Articles by Suzanne Lorge
Jay Clayton’s ScatLab—A Vocal Jazz Workout
by Suzanne Lorge
For the last decade, free-bop vocalist Jay Clayton has been conducting regular “scat labs" out of the Manhattan teaching space that she shares with NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan. In ScatLab, jazz singers of all levels of experience meet up to trade twos and fours, riff on traditional blues heads, and improvise on well-known songbook tunes. The purpose here is to practice spontaneous composition in a safe space, away from the microphone and the audience. So if a singer trips ...
Continue ReadingAnwar Robinson: From American Idol To United Palace
by Suzanne Lorge
Anwar Robinson has the kind of voice that could stop traffic--rich, soulful, and reverberant. Beyond his innately spectacular instrument, Anwar is well-schooled in just about all vocal styles--jazz, blues, R&B, pop, musical theater, spirituals. So it's no wonder that in 2004, he moved quickly into the winners' circle on the fourth season of American Idol, one of the most popular shows in television history. What's surprising is his return to community-based service after reaching such a personal and professional peak. ...
Continue ReadingOn Stage at JALC: Paul Jost
by Suzanne Lorge
Paul Jost had already enjoyed a successful, decades-long career as a drummer, sideman, and leader when he decided to work solely as a jazz vocalist. Switching from player to vocalist mid-course is not a typical career path for a musician. But Jost's quick rise as a singer over the last six years--he sang at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola for the first time just a few weeks ago--is a testament to his innate talent, his precision as a musician, and his ...
Continue ReadingLauren Lee: On Being Uncool
by Suzanne Lorge
Lauren Lee is one of a new breed of singer-songwriter. She has all the bona fides of a traditional jazz singer and pianist, but she needs to do things her own way. As a singer and composer, she gives her imprimatur to cross-cultural experimentation and off-the-beaten-track forms of vocal expression, never straying far from the post-bop mother ship. All About Jazz: Since you released your first album of jazz originals, The Consciousness Test, in 2016, your profile as ...
Continue ReadingHelle Henning: Nordic Sounds
by Suzanne Lorge
If you're watching the latest Disney film in Copenhagen, you're most likely listening to singer Helle Henning. Helle not only sings the character overdubs for big animated film imports in her native Denmark, but she conducts the ensemble singers on these sessions. She also teaches jazz at one of Denmark's foremost music conservatories and recently released a pedagogical big band recording in Danish to teach American jazz to primary school children. In addition to her studio singing and teaching, Helle ...
Continue ReadingThe Dazzling Alexis Cole
by Suzanne Lorge
Jazz singer Alexis Cole's career has been anything but conventional. She's done residencies in far-flung places like Ecuador, India, and Japan. She fronted the Army's big band for several years as a soldier herself. And now she's a faculty member in the jazz program at SUNY Purchase. With a dozen critically acclaimed albums under her belt, some big awards on her shelf, and more good stuff to come, Alexis distinguishes herself a leader in the ever-evolving world of vocal jazz. ...
Continue ReadingDara Tucker: Seeds of the Divine
by Suzanne Lorge
Rising jazz star Dara Tucker has added three new trophies to a rapidly growing lineup of awards. At this year's Nashville Industry Music Awards (NIMAs) she won Best Jazz Vocalist, Best Jazz Album, and Song of the Year for her April release, Oklahoma Rain (Watchman Music). These three awards follow closely on the heels of her second-place win at the American Traditions Competition in Savannah, Georgia, this past February. And in 2016, not only did she win her first NIMA ...
Continue ReadingThe Oster Welker Jazz Alliance: Shining Hour
by Suzanne Lorge
San-Francisco-based Jeff Oster has one of those happy-sounding voices that make you feel happy, too. Even a depressing kind of song like “Sophisticated Lady" leaves the impression that, after all of that “smoking-drinking-never-thinking-of-tomorrow" stuff, everything will turn out okay. But it isn't until Oster scats that you really submit to his affable sound and just want to be BJFF (best jazz friends forever). Oster is no newcomer to vocal jazz, but he's not yet received the kind ...
Continue ReadingMark Murphy: Inside the Mystery
by Suzanne Lorge
Beyond its stylistic differentiators, jazz contains what vocalist Mark Murphy calls “a wonderful mystery," a mystery that was fostered in small, regional clubs around the US during the '30s-40s, when Murphy was developing the distinctive vocal style that launched his decades-long career. “I've seen this mysterious quality of jazz set rooms on fire," Murphy attests. “[Rooms] where nothing was going on until the band shuffled up and this musical rhythmic thing would happen right there on the spot." ...
Continue ReadingTessa Souter: Nights of Key Largo
by Suzanne Lorge
Tessa Souter excels at creating mood and on her new CD, Nights of Key Largo, that mood is one of a relaxed intimacy: She never strains to emote, never pushes a note, never rushes a phrase. Her material--13 songs about moonlight, sand and romance--lends itself to this kind of laid-back treatment, reminding the listener that there is more to life than hurrying to be somewhere, with the stressful soundtrack that accompanies such a feverish lifestyle playing in one's head.
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