YOU SHOULD KNOW: M.J. Williams

M.J. Williams is a sublime vocalist. She is also a Montana native and a jazz trombonist (of all things). Her solo album, I CAN HEAR YOUR HEART (1999) has been a favorite of mine for many years. Two subsequent albums, each featuring a talented jazz trio (shifting configurations of bass, piano, guitar, and drums) have become equal aural pleasures.

Williams, like another of my favorite vocalists, Jimmy Scott, favors holding long extensions of notes that emphasize the effect of the voice as a member of an instrumental ensemble of equals (as opposed to a lead vocal being supported or "backed" by the instruments.) These extensions cast such a languid spell that you can forget you are listening to a song with words. Williams delivers the lyrics beautifully, but the end result (to my ears at least) is one of enjoying a tapestry of sound more than focusing on the words of the song.

Most of these tracks are jazz interpretations of real classics like My Foolish Heart, The Nearness of You, or Rodgers & Hart's Lover. Also featured are songs composed by Thelonius Monk, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and Pat Metheny, as well as Williams' bass player, Kelly Roberti. Throughout these albums Williams voice is gorgeous--with a solid, mellow center not unlike the timbre of Dianne Reeves' voice.

To my knowledge none of M.J.'s work has had anything like a major-label release, and a quick search reveals nothing via amazon or iTunes. It does look like you can get some of Williams' albums (as well as listen to mp3 samples) at this link:

SHOP FOR M.J. WILLIAMS AT WORLD JAZZ SCENE ONLINE

Of the albums I have, none feature Williams' skills on the trombone, but she's undoubtedly a vocalist well-worth getting acquainted with!

Iconography: KEELY SMITH

There are plenty of reasons that some of the greatest music arrangers and conductors (like Billy May & Nelson Riddle) chose to work with Keely Smith at Capitol Records in the late 1950s. Reasons being the lady could sing, the lady could swing, the lady could deliver a gorgeous song and make your heart soar with a voice to rival any of the leading female vocalists of the day. Keely's voice was bright and strong, with nearly perfect pitch and an occasional Virginia drawl. Keely is still best remembered for her marriage to Louis Prima and the duets that featured in their legendary stage shows ("That Old Black Magic," et al.) Yet it's her solo Capitol recordings, Politely! and Swingin' Pretty, that caught my ear in a friend's basement where we amused ourselves by pulling out her mother's favorite old LPs. I knew nothing about Keely then, and assumed she was relegated to the heap of singers past who'd stopped performing around the time I was born. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Keely did vanish for a couple of decades; she stopped recording & performing while she focused on raising her kids. In 1985 she recorded a comeback album, I'm In Love Again and bagged a Grammy nomination in the process. Hearing that album, I fell in love with Keely's voice all over again. In the early 90s I first saw her perform live at Rainbow & Stars, a supper club at the top of Rockefeller Center. She was marvelous; a consummate performer with a surprising shtick to her stage patter, alternating gorgeous singing with deadpan jokes about Sicilian lovers and pasta. A few years later, in a bit of true serendipity, I got to see Keely perform in Las Vegas at the Sands, assisted by her bandleader of the 1950s, Sam Butera. It was like being transported back in time 40 years--and one of the best live shows I've ever witnessed.

What makes my experience of Keely so much richer is that she's kept on recording and performing--well into her seventies. Shockingly, her clarion voice has mellowed very little and though her vibrato has widened just a bit, the near-perfect pitch and sweet high range are practically carbon copies of the sound on her Capitol recordings. Keely's voice is truly one of the rare miracles of showbiz (and a good deal of care, I'm sure; Keely swears she never smoked or drank.)

As recently as 2007, Keely was playing two shows a night at New York's swanky Cafe Carlyle. I caught that show with Wanda & Steve--almost 15 years after we'd see Keely with Sam Butera in Vegas. Her stage presence was much the same: surprisingly raunchy patter (from a grandmother!) between sets of sweet, soulful singing. It still surprises me how relatively unsung the glory of Keely's solo work has been--she is, without a doubt, one of the Greats.

