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Jeanne Lee


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Just listening to Jeanne Lee "Natural affinities" cd on the Owl label.

Made me realize that most of todays crop of so called new jazz singers sound like pop singers.

I don't want to hear the "song books" again unless it is done really differently. or better than Ella, Billie, or Sarah.

I want to hear something new, different, some creativity, some jazz.

I did not reach the age of nostalgia yet.

your views would be interesting

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Very simply, one of the msot creative and sensual vocalists in this idiom I've ever had the pleasure to hear. THE NEWEST SOUND AROUND is a classic, desert-island, 5-star, necessary purchase, callitwhatchawanna disc, for sure, but you can't go wrong with any of shrugs' recommendations. Her duets with David Eyges (electric cello) -- HERE AND NOW -- are lesser-known, but also stunning. You can hear her in the company of Shelia Jordan, a rather intriguing experience, on this recording:

d911732m9s4.jpg

Marcello Melis, FREE TO DANCE

IMHO, I used to think Lee was never documented to an extent commensurate with either her talent -- not just as a singer, but as a composer and poet -- or her influence on a whole subsequent generation of creative music vocalists. But the following discography shows there's a lot of Jeanne Lee out there to hear:

http://users.rcn.com/eye/jeannelee.html

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  • 2 weeks later...

A few weeks ago I picked a CD called "Music for Ebbe" (dedicated to Ebbe Traberg and released by Producciones El Delirio), recorded live at San Sebastián Jazz Festival 1997, featuring Spanish saxophonist and flutist Jorge Pardo, altoist Gary Bartz, Jeanne Lee and the Repertory Quartet.

It´s a great one, with Lee making wonderful renditions of Swing low sweet chariot and Blue Monk.

Ed013-2.jpg

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The Newest Sound Around is the only Lee album I have, but I'd have to go with Joe's remarks about it. Unusually moving singing. The intonation of Sarah Vaughn, something of the approach and phrasing of Betty Carter, and the relative purity of sound of Ella Fitzgerald. This is part of what I hear in Ms. Lee's singing. Oof. It's too much.

Available for $11.99 right here. You almost can't afford not to have it.

(Edit nearly eight years later: new jpeg of cover, plus Dusty no longer is carrying this title.)

post-282-0-70321100-1300298196_thumb.jpg

Edited by Late
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  • 4 weeks later...

lee_jeannel_newestsou_101b.jpg

This is the only Lee album I have, but I'd have to go with Joe's remarks about it. Unusually moving singing. The intonation of Sarah Vaughn, something of the approach and phrasing of Betty Carter, and the relative purity of sound of Ella Fitzgerald. This is part of what I hear in Ms. Lee's singing. Oof. It's too much.

Available for $11.99 right here. You almost can't afford not to have it.

None of her other albums surpass what you got.

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lee_jeannel_newestsou_101b.jpg

This is the only Lee album I have, but I'd have to go with Joe's remarks about it. Unusually moving singing. The intonation of Sarah Vaughn, something of the approach and phrasing of Betty Carter, and the relative purity of sound of Ella Fitzgerald. This is part of what I hear in Ms. Lee's singing. Oof. It's too much.

Available for $11.99 right here. You almost can't afford not to have it.

Just purchased it. I've been reading about Jeanne Lee here and there for too long. I must know! Thanks for the link. Impulse shopping is a bitch. ;)

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I recall being entranced some 30 years ago by Lee's contribution to vibraphonist-composer Gunter Hampel's "The 8th of July 1969," with a band that included Antony Braxton, Willem Breuker, Arjen Gortner, and Steve McCall. According to the 5th Edition of the Penguin Guide, it is (or was) out on CD on the Birth label.

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Just found a copy of "After Hours". Really looking forward to checking this one out.

I know everybody recommends "Newest sound around"

Myself I love every single Jeanne Lee and "After hours" is most probably her most accessible recording, she sings standards and it sets "Standards" for all

want to be jazz singers.

