Giacomo Gates

No male jazz singer has a bigger gap between talent and fame than Giacomo Gates. A former construction worker who started his singing career late in life, Gates has released one excellent album after another, yet few people have heard of the guy. With his strong baritone and keen sense of timing, he reshapes standards at will, inserting both vocalese and scatting where no lyrics exist. He tackles more recent material on his new album, which was not intended to be a posthumous tribute; Gil Scott-Heron died in May, but Gates recorded these songs last fall and winter. In the course of these 10 tunes, Gates reveals new insights into Scott-HeronÕs oeuvre, from uptempo pieces like “Show Bizness” to slower numbers like “Winter in America.” Incisive (and still relevant) social commentary abounds, of course. Gates’s distinctive delivery – singing marginally below pitch, bending notes downward – is on display throughout, and his comfort with scatting is abundantly clear on tunes like “Legend in His Own Mind.” (Out now) by Steve Greenlee Boston Globe...

Hilary Kole, Duets

JUSTIN TIME ARTIST HILARY KOLE TEAMS UP WITH 11 LEGENDARY PIANISTS ON HER  LASTEST RELEASE, YOU ARE THERE Featuring Duets with Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Dave Brubeck, Alan Broadbent, Freddy Cole, Benny Green, Hank Jones, Steve Kuhn, Michel Legrand, Mike Renzi, and Cedar Walton You Are There marks the second album on Justin Time for Hilary Kole, the New York- based jazz singer (and pianist, arranger, and composer). Even though hundreds of singers are releasing what seems like hundreds of CDs these days, it’s fair to say that no vocalist – in either the classic or the contemporary era – has done an album like You Are There. This is a set of voice-and-piano duets, and though that fact by itself may call to mind Ella Fitzgerald’s famous meetings with Ellis Larkins and the iconic Tony Bennett-Bill Evans collaborations, no one has done what Hilary does here: she has teamed up with eleven different great pianists – each of them true legends of the keyboard – and recorded thirteen spontaneous piano-vocal duo tracks with these amazing musicians. The project got underway when Hilary met the late keyboard colossus Oscar Peterson in 2005. She was, then as now, singing frequently at Birdland (then as always, “the Jazz Corner of the World,” and her New York base of operations). Peterson made his final New York appearances at the Times Square venue, and Kole was always there (and so was every musician in Manhattan who wanted to learn from the master). The two became friends, and on one set, to her astonishment, Peterson invited her to sing with his quartet. Coincidentally, Hilary and her producer for this project, Gianni Valenti, had already been putting together ideas that led in the direction of a voice-and-piano project. “There was something very intimate, very moving about singing with just the piano,” she says. “It became...

Jo Lawry

Rarely does a singer come along in whom virtuosity meets sensitivity. Jo Lawry at once tests the limits of technical facility and explores the furthest reaches of musical expression. Her music, steeped in the jazz tradition without being constrained by its traditional forms and functions, demonstrates a unique combination of maturity and inventiveness. Jo Lawry’s debut album I Want to Be Happy was released in 2008 to rave reviews and named among the “Best CDs of the Decade” in Downbeat Magazine. In addition to working with her own quintet, Jo is the vocalist for the Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra, a quartet whose album, Live at Jazz Standard was recently released on Sunnyside Records. Jo is also a member of the Irish/Brazilian/Jazz quartet, James Shipp’s Nós Novo, providing lead vocals, fiddle, mandolin and melodica. This group recently released their debut CD Strange Sweethearts in America, which the New York Times called “a striking new album… which advances a jazz-based take on traditional Celtic music.” Jo has been featured as a guest on numerous recordings; stand-outs include Dr. Lonnie Smith’s album Rise Up! and Kate McGarry’s Grammy-nominated If Less is More… Nothing is Everything. Jo is also quickly becoming known to audiences beyond the jazz genre, through her work with Sting. She first joined Sting in 2009 as a backing vocalist for the filming of his live concert DVD A Winter’s Night… Live From Durham Cathedral. Following this project, she appeared with him for several other concerts and TV appearances on vocals and violin. In 2010, Jo was invited to join him as sole backing vocalist on his international orchestral tour. Jo grew up on an almond farm in South Australia and, after a brief affair with operatic study, began her instruction in the Jazz Department at Adelaide University’s Elder Conservatorium. Jo has received many honors including the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship...

