(Reprinted from the June 2023 issue of the New York City Jazz Record)
Photo: Artist website
Bandleader/drummer Bobby Sanabria usually uses vocals on his recordings with Multiverse, his Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban big band. He’ll sing himself, and the band will provide backup, and sometimes he’ll invite a dynamic singer like Charaneè Wade to front the group. On Vox Humana (Jazzheads), Sanabria continues to build on his interest in arranging for voices: The album’s 13 tracks with the big band spotlight three jazz singers—Janis Siegel, Antoinette Montague, Jennifer Jade Ledesna—each of whom (like Sanabria) arose out New York’s multi-cultural musical scene.
Recorded live at JALC-Dizzy’s last June, the record captures not only the band’s relentless exuberance, but the diverse personalities of these expert singers. For instance, Spanish-speaking Ledesna settles naturally into the joyous lilt of the Puerto Rican classic, “Capullito De Aleli”; Montague punches all the blue notes just so as she delivers her own pointed lyrics on “Who Taught You That”; and Siegel marries bop idioms with Latin drive in a fiery scat solo on the 1960s hit “Spooky”. Sanabria also commingles the sounds of all three singers, first in individualized solos and then in closely harmonized group sings on “Do It Again”—an exciting re-contextualization of one of Steely Dan’s most popular tunes. Sanabria, Siegel, Montague and Ledesna will appear with the Multiverse Big Band in two free concerts this month, first on Jun. 4th at Hostos Performing Arts Center and the second on Jun. 24th at Bay Plaza Mall Auditorium. (A side note: Siegel also plays with Manhattan Transfer at Sony Hall as part of the Blue Note Jazz Fest on Jun. 9th.)
Guggenheim Fellow and SFJAZZ Collective member Edward Simon’s new album, Femeninas: Songs of Latin American Women (ArtistShare) brings us a step closer to gender equity by honoring the Latina composers who have contributed to the Latin American Songbook. The record represents a wealth of tunes by women songwriters from across South/Central America and the Caribbean—Violeta Parra (Chile), Marta Valdés (Cuba), Chabuca Granda (Perú), Elizabeth Morris (Chile), Rosa Passos (Brazil), Georgina Hassan (Argentina), and Joyce Moreno (Brazil) among them. Mexican vocalist Magos Herrera adds a liquid, understated emotionality to these classic pieces and to Simon’s three-movement selection, Latino Soy ("Naked Sky," "Mujer Remolino," and "Bulería")— the Venezuelan pianist’s compositional contribution to the record and a superb example of his fresh, modern writing. The album releases on Jun. 8th, and the following week, on Jun. 13th, Simon launches the work at Dizzy’s.
Last year, Cuban singer Aymée Nuviola won a Latin Grammy for Live in Marciac (5Passion), recorded during a duo concert with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba during the summer jazz festival in that small French village. On this 2022 record, Nuviola’s laid-back vocals steal into the ear like a warm breeze, conjuring visions of sun-dappled countryside and halcyon skies. Contrast this with Havana Nocturne (Worldwide), the singer’s newest release, a quintet-based studio record awash in the sounds and feels of Havana nightlife. With this latest offering, the singer taps into the Cuban filin, a style blending “vocal jazz, Debussy’s impressionism, and the tradition of the Cuban son and bolero”, according to the liner notes. Both sides of Nuviola’s musical persona deserve multiple listens via these recordings, now available through multiple distribution channels.
New York-based jazz vocalist Mary Foster Conklin has long promoted the work of female jazz composers, both through her recordings and as host of the Sunday radio show A Broad Spectrum–the Ladies of Jazz. This past February she released her fifth album, These Precious Days (Mock Turtle Records), an eclectic collection of popular and jazz tunes penned primarily by women. She’ll introduce the album live at Mezzrow on Jun. 18th.
Addenda: Singer Ben Cassara, who produces a weekly vocal jazz series at Pangea, one of Conklin’s regular rooms, presents his second self-produced album, What a Way to Go, at the club on Jun. 7th. Sergio Mendes graces the Blue Note Jazz Fest at Sony Hall, on Jun. 23rd-24th. And the 12th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition for submissions has officially opened: Jazz singers from the world over can apply via the NJPAC website. (Last year’s winner, Lucía Gutiérrez Rebolloso, hails from Veracruz, Mexico, where she developed her winning vocal style by singing son jarocho, a local hybrid of Spanish, African and indigenous Mexican music.)