JAZZ VOCALIST SAMARA JOY'S VOICE COVERS AUDIENCE LIKE A WARM BLANKET AT CLIFF BELL'S

Vocalist Samara Joy

JazzTimes magazine scribe Veronica M. Johnson turned me on to the jazz vocalist Samara Joy, noting she's the embodiment of Ella Fitzgerald. That's an attention-grabbing declaration. At 22, Joy is building quite a name for herself, having won the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington Competition, and dropped her self-titled debut in July. Lately, the Brooklyn native has toured nationally with guitarist Pasquale Grasso's trio. After hearing Joy with the trio Sunday night at Cliff Bell's in downtown Detroit, I must second Johnson's declaration. The Fitzgerald likeness slapped me in the back of the head when Joy performed duets with bassist Ari Roland and Keith Balla, the core of Grasso's trio. Listening to the duets' intimacy reminded me of Ella and Oscar, Fitzgerald's 1976 collaboration with pianist Oscar Peterson. It was Joy's inaugural performance in Detroit. The set seemed unnecessarily long, but she had the near-capacity audience enthralled for the entire journey. She possesses an abundance of stage presence and a veteran performer's understanding of building camaraderie with an audience. She literally had the guy seated behind me so worked up. He was cheering and carrying on as if courtside at a Detroit Piston's home game. Joy opened the set by jokingly showing off a black faux fur cape she purchased at a boutique in the Eastern Market. Then she sang Like Someone in Love, dedicating it to the late Barry Harris, one of her mentors. A renovated version of Stardust and If You Never Fall in Love with Me followed. Her voice on ballads landed on the audience like a warm cashmere blanket. The highlights were plentiful. My favorites were the duet with Grasso on But Beautiful, and her retooling of I'm Confessing That I Love You. If Ella Fitzgerald had a great-great-granddaughter who had chops, chances are she'd sound like Joy and have her magnetism. 

 

THE ORRIN EVANS TRIO OPENS A THREE-NIGHT ENGAGEMENT AT CLIFF BELL’S WITH VERVE AND PANACHE

Pianist Orrin Evans

I'm not sure if the jazz pianist Orrin Evans would take kindly to me believing he's unsung. The Philadelphia native belongs to a generation of jazz musicians that includes Christian McBride, Cyrus Chestnut, Joshua Redman, Jason Moran, James Carter, and Roy Hargrove. From where I sit, Evans deserves the same level of praise heaped on his peers. His track record is worth bragging about. For starters, he has 22 albums on the market, two Grammy nods, and a Downbeat Critics Poll Risings Star honor. I thought about the unsung thing Thursday night during his first of three scheduled concerts at Cliff Bell's with bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr. They performed cuts from some of Evans's popular albums, opening with the standard All the Things You Are, followed by Smoke Rings. Burning through those numbers was just the beginning of the special night Evans had planned. The trio is the best context to witness Evans's genius and virtuosity. He didn't perform any of his originals. Instead, he called Ralph Peterson, Geri Allen, and Andrew Hill tunes. The trio played their compositions with verve and panache. The set felt like a tribute to those departed musicians. Hurst and Whitfield Jr. aren't Evans's regular band-mates, but they jelled perfectly. It was Hurst's first time playing with Evans. Their chemistry felt like they'd been on the road together for years. Hurst is a blessing to every band I've heard him swing in. Thursday evening, he walked the bass to the moon and back on every tune on the set-list. Whitfield Jr. received the lion's share of adulation from the audience. His drumkit was gasping for air after the workout he subjected it to on Ralph Peterson's Smoke Rings and Geri Allen's Feed the Fire. Like Peterson was, Whitfield is a drummer brimming with passion and fire. Evans turned the zoom lens on himself on the ballad OEM (Orrin Evans Maybe). His touch was soft as snowflakes landing on bales of cotton. It's worth braving the December cold to experience Evan's trio.

 

MIKE MONFORD & DETROIT EFFERVESCENCE BRINGS BACK TO LIFE 'WE INSIST! -MAX ROACH'S FREEDOM NOW SUITE' AT THE FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE! SERIES

 

Saxophonist Mike Monford

Jazz saxophonist Mike Monford’s group Detroit Effervescence presentation of Max Roach’s We Insist!-Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite was a rare concert experience where every waking moment was breathtaking. Monford’s group brought the suite back to life and paid tribute to three Detroit jazz legends the late Kenn Cox, Donald Walden, and Roy Brooks. Monford, an unsung master swinger and a selfless leader on the Detroit jazz scene, pulled off the ambitious undertaking with a goosebump-inducing, all-star group comprised of music director Vincent Chandler, Marion Hayden, Pam Wise, Dwight Adams, Marcus Elliot, Tariq Gardner, Akunda Hollis, Mahindi Mausi, and Naima Shambourger. The 90-minutes concert was another installment of the Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series and was meticulously executed. Before diving headfirst into the suite, the group opened with Monford’s Ja Ja and Kenn Cox’s Mandela’s Muse, after which the vocalist Naima Shambourger joined in and pushed the set into the stratosphere, one of her signature gifts. She has participated in or led plenty of memorable projects such as Me & Sarah: A Tribute to Sarah Vaughan, the homage to the acclaimed pianist Geri Allen titled Lifetime: Tribute to Geri Allen with Detroit Young Jazz Giants, and the hippest concert—in my opinion—of 2020 Sister Strings: Roots, Voice, & Drums. Well, Shambourger was a crowd-favorite again, singing Driva Man, Freedom Day, and Triptych: Prayer, Protest, Peace with such unadulterated pizzaz Abbey Lincoln-- the featured vocalist on the Freedom Now Suite, who had one of the more unique voices in jazz-- would’ve been a bit envious of Shamborguer. Another standout was Tariq Gardner, who has grown from a young lion to a complete and in-demand jazz drummer. He was the perfect complement to Shamborguer. Throughout the concert, his drumming channeled the ghost of Max Roach. And as expected, Marcus Elliot’s and Dwight Adams’s solos were spotless. Monford deserves a bearhug for Detroit Effervescence’s skillful handling of Roach’s landmark work.