Nicki Parrott is special. In addition to being a warm, smart singer, she's also a bassist. An interesting combination, which means as a singer she can swing in time. And as a bassist, she's lyrical. I must say that when her new CD, Dear Blossom: A Tribute to Blossom Dearie (Arbors), crossed my desk, I was a bit apprehensive. Dearie is a dangerous pianist-singer to take on. Her hip, girlish vocal style developed during a lengthy stay in Paris in the 1950s remains delicately distinct. What's more, Dearie had a way of phrasing that was deceptively difficult. She was singing, yet it came across as conversational. And then there was the matter of her extraordinary taste in songs, which always fit her like a Dior.
When I put on Parrott's CD, I was blown away. Parrott not only sensitively understands all of this, she even has Dearie's understated vocal style, right down to its petite vibrato and splash of wistful vulnerability. It's remarkable, really. Then again, this was a natural progression after Parrott's album Sakura Sakura [Cherry Blossoms] (2012), on which she recorded They Say It's Spring with Dearie's feel.
For example, take I Walk a Little Faster (by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh) on her new album. Dearie recorded the song in 1957 on Give Him the Ooh-la-la for Verve. Parrott's version is exceptional, delivered with Dearie's tenderness and purpose. Or Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz's Rhode Island Is Famous for You, which Dearie recorded on Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit Songs (Verve) in 1960. And Parrott's French isn't half bad on Emile Jean Mercadier and Rene Albert Clausier's Tout Doucement, which Dearie recorded in 1956 on Blossom Dearie (Verve). What I love most about Parrott's album is that she doesn't over-sing the material or over-dramatize the lyric. She simply sings with Dearie in her heart, and the album works beautifully.
Parrott has great support here. She's backed by Chris Grasso on piano, Chuck Redd on bass and Lenny Robinson on drums. Special guests are Warren Vaché on cornet, Engelbert Wrobel on clarinet and tenor sax and Vince Cherico on percussion. My only wish is that Parrott had included Dusty Springfield, from Dearie's That's Just the Way I Want (It) to Be (with Harold McNair on flute and tenor saxophone, by the way!)—the same album from which Parrott chose Inside a Silent Tear. Dearie wrote the song with Jim Council and Norma Tanega, and it's the hippest little thing.
No matter. Parrott's tribute to Dearie remains the finest and most graceful jazz vocal album that I've heard this year, an album that was wonderfully engineered by the late Jim Czak. I only wish I could call him to rave. He would have loved that. Sigh. It's also gratifying that Rachel Domber is producing this level of amazing work at Arbors.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Nicki Parrott's Dear Blossom (Arbors) here. The album also can be found on Spotify.
JazzWax clips: Here's I Walk a Little Faster...
So you have context, here's Dearie singing Dusty Springfield...
And here's Dearie in action in Paris in 1965. Dig her relaxed scene and those hip chords and touch...
