Natalie Cole leaves jazz behind

[jazzbo]

Yes, her mom sang for a brief period with Ellington. In fact, though no relation, before she married Nat she was Marie Ellington.

[JSngry]

And as MAria cole, she recorded an album for Capitol after Nat's death.

Natalie broke on Capitol as well, so let's not be naive about the "family connection" thing. It's a business, and you use what you got.

Apparently nobody told Freddy, but look at what that got him...

[sheldonm]

Does anyone even know of her outside of her "duet" with her late father?

I think Al's question may have been "tongue-in-cheek" as most if not all of us know who Natalie is......but the jazz singer part is a stretch! Not sure anyone has confused her with a jazz singer.

m~

[Ken Dryden]

I was well aware of Natalie Cole's career outside of jazz prior to my post. I am unimpressed with her work

as a jazz vocalist, period.

[JSngry]

Well see, that's the funny part right there - nobody with any sense is really thinking of her was a "jazz" singer. That's a marketing ploy, and if you bought into it, even to be offended by the notion, you're a sucker. Natalie herself talks a lot about making "jazz records", but I don't know that she's seriously considering herself a "jazz singer". If she is, she's a sucker too.

What she is is a damn good singer, period. And what she's been doing, and doing rather well, I think (even though, again, it's relevancy to my lifestyle is vitually nonexistent), is making records that are a throwback to the "adult pop" of yore. Jazz is in the mix, maybe even be the primary esthetic, but it's still pop. I myself have absolutely no problem with that if for no other reason than the results have mostly been good adult pop, and I'd much rather have good adult pop than bullshit adult pop.

I hate to see people blinded by marketing bullshit at the expense of taking music on its own terms. If you listen to a Natalie Cole records of the last few years through the expectational prism of"jazz", well, yeah, it's pretty lame (but then again, so are most of the supposedly jazz records being released). But forget about jazz (an increasingly easy proposition these days) - what you got is a singer with good chops singing good songs with good arrangements and good players. Nothing deep about it, but nothing wrong either. Buttloads of shit like that getting made like that today (as always), and it all comes down to how good the singer is, and how well they handle the material in the context they're put in.

I'll take Natalie Cole over Krall, Monheidt, Caryn Allison, Lorraine Feather, damn near all of today's crop, simply because she's a much better singer. All the criticism (whining is more like it..) I hear of her from the Jazz Cave is that "it's not really jazz". Well DUH. I don't hear anybody say that her phrasing is bad, or that her pitch is bad, or that her range is limited, or that her voice is thin, or that she mangles the words. I don't hear that because you can't say it unless your ears are full of the Jazz Hate.

Much to my surprise, I'll even take her over Gladys Knight's recent Verve "jazz"album. No way that Natalie is a better singer than Gladys, but damned if Natalie doesn't fit into the material & context better than does Gladys.

"Jazz"? Yeah - who's a real female jazz singer today that's either not older than 60-something or waaaay uinderground or tied to some sort of "image nostalgia"? Gimme some names that won't make me laugh.

This type of jazz is pretty much dead & has been for quite some time. It's all pop now. It's just being marketed as jazz. Wake up & smell the formaldehyde.

[Lazaro Vega]

"Jazz"? Yeah - who's a real female jazz singer today that's either not older than 60-something or waaaay uinderground or tied to some sort of "image nostalgia"? Gimme some names that won't make me laugh.

Roberta Gambarini. Benny Carter brought her along. She sings Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins' solos from Dizzy's version of "Sunny Side of the Steet." That, to me, isn't nostalgia -- she appears to be involved in music.

The idea that Natalie made quality jazz influenced pop records is right on the money.

[marcello]

"Jazz"? Yeah - who's a real female jazz singer today that's either not older than 60-something or waaaay uinderground or tied to some sort of "image nostalgia"? Gimme some names that won't make me laugh.

Roberta Gambarini. Benny Carter brought her along. She sings Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins' solos from Dizzy's version of "Sunny Side of the Steet." That, to me, isn't nostalgia -- she appears to be involved in music.

There aren't many but Dena DeRose is one; Fay Claassen is another.

Ms. Gambarini doesn't do it for me.

Edited November 3, 2006 by marcello

[paul secor]

Can't really see all of the fuss being made over Natalie Cole. She's certainly competent, perhaps better than many at what she does, but, in the end, no big deal - at least to my ears.

The current state of jazz vocalizing, which Jim brought to the fore, is a more interesting subject. I'm not that well versed on jazz vocalists, current or past, but I know that others are, and I hope they'll comment -on either this or another thread.

[BruceH]

"Natalie Cole leaves jazz behind..."??

No great loss.