Forget pop’s so-called “divas” and set those Patti LaBelle records aside. For a truly inspiring effort from a powerful vocalist, check out Randy Crawford’s Permanent (Warner Bros., 2A-89273-B; 53:02). Crawford covers a lot of musical and emotional ground here, from gospel-toned, sweet recollections (“When Will I Be Free of Love’s Taboo”) to driving rock ‘n’ soul in a passionate demand for romantic commitment (“Permanent”), and approaches each effort with unique nuance: there’s no melody-bludgeoning show-off work here. For example, the controlled phrasings of her big, soaring voice bring warmth and power to the lyric of “Free the Child” (“Maybe love will help us to begin to free the child within”) in its glowing, world-pop arrangement of nylon guitars and trembling strings. Her emotive rasp highlights dramatic tension in the bittersweet empowerment anthem “When I Get Over You,” and the epic, old-fashioned orchestral romance of “Wild Is the Wind.” With powerful lyrics and vivid, pretty arrangements complementing her intensely personal work, this release should ensure Crawford’s Permanent position among the great modern jazz-crossover vocalists.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading

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

Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro
Kurt Elling: Man in the Air
Nate Chinen makes the argument that Kurt Elling is the most influential jazz vocalist of our time