Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Nicole Yarling: Joe Williams Presents Nicole Yarling Liv...

167

Nicole Yarling: Joe Williams Presents Nicole Yarling Live at Manchester Craftsmen

By

View read count
Nicole Yarling: Joe Williams Presents Nicole Yarling Live at Manchester Craftsmen
Sponsored and released by Manchester Craftsmen's Guild of Pittsburgh, PA, this CD records a live concert by vocalist/violinist Nicole Yarling at the Guild's Hall. Introduced by the late and sorely missed Joe Williams, Ms Yarling presents a mixed program of traditional popular material, two of her own originals and some straight-ahead standards by the likes of Miles Davis, Eddie Harris and George Shearing -all with mixed results. One gets a preview of coming attractions with the first cut where"The Best Things in Life Are Free" kicks off with a scatting sequence rather than with straight lyrics. It turns out that a significant portion of this album is Yarling doing wordless vocalizing in one form or another. From straight wordless vocalizing, to Leon Thomas-type yodeling on "Freedom Jazz Dance" to outright screeching on "Conception," all the scatting bases are touched. After a while, one yearns to hear a few words. There's also a good deal of attention given to syllable stretching to the point that it sounds artificial. Instead of creating the appropriate emotion, it ends up with heavy-handed renditions accompanied by a good deal of shouting. Yarling shows she can sing in a relaxed, straight forward manner on "Blame It on My Youth" and "That Old Black Magic." On the former she is backed by some excellent guitar of Henry Johnson. Also on the former, Joe Williams comes on stage and joins in for a couple of choruses. Judging from the applause, the audience was obviously happy to see him. Although the album features a prominent photo of Ms Yarling playing the violin, she takes out the fiddle only on two occasions, one of them with a swinging backing of Joe Williams on his own "Who She Do." The session ends with a couple of very nice bonus cuts by Williams.

To this point, most of Ms Yarling's success as a performer has come when she was with pop, rock, country performer Jimmy Buffett before moving to jazz. Based on this album, she needs to work on developing a distinctive, consistent way of delivering and interpreting material usually associated with jazz singers. Certainly, she needs to reduce her reliance on scatting. She's got the tools; they just need to be mastered.

Track Listing

The Best Things in Life Are Free; The Way You Love Me; Dig; We'll all Be Free; My One and Only Love; That Old Black Magic; I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings; Freedom Jazz Dance; Conception; Love for Sale; Blame It on My Youth; Who She Do; Imagination; After You've Gone.

Personnel

Nicole Yarling: Vocals, Violin; Henry Johnson: Guitar; David Siegel: Piano; Jeff Grubbs: Bass; John Yarling: Drums; Joe Williams: Vocals.

Album information

Title: Joe Williams Presents Nicole Yarling Live at Manchester Craftsmen | Year Released: 1999 | Record Label: MCG Jazz

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.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

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.