Strickman sings with a wistful purity of tone. She eschews affectation and look-at-me! melodrama, but she also eschews swing. Result: a diverse and interesting menu of art-songs, closer in feel to drawing-room lieder than to jazz. Hillel Dolgenas, piano, supplied the tasty arrangements (“There Shall Be No Night,” arranged by Freddie Bryant, featured on guitar); with Scott Lee, bass and Akira Tana, drums.
“I Forgot To Remember” by Lucky Thompson (with lyrics by producer James Browne) features Robin Eubanks, trombone. “Chopin Etude Opus 10, No. 6,” is given an ethereal treatment with piano, vocalese and oboe by Aaron Heick. “And So It Goes” by Billy Joel is nicely presented by Strickman with the Koynari String Quartet. The folk-song “Red River Valley” is given a poignant reading; Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” is refreshed by a montuno bass line and a nod to Miles’ “Seven Steps” and “Simmer,” with lyrics by Strickman, features Jerry Gonzales, trumpet.
Related Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro