By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Out of My Dreams
Months
have passed since I’ve been able to review a truly excellent female vocalist,
and even longer since I found somebody backed up by equally excellent musicians.
Well, today’s the day.
Joanne
Tatham is the main attraction, and she’s supported by primo artists such as
pianists Tamir Hendelmen and Jamieson Trotter; bassists John Clayton and Lyman
Medeiros; guitarist Marcel Carmargo; saxman Bob Sheppard; and drummers Peter
Erskine and Mike Shapiro. The combo sizes, depending on the track, range from simply
the guitarist to trios and quartets.
Tatham
is new to me, but not to New York or Los Angeles; this is her third album. She
began her career as a Broadway musical comedy performer, then moved to L.A. Her
voice is simultaneously lush and swinging; every note is precisely on key, and
her transitions from one note to the next are soft and swinging.
As
one example, in the opening chorus of “You Taught My Heart to Swing,” she joins
the instrumental line so perfectly that it takes several seconds to realize her
voice is part of the phrasing. And wow, what a voice!
I’m
also impressed by Tatham’s set list. These aren’t tunes commonly associated
with the Great American Songbook, but much of them still sounds familiar ...
not surprising, considering her Broadway background.
Example
include Harry Nilsson’s “Without Him (Her)”; Bob Dorough’s “Devil May Care”; Herbie
Hancock’s “Tell Me a Bedtime Story,” also heard on TV’s “Fat Albert”; the jazz
standard “Detour Ahead”; “Cool,” from “West Side Story”; and the title tune,
from the musical “Oklahoma!” They’re all marvelous.
This
is a stunning album. I’m eager for more, and I hope that Tatham will be blessed
once again with a similarly talented cadre of musicians.
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