Bicho Papão

Infelizmente John Lester não poderá prosseguir em sua jornada de exaltação às cantoras de jazz. Convocado em regime de urgência pela ONG The Priapius Day, organização multidisciplinar responsável pela preservação de estranhas e raras espécies nativas da Mata Transatlântica, Lester partirá em direção às montanhas de Visconde de Mauá, terra em que ainda sobrevivem três exemplares de suculentis redondus, um tipo muito esquisito de pé-grande que calça 35. Aproveitando o clima papalino, John pede perdão aos amigos navegantes pelo pecado da fuga. Mas, antes de escapulir, Mr. Lester deixará algumas faixas que já estavam devidamente preparadas para os nossos fiéis leitores, acompanhadas das respectivas biografias do All Music Guide (em inglês). A senha, como sempre, é jazzseen. E vida longa a todas as ONG’s que adoram bichinhos e a todos os padres que adoram criancinhas. Amém? Muito bem, comecemos então por Barbara Lea (clique sobre o nome da cantora para ouvir as faixas): An excellent singer who has been associated with swing and Dixieland, Barbara Lea has never broken through with the general public, but she has recorded quite a few worthy albums. She sang with Detroit dance orchestras while in school, performed with the college jazz band (the Crimson Stompers) at Harvard, and worked on the East Coast in the 1950s. She recorded for Riverside (1955) and Prestige (1956-1957), using such sidemen as trumpeter Johnny Windhurst and pianists Billy Taylor and Dick Hyman. In the 1960s, Lea worked as a stage actress and taught. In the 1970s, she sang with Dick Sudhalter and Ed Polcer and recorded in the 1980s for Audiophile, including a tribute to her idol and influence, Lee Wiley. Nossa próxima homenageada é Betty Roché: A singer who performed with Duke Ellington in both the '40s and '50s, Betty Roché was famous for her strong, dramatic way of putting across blues material, a talent that not every vocalist with this big band had. Ellington, who was sometimes prone to hire vocalists with stilted, nearly classical delivery, described Roché with typical grace: "She had a soul inflection in a bop state of intrigue and every word was understandable despite the sophisticated hip and jive connotations." She was born Mary Elizabeth Roché and began her career by triumphing at an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
In 1941, she sang with the Savoy Sultans, then joined Ellington two years later. It was a tough assignment, replacing one of the bandleader's most popular vocalists, Ivie Anderson, just days before Ellington's first concert at Carnegie Hall. She rose to the occasion, scoring highly with both the critics and audience in her featured section of the Ellington suite "Black, Brown and Beige." Her vocal on this number comes on during the blues sequence, and was the composer's interpretation of the feelings of urban blacks at the start of the 20th century. It became one of Ellington's greatest pieces for a singer, an ambitious slab of scoring that showed the skill with which the composer was able to make use of the basic feeling of the blues as part of a sophisticated, advanced musical structure. She cut three sides under her name for the Bethlehem and Prestige labels in the late '50s and early '60s. In the mid-'50s, she was part of the studio cast recording of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, singing alongside greats such as Mel Tormé. The impression she made on the jazz scene is actually larger than many think, as she is credited with being a major influence both on bebop singers and the public's ability to deal with that kind of musical adventure. Again, the lack of easily available documentation of some of her activities has hindered full understanding of her career.
The name of the club Minton's for example, would be much more recognized among bop fans than Roché herself, yet she was a singer in the house band at this club for almost three years, working with such stalwarts of the new bop scene such as Thelonious Monk on piano and Kenny Clarke on drums. Nossa próxima amiga é Lee Wiley: Her husky, surprisingly sensual voice and exquisitely cool readings of pop standards distinguished her singing, but Lee Wiley earns notice as one of the best early jazz singers by recognizing the superiority of American popular song and organizing a set of songs around a common composer or theme — later popularized as the songbook or concept LP. She was also a songwriter in her own right, and one of the few white vocalists with more respect in the jazz community than the popular one. Even more tragic then, that while dozens of inferior vocalists recorded LPs during the late '50s and '60s, Wiley appeared on record just once between 1957 and her death in 1975. Agora um pouco da excelente Nancy Wilson:
Diva Nancy Wilson was among contemporary music's most stylish and sultry vocalists; while often crossing over into the pop and R&B markets — and even hosting her own television variety program — she remained best known as a jazz performer, renowned for her work alongside figures including Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing. Born February 20, 1937, in Chillicothe, OH, Wilson first attracted notice performing the club circuit in nearby Columbus; she quickly earned a growing reputation among jazz players and fans, and she was recording regularly by the late '50s, eventually signing to Capitol and issuing LPs including 1959's Like in Love and Nancy Wilson with Billy May's Orchestra. Her dates with Shearing, including 1960's The Swingin's Mutual, solidified her standing as a talent on the rise, and her subsequent work with Adderley — arguably her finest recordings — further cemented her growing fame and reputation. In the early 2000s, Wilson returned to jazz, recording two albums with Ramsey Lewis for Narada (2002's Meant to Be and 2003's Simple Pleasures).
Her 2004 album R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) was a blend of straight-ahead jazz and ballads, similar to her next record, 2006's Turned to Blue, which, like R.S.V.P., used a different instrumentalist for each track. In 2005, Capitol released a three-part series to pay tribute to Wilson's contributions to music in the '50s and '60s: Guess Who I Saw Today: Nancy Wilson Sings Songs of Lost Love, Save Your Love for Me: Nancy Wilson Sings the Great Blues Ballads, and The Great American Songbook. Para terminar, deixo uma faixa de Susie Arioli (Canadian vocalist Susie Arioli was pretty much relegated to the musical fringes in Montreal and environs until she exploded upon the scene with the creation of her Swing Band in 1998. She and her group opened for Ray Charles at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and since then has been in the limelight, performing regularly at festivals, concerts, touring (including a stint in Washington, D.C.), and gigging in jazz venues in and around Quebec. Originally studying flute and then taking private singing lessons, she listened to Nina Simone, Chet Baker, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Staple Singers, Robert Johnson, and Billie Holiday)e outra de Monica Zutterlund (com Bill Evans no piano):
Monica Zetterlund sang with Ib Glindeman's band in Denmark and saxophonist Arne Domnerus' band in Stockholm in 1957, recording with Domnerus beginning in 1958. She began performing abroad in the late '50s. In the United States, Zetterlund's credibility as a jazz singer rests largely upon Waltz for Debbie, a recording made in 1964 with pianist Bill Evans' trio. In addition to several solo records, she's also recorded with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra (It Only Happens Every Time, 1977) and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (This Is All I Ask, 1998), among others. Her repertoire also incorporated such non-jazz idioms as Swedish folk songs and classical music. Zetterlund's celebrity transcended music; classically beautiful, she was also an actress in her native Sweden. She continued to perform until her death in May of 2005 after a fire broke out in her apartment.. Boa audição!