from The Seattle Times: Jennifer Scott is a musical alchemist, a singer with a gift for transforming songs often dismissed as pop dross into jazz gold.
Not that she makes a particular point out of dredging up Top 40 hits, but the Vancouver, B.C.-based Scott has set herself apart from the jazz-vocalist pack with her mesmerizing renditions of the most unlikely tunes.
“I’ve never been a jazz snob,” says Scott, who makes her Bake’s Place debut as a bandleader this weekend with her husband, bassist Rene Worst; pianist Randy Halberstadt; and drummer Mark Ivester. “I’ve always enjoyed all types of music. Pop tunes relate to a much broader base of people. I love ‘All the Things You Are’ and the beautifully crafted standards, but there’s other material that’s just as exciting.”
No song better exemplifies Scott’s fearless plunge into the back pages of the bubble-gum canon than her angst-ridden arrangement of Lesley Gore’s chart-topping 1963 lament “It’s My Party.” In Scott’s hands, the teenage tale of woe turns into a surprisingly taut musical melodrama, advanced by an insinuating bass line. She credits Worst with seeing the song’s potential, and doggedly campaigning for her to tackle it.
Not that she makes a particular point out of dredging up Top 40 hits, but the Vancouver, B.C.-based Scott has set herself apart from the jazz-vocalist pack with her mesmerizing renditions of the most unlikely tunes.
“I’ve never been a jazz snob,” says Scott, who makes her Bake’s Place debut as a bandleader this weekend with her husband, bassist Rene Worst; pianist Randy Halberstadt; and drummer Mark Ivester. “I’ve always enjoyed all types of music. Pop tunes relate to a much broader base of people. I love ‘All the Things You Are’ and the beautifully crafted standards, but there’s other material that’s just as exciting.”
No song better exemplifies Scott’s fearless plunge into the back pages of the bubble-gum canon than her angst-ridden arrangement of Lesley Gore’s chart-topping 1963 lament “It’s My Party.” In Scott’s hands, the teenage tale of woe turns into a surprisingly taut musical melodrama, advanced by an insinuating bass line. She credits Worst with seeing the song’s potential, and doggedly campaigning for her to tackle it.
