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Lisa Sokolov: Presence
ByThe title piece is an original multitracked singing experience that sucks you in like a cyclone and then hurtles and lifts you higher and higher as the vocals envelop. Sokolov is adept at seizing upon what might otherwise be unnoticed aspects of a melody or lyric and artfully improvising upon them through stylistic and verbal free association creating compelling new compositions. William Parker’s “Hopefully” is turned into a powerful a capella vocal excursion whose religious fervor resurrects Janis Joplin, while the jazz/blues underpinnings of “Chain of Fools” are exposed in a stripped down piano trio arrangement.
Both “Home on the Range” and “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” become vehicles to pensively uplift, as Sokolov dovetails “Rise and Shine” into the latter and flavors the former with a modicum of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies.” Cole Porter’s “You Do Something to Me” is a bass/vocal repartee with quickly shifting rhythms that has bassist Cameron Brown keeping up with Sokolov’s scat calisthenics. Pianist John DiMartino is also able to meet the demands of Sokolov’s stylistic deviations. He plays “out” on freer cuts like “Hard Being Human,” provides a classical/jazz feel to “For All We Know,” and contributes the appropriate speed-demon piano to “When I Die.” Sokolov wonderfully personalizes that Laura Nyro chestnut by adding to it a mother’s awe at the birth of her child that then transitions to a version of the traditional “Rock My Soul.” Being in the Presence of Lisa Sokolov will alter your conception of a female jazz vocalist.
Track Listing
Presence, Hopefully, Oh, What a Beautiful Morning, You Do SOmething to Me, Chain of Fools, Hard Being Human, Sons of, Water Lilies, And When I Die, As it Is, For All We Know, Home on the Range
Personnel
Lisa Sokolov
vocalsLisa Sokolov (vocals, keyboards, composer), John DiMartino (piano), Cameron Brown (bass), Gerry Hemingway (drums)
Album information
Title: Presence | Year Released: 2004 | Record Label: Unknown label
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