JazzWax

Meredith d'Ambrosio: Sometime Ago

What a joy to hear Meredith d'Ambrosio sing again. She just released a new album, Sometime Ago (Sunnyside), her first since 2012. And in keeping with all of her other albums, Meredith's artwork graces the cover. She's backed once again by an extraordinary group of musicians—Randy Halberstadt on piano, Daryl Johns on bass and his father Steve Johns on drums. Don Sickler's flugelhorn appears on Halberstadt's title track and he adds his muted trumpet on Oh Well, What the Hell, a Meredith original.

Meredith didn't shy from the challenges of recording, taking on a batch of obscure songs that are tricky to sing. The songs are When Springtime Turns to Fall (Halberstadt), Feast Your Eyes (Halberstadt and Meredith's lyrics), In the Moonlight (John Williams and Alan and Marilyn Bergman), Sometime Ago (Sergio Mihanovich), May I Come In (Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal), I Wished on the Moon (Ralph Rainger and Dorothy Parker), My Open Heart (Halberstadt and Meredith), I Remember You (Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer), Meredith's Oh Well What the Hell, and If I Should Lose You (Ranger and Leo Robin).

Meredith's voice reminds me of Boston, probably because she's from the city and performed up there while I was in college in the 1970s. Sadly, our paths didn't cross back then. There's always an intelligence in her singing voice that's informed by jazz artists such as Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Gil Evans and so many others who know how to use space to their advantage, allowing songs to breathe. In Meredith's voice, I see the twinkling lights of Beacon Hill, the architecture of Copley Square, the sound of the trolleys, the charms of Newbury Street and the nip of late autumn evenings, when you can smell lit fireplaces in Back Bay.

Listen to the gentle majesty of In the Moonlight; Meredith's splendid interpretation of May I Come In; how she plays with the standard I Wished on the Moon; her passionate lyrics for My Open Heart; and the playfulness of her own Oh Well What the Hell with their glorious, d'Ambrosio flatted notes. As always, Meredith on her new album sings for your heart and reaches her target.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Meredith d'Ambrosio's Sometime Ago (Sunnyside) at Bandcamp here or at Amazon here.

JazzWax note: You can read my interview with Meredith starting here (the link to subsequent parts can be found above the red date at the top of posts).

JazzWax tracks: Here's I Wished on the Moon...

Here's May I Come In...

And because I always feature this song when I post about Meredith, here she is singing and playing her own Love Is Not a Game (1991)...

Bonus: Here's Meredith singing Johnny Mandel's The Shining Sea (1997), accompanied by Gene Bertoncini...

Here's Giant Steps from It's Your Dance (1985),

And finally, here's Love Is a Simple Thing from Meredith's first album, Another Time (1981)...

Wanda, Creed and Julia

In The Wall Street Journal last week, I interviewed comedian Wanda Sykes for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Wanda talked about growing up in Maryland and who inspired her the most (her brother Harry and TV's Moms Mabley). Wanda is now in the Netflix sitcom The Upshaws. [Photo above of Wanda Sykes by Lara Solanki, courtesy of Netflix]

Last week, she was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and they talked about my column here...

Creed Taylor. Last week I spoke with producer Creed Taylor on his birthday. He sounded fantastic. We talked about trombonist Urbie Green and the recordings he made for Creed at Bethlehem and ABC-Paramount in the 1950s. As Creed said, "Whenever I felt out of sorts, I'd put on one of Urbie's albums. The sound of his trombone was so tasteful and relaxing, largely because of his fantastic breath control." We also talked about his hanging out with jazz musicians and getting to know them on a personal level. "I admired them and loved the special quality of their art," he said. "It was about my own passion and enjoyment rather than some sort of strategy. They recognized I was as committed to their music as they were." [Photo above of Creed Taylor by Chuck Stewart]

Creed Taylor 2. For a post on Creed's early years, see Mark Cathcart's Creed Taylor Produced blog here.

A new blog from Jeffrey Sultanof called The Eclectic's Corner: About the Arts had its debut on May 7 (go here).

CD you should know about:

Julia Perminova—Imagination (JP Music). Born in Tyumen, a city in Siberia, Russia, Julia Perminova is a pianist and composer who started piano lessons at a local music school at age 5. She attended Tyumen College of Arts in the pop and jazz music department, and in 2013 moved to Moscow to study at the Gnessin Academy of Music, graduating in 2017. In 2016, Julia released her first album, Luminescence. Her trio album, Revival, followed in 2018. She's now at the Jazz Institute in Berlin and lives in Amsterdam. This year, she released Imagination, a solo album. Her 14 originals have a singular intensity, lulling you into a range of moods that coax you to feel and think. The music is different than the type of jazz that appears on most albums, but the difference is its charm and the root of its hypnotic power. The more I listened, the more I found myself imagining nature—the feel of the wind, the smell of snow and sound of birds. The transformative power of Julia's playing and music is quite remarkable and special. Listen to Imagination at Julia's site here. You can buy it there as well—or at Amazon here.

Here's a promo video for Julia's new album...

Here's Julia in action in 2019...

And here's Julia taking a solo...

Curtis Fuller radio. This Sunday, May 16, Sid Gribetz will be hosting a five-hour tribute to the late trombonist Curtis Fuller on "Jazz Profiles" on WKCR-FM in New York, from 2 to 7 p.m. (ET). Listen from anywhere in the world by going here.

And finally, here's João Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, another great Brazilian singer-composer, performing Antônio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça's Desafinado...

Nara Leão: Muse of the Bossa Nova

Nara Leão (pronounced LEE-yay-oh) was a celebrated Brazilian bossa nova and Tropicália pop singer in the 1960s. Her father had given her a guitar at age 12, and as a teenager in the late 1950s, she became friends with many of the singer-songwriters who were pioneering the bossa nova. The list included Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra, Ronaldo Bôscoli, João Gilberto, Vinicius de Moraes and Antônio Carlos Jobim. Many of them rehearsed in her parents' home in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana district in 1958. As a result, she became known as the "muse of the bossa nova."

But Leão was much more than a muse. She became a bossa nova star, married Brazilian director Carlos Diegues and gave up music to move to Paris in the 1970s to be with her family. In 1979, when she learned she had an inoperable brain tumor, she returned to singing and recording with a ferocity to complete as many projects as possible. She died in 1989. She was 47.

I have many of Leão's albums and she never made a bad record. Her guitar playing was superb and her voice was spectacular. Here are seven clips:

Here's Leão with Roberto Menescal in Japan singing Samba de Uma Nota So and Samba do Avião...

Here they are on O barquinho, O pato and Manhã de carnaval...

Here they are on Dindi...

Here's Leão with Antonio Carlos Jobim singing Desafinado...

Here's Part 1 of an 18-minute segment for TV with a bunch of her live performances...

Here's Part 2...

And here's Leão's recording of Desafinado...