Deborah Silver: Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!

Basie Rocks! A great idea? One best left on the cutting-room floor? Or perhaps a little of both? There are reasonable arguments to be made on all sides of the equation. On the one hand, this is the one and only Count Basie Orchestra, swinging in its own exceptional way. On the other, the orchestra has joined forces on every number with Mississippi-bred pop-rock singer Deborah Silver, the latest in a series of acclaimed guest vocalists that includes Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Marlena Shaw and Diane Schuur, among others—not to mention such resident vocalists as Jimmy Rushing, Joe Williams, Carmen Bradford and Dennis Rowland.

With that in mind, any appraisal of Basie Rocks! must begin with Silver, who interprets every song well enough and abides by the Basie doctrine. But she is no Fitzgerald, Sinatra, Vaughan or Bennett. Not even close. Decent voice, good range, excellent timing, sings on- key—Silver seems to check all the boxes. And yet something vital is missing: the sort of unique persona and charm that set Fitzgerald, Sinatra and others apart from the herd. Subtract Basie and she sounds like too many other wannabe headliners in today's nebulous and watered-down version of what it means to be a jazz singer. That is to say, long on technique, short on singularity.

That is not meant to imply that Silver is not good; she definitely is that. She simply suffers by comparison to the others named here— which may be an unfair yardstick by which to measure a performance, but one that any potential listener should find proper and useful. On Basie Rocks!, Silver has an impressive arsenal at her disposal: aside from the celebrated orchestra and its leader-trumpet soloist Scotty Barnhart, there are guest appearances by trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, guitarists Peter Frampton and Bill Frisell, drummer Steve Jordan, bassist John Clayton, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, and vocal duets with Kurt Elling, Wycliffe Gordon and Trombone Shorty.

While the album's playlist embraces classic songs, they are pop/rock emblems, not jazz, by the likes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, The Beatles, Three Dog Night, Steve Miller Band, Sting and Joe Walsh, among others. Silver should be right at home here, as indeed she is, giving each of them a smooth and pleasant ride. The opinion here is that although Basie Rocks! may not have been a great idea, it was no less than a good one, and Silver, the orchestra and invited guests give it their very best shot.

Comments