Featuring a title track that interprets the Cy Coleman and David Zippel City of Angels song, this project represents Salvant’s first full-scale orchestral venture, brought to fruition alongside the Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest under the direction of conductor Jules Buckley.
Recorded in December last year at a studio in Hilversum the really interesting arrangements are by adventurous Canadian composer and big band leader Darcy James Argue. The choices revolve around a wide-ranging repertoire of theatrical and jazz classics.
Salvant’s voice is magnificent – she is one of my favourite jazz singers and I think the approach followed here suits her well. I much prefer it to last year’s Oh Snap.
I like the treatment of Kurt Weill’s ‘Barbara Song’ and take on Sondheim’s ‘Being Alive’ best. But all the tracks work.
Born 36 years ago in Miami to a French mother and a Haitian father, her early musical trajectory was split between classical voice and jazz. Before winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010, she studied baroque opera and classical French chanson in Aix-en-Provence. This formal training certainly gave CMcLS a distinctive vocal control and a highly developed sense of dramatic interpretation. While many jazz vocalists approach orchestral albums as an exercise in safe nostalgia, Salvant utilises her classical discipline to treat the orchestra as an active dramatic foil, interpreting lyrics with the precision of a stage performer. She is great at making the vintage seem relevant in a modern world without being arch about it or trying to reinvent the wheel.
I have only seen her live once and it was a great 2015 gig at Ronnie Scott’s when Laurence Leathers was still in her band. Sadly the drummer was killed in a domestic violence incident in 2019.
This new album expands upon the intense emotional intimacy she established on her 2018 duo album The Window, also recorded with Sullivan Fortner, her pianist here. By stepping away from the digital production of her previous release and into the historic studios of the Netherlands, Salvant has made a far better choice steeping herself in material that suits her down to the ground. Rating: **** recommended
