Karrin Allyson - Round Midnight

Karrin Allyson - Round Midnight
2011, Concord Jazz

Karrin Allyson gets back to the roots of vocal jazz on her latest album, Round Midnight, due out May 5, 2011.  Allyson offers up twelve intimate portraits in song in understated yet emotionally vibrant fashion, recalling an era where small jazz clubs flourished and a sense of refinement enveloped the stage.  Allyson sings from the blue heartbreak of the speakeasy, covering both classic jazz vocal selections and modern songs in what may be the three-time GRAMMY nominee's most personal work to date.

Round Midnight opens with Bill Evans' "Turn Out The Stars", offering up a melancholy and emotionally heavy reading that brings out the sad nuance of Gene Lees' lyrics.  Allyson slows things down significantly and allows the emotion pool in perfectly articulated lines with her fashionably understated vocal style.  Paul Simon's "April Comes She Will" might seem out of place on the track list, but both the memorial of the passage of time and the depth of the human heart and Allyson's handling of the song are spot on.  "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most" is a great, bluesy number about being stuck in the shadow of a love lost.  Allyson is expressive and refined here in what may her best vocal performance on the album. 

Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" gets the royal treatment; heartfelt and warm and full of palpable emotion.  Allyson stays very much true to the spirit of the original.  "There's No Such Thing As Love" features a toughness in the delivery that's a perfect spoil to the vulnerability and heartbreak underneath.  Johnny Mandel's "The Shadow Of Your Smile" is delivered in much the same fashion.  The flute solo here almost steals the show.  Stephen Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns" is a wonderfully nuanced and blue mood piece.  While not as dynamic as some of the famous renditions of this song, Allyson's take captures the emotion of the piece from a place that's dark and reserved.  Allyson closes with the epitome of loneliness in song.  "Round Midnight" (Thelonious Monk) is presented here with just Allyson and an upright bass for accompaniment.  Allyson's subtle and understated vocalization mixes perfectly with an almost free-form style in the bass part to capture hope maintained in spite of the loss of same.  This is a 'wow' moment almost in spite of itself.

Karrin Allyson sings at soundtrack of atmosphere, to be partaken of over a glass of whatever the bartender is pouring on the outskirts of desolation.  The refined and classy beauty that Allyson brings to the dregs of human emotion is refreshing.  With a touch for phasing and a voice full of quiet beautiful, Karrin Allyson will remind listeners of a time when it wasn't so much the singer as the song that mattered.  While she is in front on Round Midnight, Allyson is often an equal part of the ensemble that simultaneously documents the tragedy of human suffering in song, while soothing the hearts of those who seek an oasis in spirit and song.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Karrin Allyson at www.karrin.com or www.facebook.com/karrinallyson.  Round Midnight drops on May 3, 2011.  You can pre-order the album from Amazon.com on CD or as a Download.

Review: The Terrence Blanchard Group - Choices

The Terrence Blanchard Group - Choices
2009, Concord Jazz

Terrence Blanchard is prodigious. The Grammy Award winning musician/composter/arranger/bandleader has more than twenty-five albums to his credit, either on his own or with others. He’s also composed music for over 40 movies, including Malcolm X, Clockers, Mo’ Better Blues, Backbeat and Eve’s Bayou. Blanchard’s latest, with The Terrence Blanchard Group, Choices, dropped on August 18, 2009.

Choices opens with Byus, a Funk/Jazz hybrid with Latin elements that starts out with a monologue from Blanchard on intellectualism vs. intelligence. Sax and Trumpet are the primary voices here, creating interesting tension in the shared melody lines while the sax gets in some prodigious runs on its own. The trumpet is a bit more reserved, sticking to more placid, traditional waters. Blanchard gives a short statement on Beethoven and representative power of music as it compares to words before launching into the down-tempo D's Choice. A slow, almost ethereal back drop is punctuated by a slow, staccato melody line that slowly grows more lyric throughout the song. Bilal steps in for a guest vocal appearance on Journey, providing a moving performance in tandem with Blanchard's ever-present trumpet. Hacia del Aire opens on a mournful note, with the Trumpet sounding the clarion call of sadness. The ever-resilient piano changes the mood of the piece however, with trumpet coming along on a more hopeful promenade. All of this is done in a down-tempo arrangement where the rhythms are unsettled and variable. The song grows into a larger conversation as the saxophone cuts in. Soon three voices are talking at once, nearly over one another. The result is a cacophony that can overpower the listener at times.

