Jazz Articles about Patty Waters

Patty Waters: Sings

by Lyn Horton
April 4, 2009

The female voice is branded with certain qualifications which place it in slots of clear expectations. Patty Waters has a voice that links it to no other, despite recurring efforts from critics to do so. The 1965 release Sings is the first documentation of her as songstress, songwriter and improviser.

Waters' voice projects mood and sound. The first part of the recording is filled with her songs, each no more than three minutes. They run together as though verses of ...

Patty Waters: Sings

by Jerry D'Souza
March 26, 2009

The interpretation of words is an art and Patty Waters turned that art into a singular achievement on her first recording, Sings, originally released in 1965. The songs on that album, now reissued by ESP Disk, took on a plaintive air--wrapped in the whisper of her pain and belted out in a scream of anguish. She was as comfortable with a serene rendition of love as she was in the throws of anxiety and tension.

Waters was singing ...

Patty Waters: Sings

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 13, 2009

This legendary 1965 debut of Patty Waters, simply entitled Sings, is everything that it became famous for. Today, it's also clear how a recording such as this would have come to stand for the angst and anguish of a generation of musicians who were in the forefront of the avant-garde movement in jazz music. Using an organic combination of the human voice, its ability to reflect a myriad of human emotions and breathy spare lyricism, Waters is able to communicate ...

Patty Waters: Sings

by Trevor MacLaren
July 18, 2005

Patty Waters Sings ESP-Disk 1965

Independent labels like Bernard Stollmann's ESP-Disk lacked sufficient funds to lend much of a push behind their roster. Because of this fact, much of the label's talent has been neglected or left to a cult following. It seems hard to believe today--with a roster boasting artists like Paul Bley, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, hippie folk cult icons Pearls Before Swine, and The Fugs--that the label didn't become ...

Patty Waters: You Thrill Me: A Musical Odyssey 1960-1979

by Germein Linares
March 3, 2005

On several instances in this collection of previously unreleased material, Patty Waters appears so unexpected, so revealing, that hearing her feels like eavesdropping. Delicate, sensitive, and slightly melancholic, Waters sings of the off-center tones in love and life. Spanning 1960-79, You Thrill Me features many of Waters' solo ballads on piano, avoiding all of her more provocative free jazz excursions.

The collection begins with a light-hearted, jazzy jingle for Jax Beer, a now defunct New Orleans brewery. Though meant to ...