Mal Waldron is just the perfect accompanist, give support but also knows when

to leave spaces. Spaces are as important as the notes themselves.

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Gunther Hampel shows up on Natural Affinities, and there's a piece by Wadada Leo Smith from one of his larger compositions. This is a creative recording, with many different ensembles and instrumentations. Her reading from Mingus autobiography on Mingus Meditations adds another wrinkle to the dramatic potential of her voice. Perhaps many of you heard this when it was on Owl the first time, but I missed it and am enjoying it for the first time on the "new" Sunnyside/Owl cd.

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Gunther Hampel shows up on Natural Affinities, and there's a piece by Wadada Leo Smith from one of his larger compositions. This is a creative recording, with many different ensembles and instrumentations. Her reading from Mingus autobiography on Mingus Meditations adds another wrinkle to the dramatic potential of her voice. Perhaps many of you heard this when it was on Owl the first time, but I missed it and am enjoying it for the first time on the "new" Sunnyside/Owl cd.

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  • 2 months later...

Found "Natural Affinities" (1992) at Amoeba today. Amazed to discover this piece called "Bushwhacked". How contemporary!

It's the old shell game

You don't see what you thought you'd see

The peace dividend is

used to fight one more war

Since the next generation

is on all the front lines

I wonder who the war is for

and the makers of war

reap the profits from peace

so its business as usual

for the corporate elite

While sensation

titilation

entertains the entire nation

Government by fait accompli

undermines personal autonomy

has official double-speak

ambushed our sense of reality

Where's the informed citizenry

so vital to democracy?

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  • 10 months later...

Still haven't come around to check out any of the discs mentioned here except for the two Owls. Have had the Waldron duos for some time and love it immensely. Recently I got "Natural Affinities", and I'm not really sure how much I like it. I see the creativity, the ideas and all, but somehow that disc doesn't just "click". Maybe that's not what it's about, though. I love the Mingus thing, for sure, and I'll listen to it again.

ubu

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Ubu, I'm not a vocal jazz fan, but her recording with Mal Waldron is really something you have to listen to.

Uh, Bently, my complicated sentences might have done it again... I have that one ("After Hours") and rank it easily among the five top modern jazz vocal discs I've heard! Don't have the Ran Blake disc, though, nor any of the others mentioned here.

And I do agree on one account: I'm a vocal fan (or rather: turning into one more and more, an ongoing process), but this album seems to be appealing to people who *hate* jazz vocals!

ubu

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Ubu, I'm not a vocal jazz fan, but her recording with Mal Waldron is really something you have to listen to.

I am also not a fan of jazz with vocals, but the disc Nuba, with Lee, Andrew Cyrille and Jimmy Lyons is wonderful! As I posted elsewhere, this might be some of the most lyrical playing I have heard from Lyons and Cyrille spends most of his time playing some fantastic percussion, very influenced by African tribal music, imo. Jeanne Lee really fits in well. I enjoyed her vocals a lot more than I expected to. Very highly recommended

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Ubu, I'm not a vocal jazz fan, but her recording with Mal Waldron is really something you have to listen to.

I am also not a fan of jazz with vocals, but the disc Nuba, with Lee, Andrew Cyrille and Jimmy Lyons is wonderful! As I posted elsewhere, this might be some of the most lyrical playing I have heard from Lyons and Cyrille spends most of his time playing some fantastic percussion, very influenced by African tribal music, imo. Jeanne Lee really fits in well. I enjoyed her vocals a lot more than I expected to. Very highly recommended

That's on "the list"...

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Very simply, one of the most creative and sensual vocalists in this idiom I've ever had the pleasure to hear.

Couldn't say it better. The way she moved on stage was enough to mesmerize you. Some reincarnated African Queen. Such a warm and beautiful, and yes, sensual voice. I feel grateful I saw - and heard - her perform.

Edited by mikeweil
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