Champion Fulton

As is the current lot of jazz writ large, singers in the idiom rate comparatively low on the public awareness and consumption charts. There are arguable exceptions like Diana Krall and if the definition is particularly inclusive, Norah Jones, but most of the time vocalists are in the same boat as their instrumental brethren. Even that waning bellwether of pop music celebrity, American Idol, gives the deep jazz vocal tradition only passing notice, usually hidden in the colloquial-hinged platitudes of erstwhile arbiter Randy Jackson. Champain Fulton has a few things going for her that improve the odds. First, she’s a competent instrumentalist herself, playing piano in an energetic two-handed touch that harkens back to classic stylists like Hank Jones and Horace Silver and not shy about stepping up for frequent solos. Next, there’s her pipes that while not spectacular have an insouciance and verve that exudes easy charm. Ella and Anita are obvious influences and she also names the great King Cole as the patron saint of her piano trio project. Her taste in sidemen and songbook are also admirable. Bassist Neal Miner, a Smalls regular and leader in his own right who also does duty as co-engineer, lays down a supple walking groove on numbers like a strutting takedown of the Harold Land-scripted “Land’s End”. Drummer Fukushi Tainaka exercises a similarly elastic approach to time keeping working adroitly on both sticks and brushes. Neither man gets in Fulton’s way during her frequent forays up and down the keyboard and measures momentum in an exacting fashion. Touching again on trio’s taste in material, the 13-song set list is weighted towards standards of varying vintages. Fulton refuses to treat any of them as relics or museum pieces. Her brisk exploration of “The Sheik of Araby” is a handy example, no dust-dappled swing heirloom to be found here. Tainaka’s locomotive brushes...

Nicole Henry

Nicole Henry has won praise from both critics and audiences worldwide for her powerful ability to truly touch and inspire people with her beautiful voice and stunning presence. She has released three international TOP 10-selling jazz CDs within the past five years and has toured in over ten countries. Jazz Improv writes, “…beautiful, emotionally evocative…a terrific voice and a sensitive way with a lyric.” It’s with that same sensitivity that Nicole Henry mesmerizes audiences wherever she goes. Uplifting and captivating, her voice embraces jazz, pop and soulful nuances with a spirited ‘joie de vivre.” Born in Philadelphia, Nicole was raised in the arts haven of Bucks County. After graduating from the University of Miami, Nicole performed throughout Miami singing pop, soul and original music, winning local awards and lending her voice to recordings. In 2004, after falling in love with the melodies, lyrics and freedom of jazz, Nicole released her solo debut CD The Nearness of You to critical acclaim. In the U.S., Nicole received rave reviews and airplay on national jazz radio, including XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. In Japan, after climbing to #2 on HMV Japan Jazz Charts, and staying in the TOP 10 for three months HMV Japan named Nicole “Best New Jazz Artist of 2004.” Her follow-up CD, Teach Me Tonight with the Eddie Higgins Trio reached #1 at HMV Japan, and earned her their honor of “Best Vocal Jazz Album of 2005.” Nicole’s latest CD release, The Very Thought of You reached #7 on the U.S. Billboard Jazz Chart in September 2008, positioned between Diana Krall and Tony Bennett. This romantic CD features love songs, originals and gems from the great American Songbook. It was produced by music veteran Hal Batt (Regina Belle, Jean Carne, Julio Iglesias) with an assist from Executive Creative Producer Don Mizell (co-producer of Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company). Nicole’s...

Lorraine Feather, Ages

As the daughter of respected jazz critic, Leonard Feather, Lorraine Feather comes to her jazz pedigree honestly, but more from natural talent than dogged filial loyalty. In possession of a pure, rich voice, she tried acting—along with some discouraging stints in the food industry—before finding her multi-colored niche in singing and composing. Ages, about the epochs that women of “a certain age” look back on, is full of artistry and humor. Co-written with Yellowjackets pianist/arranger Russell Ferrante, guitarist Eddie Arkin, pianist Shelly Berg, banjoist Bela Fleck and pianist/arrangerDick Hyman, Feather plays the light-hearted schoolgirl, then revolves back to a deep-hearted but not cloying look at ages long lost. “I Forgot To Have Children” is a great tongue-in-cheek look at an issue that nary a single woman has not considered when looking at the end of their culture- driven “shelf life.” Yet it’s not a clichéd look, either. Her lyrical arabesques can elicit moments of pensive thought as well as guffaws of laughter. With musical dexterity—a very credible tribute to the 1890’s pop musical ballads with “The Girl With the Lazy Eye”—she comments on anything from the girl who doesn’t fit in the usual cliques in high school to the surprised commentary that all have asked, “How Did We End Up Here?” From straight-ahead mainstream jazz to ballads that defy a sugary overlay, then to an elegant bossa nova, Feather’s back-up musicians easily keep pace with her strong, smooth vocals. With bassist Michael Valerio and vibraphonist Bob Leatherbarrow augmenting the rest of the group, their originality meets Feather where she lives, in an intelligent, witty, sometimes pathos-ridden world. That, in the end, is what shines on Ages. This is not a “chick’s album.” Yes, there are the inevitable songs about significant relationships, but none are hackneyed or gender-driven. No more can be asked than that Lorraine Feather has produced a polished yet very engaging look at this life. It...