Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Aimée Nolte at the Jazz Corner

4

Aimée Nolte at the Jazz Corner

Aimée Nolte at the Jazz Corner
By

View read count
Aimée Nolte with Nicki Parrott
The Jazz Corner
Hilton Head Island, SC
October 18-19, 2019

Cool Autumn breezes carried two sophisticated ladies to the Carolinas. Pianist and singer Aimée Nolte from Los Angeles invited her friend from Connecticut, Nicki Parrott to sing and play bass together with her. They were joined on the stage by Taylor Roberts, playing his 7-string Benedetto guitar, which was handbuilt in nearby Savannah. On his Gretsch drum kit, made in Ridgeland, SC perhaps fifteen miles away from Hilton Head Island, was Justin Varnes, in town to play another in his "Classical meets Jazz" series of concerts.

Together they explored a range of easy listening music. On the "Sunnyside of the Street," the ladies sang together in close harmony. The jazz standard "Bye, Bye Blackbird" was succinctly delivered by Nolte singing and scatting alone to Parrott's solo bass creating a quiet and intimate moment. Parrott delivered a raucous Peggy Lee classic "I'm a Woman, w-o-m-a-n" playfully inviting Roberts to take a guitar solo and "play it like a woman." They moved on to Sinatra's" You Make Me Feel So Young," then entered a section of Beatles music with the Lennon and McCartney song "Let It Be." "The Long and Winding Road" on McCartney's estate in the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland enticed them to trade phrases then sing close harmony to end the reflective melody. "For a While" was played as an instrumental, but Nolte spoke the lyric before they began. "For a while, I gaze at you/this is not what I expected/your eyes are reflected, in mine." They returned to the Beatles Sergeant Pepper LP to play McCartney's jaunty "When I'm 64."

The next collaboration between the two lady singers was a Streisand/ Garland piece in which they sang two different songs at the same time. "Happy days Are here Again" and "Forget your Troubles" may seem an unlikely musical and rhythmic pairing, but they made the songs challenge and flow, ending neatly together. "Sing"(Sing a song) was the opportunity for both guitar and drum solos to accompany Parrott's vocals.

They played out with a Blues, going to "Kansas City," here they come. This evening was a delight of sophisticated instrumental excellence, and vocal intricacy. The gentlemen did their rhythmic and solo work well, but it was the two ladies singing and playing together who celebrated their skill and their easy friendship in a smooth, precise and delicately inventive performance.

Photo crédit: Martin McFie

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

Hilton Head Island Concerts

More

Jazz article: Bark Culture At Solar Myth
Jazz article: Hingetown Jazz Festival 2025
Jazz article: Hayley Kavanagh Quartet At Scott's Jazz Club

Popular

Read Take Five with Pianist Irving Flores
Read Jazz em Agosto 2025
Read Bob Schlesinger at Dazzle
Read SFJAZZ Spring Concerts
Read Sunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
Read Vivian Buczek at Ladies' Jazz Festival

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.