationally as
Stallings gives out with a gravel and honeyed, “You’re
the one I’ve been waiting for.” With each “ooooooooh”
she sinks deeper into being inextricably caught up in
the old black magic of which she sings.
It’s an impeccable collection of songs with
Stallings and Reed totally delivering the goods. They
are very persuasive.
For more information, visit jazzdepot.com. Stallings is at
Allen Room Jan. 21st-22nd in a tribute to Sarah Vaughan
with Jane Monheit and Eric Reed. See Calendar.
Organic Modernism
Daniel Levin (Clean Feed)
by Lyn Horton
Truly a record for a thinking person, Organic
Modernism by cellist Daniel Levin’s quartet is thick
with innuendo. Levin uses the sound of ‘modernism’,
given birth to in the ‘50s, as the hub of the recording’s
evolution. A definite rhythm and instrumentation
defines modern jazz musically, but modernism also
signified other cultural developments in art,
architecture, design, science and literature, all to
which this recording refers. Levin composed five of the
pieces; he and his band of trumpeter Nate Wooley,
vibist Matt Moran and bassist Peter Bitenc improvised
the remaining seven.
Levin is one of the outstanding cellists working in
the vanguard arena. His individual playing displays
intense isolated sonic instances, linked together with a
dynamic, which does not necessarily pulsate, but
upholds innovative means to create abstract
configurations. This recording is structured like that;
in the first cut, “Action Painting”, the whole band
engages in stating the record’s sensibility.
Slipping into 4/4 pizzicato occasionally, Bitenc
highlights that recyclable modernistic texture. The
vibes too have a resurging grip on modernist
tendencies, but the album is intrinsically a stunning
showcase for how jazz music has developed, can be
interwoven into past tempos and melodic lines and
still make listenable sense, as in “My Kind of Poetry”,
“Old School” or “Audacity”.
The musicians have the chance to blossom in duo
settings: Moran with Bitenc in “Kaleidoscope”;
Wooley with Bitenc in “Furniture as Sculpture”;
Wooley with Levin on “Expert Set” or Levin with
Bitenc, introducing “My Kind of Poetry”. As a
foursome, these musicians interact with crystalline
clarity and are responsible for and responsive to
sparkling sound sensations. Ending the recording are
cascades of diamond-like phrases, exhaled by
Wooley’s breath and swept up with Levin’s staccato
strokes.
For more information, visit cleanfeed-records.com. This
group is at Cornelia Street Café Jan. 22nd. See Calendar.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 28)
ALLABOUTJAZZ-NEW YORK | January 2011 25