Him Or Me finds Blanchard stepping back in time for a piece that could have come of the early 1970's; Progressive and classical jazz elements mix over seven minutes to create a dynamic musical trip topped off by one of the hottest jazz guitar solos of the year. HUGS (Historically Underrepresented Groups) starts off with an eclectic and variably rhythmic piano intro before evolving into a musically explosive quintet (piano, trumpet, sax, bass and drums). There is a sense of impending chaos that looms, but the song never quite loses its bearing and flies continually in that grey region that is the line between genius and disaster. Blanchard is inspired here, outplaying his own sensibilities and reaching that hypothetical "beyond" state that musicians find in their best moments. Winding Roads is a twelve minute journey that lives up to it's name, taking the listener across musical countryside and blind corners where the scenery changes as quickly as the rhythms of the song. This is another wow moment, but it takes awhile to unfold. Bilal returns on When Will You Call, a classic sounding song that is given emotional weight by Bilal's blue vocal line. The instruments draw back and give Bilal room to work, adding in the appropriate support and fills without becoming too involved.

A New World (Created Inside The Walls Of Imagination) finds Blanchard waxing about the "Age Of Obama", the changes it portends. The song is well structured yet does reflect the tension between change, retrenchment and history that Blanchard references in his opening word. Blanchard's trumpet work is outstanding as always, but it was the guitar work that really caught my ear on this one; drawing on an early electric guitar sound (Les Paul, Chet Atkins) to censure tension while creating more of its own. Blanchard closes out Choices with Robin's Choice, opening with an air of Gershwin before exploding into a modern mix of music and noise. All action ceases suddenly at the end and Blanchard explains why we're here. I'll leave it to you to find out on your own.

Choices moves from quiet creation to cacophony of sound and hits all points in between. Fans of classic, Progressive and modern Jazz will all find something to like here, as Blanchard hits on moods from Monk to Miles and even shades in a little Gershwin here and there. Choices is not the best choice for casual listening; the music demands your attention and refuses to take a back seat. Don't be surprised if The Terrence Blanchard Group gets mentioned come award season.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Terrence Blanchard and The Terrence Blanchard Group at http://www.terrenceblanchard.com/ or www.myspace.com/terrenceblanchard. You can purchase Choices at Amazon.com, or download the album through Amazon MP3.

Review: Valerie Mih - Meridians

Valerie Mih - Meridians
2008, Circular Dreaming

Valerie Mih is a musician's musician. The Pullman, Washington native spends time on both coasts; well known in both the San Francisco and New York City scenes as a solo performer, ensemble player, classical and jazz pianist, and practitioner of the healing arts. Mih blends elements of classical, jazz and new age into a musical tapestry that is part story and part dream. Her second album, Meridians, mixes four solo piano pieces with five multi-textured sound experiments to provide an ambient space for musical enjoyment, relaxation and perhaps even healing. With a virtuoso reputation and influences as diverse as Brian Eno, McCoy Tyner, Steve Reich, Monk and John Coltrane, you know it's got to be at least interesting.

I've heard a ton of CDs that fall into the new age/easy listening category that purport to be healing or instructive in some way, and it's the rare disk that doesn't disqualify its own claims. Valerie Mih's Meridians hasn't proved its healing qualities, but does nothing in the course of its thirty-nine minutes to make you think otherwise. What's most striking about Mih's music is the sense of movement. Classical-style piano pieces that are ambient in nature give the feel of the push and pull you might find on a body of water. This is not musical drifting in the sense of purely ambient fluff, but more like the deep and mystifying currents running beneath a wide river. There is no inertial violence here, just the relentlessly obstinate pull of the current.

Mih tells stories in the course of this flow, although they are perhaps too subliminal to be heard by the ear. Meridians is refreshing the way a good swim is on a hot day. Themes come and go throughout the album but do not crash about. New ideas seem to suggest themselves into your consciousness before they arrive. Highlights include Little One, Saturn's Rings, Flow and Interwoven.

Valerie Mih creates some magic on Meridians. The music flows like time flows around us. Never pushing too hard but always pushing, pulling and cajoling us to where we need to be. Valerie Mih provides us with a Master Class in the ability of a classical/new age musician with a tendency toward ambience can still find art and nuance and beauty within the subtle fabric of her song.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Valerie Mih at http://www.circulardreaming.com/. You can purchase a copy of Meridians at www.cdbaby.com/cd/valeriemih.