At its finest, jazz is music of miraculous combinations. The best jazz recordings are a result of two or more artists working together with spectacular results—Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Lee Morgan and Benny Golson, Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall, Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons, and Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Pianist Benny Green and vocalist Veronica Swift are just such a pair.
On Green's new album, Then and Now (Sunnyside), the bop pianist and bop vocalist sound sumptuously hip together on 5 of the 12 tracks. Personally, I wish the entire album featured them together, but I'll take what I can get. Green has impeccable chops and enormous taste while Swift has a voice way beyond her years. I last heard her at Birdland earlier this year scatting with the Django All-Stars. She blew my mind. And Joe Lang tells me that she was out-of-sight at Ken Poston's Los Angeles Jazz Institute's "Something Cool" festival recently, where she sang selections from Anita O'Day's big-band songbook.
For those not in the know, Swift is the 20-something daughter of late pianist Hod O'Brien and singer Stephanie Nakasian, who sang the June Christy songbook at the "Something Cool" festival. I could listen to Swift all day. She knows the material, is deep into the artists, and understands how to deliver interpretations that satisfy those in the know and those new to the songs. I also love how she overdubbed her voice on the new album to create vocal harmony.
Then and Now was perfectly produced by Green. In addition to Swift and Green's collaborations on Dexter Gordon's For Regulars Only, Green's Naturally and Humphrey, Horace Silver's Split Kick and the standard Something I Dreamed Last Night, the album features the gorgeous flutist Anne Drummond, bassist David Wong, percussionist Josh Jones and the ever-exciting drummer Kenny Washington.
The album's songs are Green's Donny Hath a Way, Naturally, Enchanted Forest, Humphrey and Wiggin', plus For Regulars Only, Cedar Walton's Latin America, Hank Jones's Minor Contention, Split Kick, Duke Pearson's Say You're Mine, Hank Mobley's Hipsippy Blues and Something I Dreamed Last Night.
Great sleeper song choices (the "then" part of the album), terrific Green originals (the "now" part), a smart move spreading out Swift's songs, and great album opener and finish written by Green, who always has a keen understanding of material off the beaten path, is a terrific songwriter in his own right and is a captivating player.
JazzWax track: You'll find Benny Green's Then and Now (Sunnyside) here.
You'll also find the album at Spotify.
JazzWax clips: Here's For Regulars Only...
And here's Dexter Gordon's original with Freddie Hubbard (tp), Horace Parlan (p), George Tucker (b) and Al Harewood (d)...
