DIANA PANTON – BLUE

Have you ever had one of those moments where you were just settling into you chair, just about all set to start listening to music. You’ve hit the play button on your CD player, but you’re still a moment or two from being truly situated and focused. All of a sudden, the first words and notes are sung and played, and you jerk your head up, stop what you’re doing, and shoot your eyes straight to the space between your speakers — because what you just heard is recorded so well and the vocals so pure and lifelike that you forget finishing settling in and just stop and listen. That’s what happened to me just now when I cued up the new CD from Diana Panton, “Blue.” I confess, I had not heard Diana before this album, and was instantly blown away by her beautiful voice and singing style. This has only happened to me twice before, once with Eva Cassidy and the other with Julie London. This album is not just a one-off recording of songs that conjure up the emotions of love lost. Instead, as I found out, it is the culmination of a three-album journey of love deliberately spaced out over more than a decade by Ms. Panton to reflect the different stages of a relationship. The first album, “Pink” suggests the infatuation of first-time love, while “Red” reflects the passion of true love. For me, the thought of purposely planning this sort of story over a span time to reflect the lifetime of a relationship reflects genius of an artist committed to her craft, and of making music that means something more than just a collection of songs. The songs here span the ages of what can be called the Great American Song Book, and she is backed by an equally superb group of musicians:...

CARMEN LUNDY – FADE TO BLACK

“Fade To Black,” the 16th album from the multi-talented and multi-faceted Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Carmen Lundy, is a stunning and provocative song cycle created during the turbulent and often isolating times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Featuring 11 tracks all written by Carmen, “Fade To Black” explores such themes as the rethinking of our personal values, loss, a woman’s right to vote and choice, the invasive culture of modern technology, commitment – both to oneself and to one’s partner, and police brutality. Jazzy, passionate, introspective, thoughtful, smart, kind, honoring and loving, Carmen has crafted an album without borders that transfixes its listeners. Carmen explains, “I approached the writing of these compositions from being in this moment. Not necessarily looking back, but observant of the times we live in NOW. Traditional Jazz composition involves understanding its evolution and the spirit of improvisation. I wanted to explore different approaches to harmonic progressions, extended forms, and subtle rhythmic concepts while providing plenty of space where lyrics and melodies sing and tell stories without necessarily feeling the need to represent preconceived ideas about vocal jazz, harmonies or...

JUDITH OWEN – COME ON & GET IT

After a celebrated career, which has seen her release a number of critically acclaimed albums, tour the world and receive praise from the likes of Annie Lennox and Jamie Cullum, Judith Owen – powerhouse British vocalist, pianist and songwriter – has reached her creative happy place with brand new album, ‘Come On & Get It’ This next iteration of Owen finds her right back at the beginning of her journey into life as a musician as a six-year-old music-loving kid, with her headphones on, singing along to the jazz records she’d discovered via her parent’s record collection in her bedroom. It starts with the arrival of her 13th album, ‘Come On & Get It’, which is a collection of the songs that soundtracked her youth. Featuring tracks by a legion of female jazz musicians from the ’40s and ’50s, including Nellie Lutcher, Blossom Dearie and Julia Lee, the album showcases talents who sparked a flame in Owen as a child but who haven’t received the widespread recognition they...

AMOS LEE – MY IDEAL (A TRIBUTE TO CHET BAKER SINGS)

Pop singers turning their attention towards the classic American Popular Songbook has long been a thing, but it’s not something you’d readily expect from singer/songwriter Amos Lee who has made his name with his rustic, countryfied folk and earthy R&B. Nonetheless, Lee embraces the standards album with his warmly delivered 2022 homage My Ideal: A Tribute to Chet Baker Sings. A longtime, if somewhat quiet fan of the iconic trumpeter/vocalist, Lee particularly gravitated to Baker‘s lyrical jazz recordings while in lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an affinity between the two vocalists with Baker‘s laidback style a nice fit for Lee’s own melodic, largely unadorned approach to singing. Sometimes pop singers, and especially artists unaccustomed to tackling the precise nature of many jazz standards can sound stiff or pitchy. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Lee and he nicely settles into tracks like “That Old Feeling,” “My Buddy,” and “My Ideal.” Interestingly, while you can hear how much Baker‘s work has affected Lee, with his tenor lilt and R&B-music influences (the late-Bill Withers is a major touchstone) he often evokes the traditional pop and soul style of Smokey Robinson. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s surrounded himself by a stellar group of jazz musicians from his hometown of Philadelphia, including trumpeter/pianist David Streim, bassist Madison Rast, and drummer Anwar Marshall, all of whom offer lovely backing and accents to Lee’s vocals. What’s particularly nice is that while some of the arrangements draw direct inspiration from Baker‘s recordings (especially the classic 1954 Chet Baker Sings album), they offer just enough room for Lee to carve out his own space within each song. It’s a vibe perhaps best expressed on his rendition of “My Funny Valentine” (arguably the song most associated with Baker) and which he tweaks here as “My Funny Valentine” “For Oskar and Eli” in a nod to the main characters from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson‘s acclaimed 2008 vampire film, Let...

The Vocal Sound Of Jazz Is Moving To Prime Time

As we begin our 43rd year of broadcasts I am happy to announce that we will be on every Saturday night beginning January 7th at our new time 8pm.  Accessing the program is easier than ever. You can tune in at 89.5 WHRV, listen online at whro.org or listen on demand anytime at...

2nd Annual “Vocal Jazz Summit”

It was a privilege to be part of such a wonderful event. Great music and discussion in the wonderful atmosphere of Virginia Beach’s Zeiders American Dream Theatre – a very special...