Required Listening: Politely! (1958), Swingin' Pretty (1959), Keely Sings Sinatra (2001), Keely Swings Basie-Style (2002), Vegas '58 Today (2005)

Falling In Love Is Wonderful (1962)

Jimmy Scott possesses one of those voices that does me in--in a good way. His growth and vocal development were stunted by an affliction known as Kallmann Syndrome (delayed puberty) leaving him with a unique, gender-neutral singing voice. The first time I heard his high, reedy voice on CD in the mid-90s, I wanted to know the name of the woman behind such a mesmerizing sound! It took me a long time to reconcile the voice to the man.
FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL was meant to be Jimmy Scott's big breakthrough in 1962, after many years of having his vocals incorrectly attributed to female singers, or uncredited altogether on the recordings of Lionel Hampton and other swing bands. The album was produced by Ray Charles on Charles' own Tangerine label, and the arrangements are lovely, reminiscent of classic Nelson Riddle-style orchestrations that flatter both the songs and the singer. Upon the album's release, however, an unscrupulous former manager insisted that Scott was still under contract to a competing label (Savoy) and Tangerine had to cease and desist release of the new album. Scott attempted to record again in 1969 (the equally marvelous THE SOURCE) but again Savoy claimed ownership, so Jimmy Scott recordings were effectively embargoed for decades and his career collapsed. He worked as a hospital orderly and elevator operator for years.
The good news is that there has been a prolific second act to Scott's life & career. He was "re-discovered" and managed to get honest deals with legitimate studios in the early 1990s, and he has recorded an eclectic smorgasbord of songs: everything from "Over the Rainbow" to "Nothing Compares 2 U." His thwarted 1960s albums were finally re-released to great acclaim--with good reason, as FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL proves.
As one would expect, though, his voice had aged into a somewhat different instrument over the course of those 20+ years. The tone remained much the same: clarion, throbbing, insistent--but with each successive Scott release since 1992 (there have been MANY; it's hard not to sense him racing to catch up for the lost time) the voice grows frailer, the warble wider. Those affectations don't hurt my love for the songs or the man singing them, but they certainly shade the experience of hearing him sing. When I finally managed to hear him perform live at Lincoln Center last winter, I realized with regret that I had waited too late. As pleasurable as it was to show the man respect with applause, his performance with a young jazz combo was reduced to nearly unintelligible wailing, with not much strength or tone remaining.
FALLING IN LOVE...then, is really the best chance to listen and wonder "what could have been." Scott is in fantastic voice here, and it's amazing to hear what the singer Nancy Wilson heard, and indeed mimicked in her own recordings. To listen to Jimmy Scott's inspired broken-syllable phrasings is to hear the blueprint for Wilson's inimitable style. FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL is an album that is as good an introduction to Jimmy Scott as you are likely to find (though I'd be happy to recommend many others). If you don't know him already, suffice to say you should acquaint yourself.

Dinah Sings, Previn Plays (1960)

Simple is often better, and my Exhibit No. 1 of the moment is the simply gorgeous recording DINAH SINGS, PREVIN PLAYS (1960). Dinah is, of course, Dinah Shore of the "see the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet" jingles and her long-running talk shows of the 60s and 70s. The Previn accompanying her is Andre Previn of the long conducting career (gossip-hounds know that he was Mia Farrow's second husband.) The album material is strictly standards, many of them quite familiar from far more famous recordings, but there are a couple of lesser-known gems here, too, in particular "Like Someone In Love" and "Stars Fell On Alabama". There is an irresistible charm to Dinah's laid-back presentation and very slight Southern drawl (she was born and raised in Tennessee.) The album is intensely intimate, as though it were just you sitting in a darkened club, listening to a late-night set with Shore and Previn (with an occasional small combo backing them quietly.) Previn is a master accompanist and it's through his gorgeous playing and arrangements that the ear is directed to Shore's honeyed vocals (he worked with Doris Day to similar success on their DUET album in 1962). There's no fireworks here, no gimmicks, but that doesn't mean it's staid or boring--it's all really gorgeous. Highly Recommended.