Cynthia Felton, Sings the Nancy Wilson Classics, Save Your Love for Me

There are singers in the jazz realm who create artistry with whatever they have. Then there are those who simply have it all--the vocal instrument in all of its beauty and finesse--and start from a place in some ways already there. The second kind of singer is Cynthia Felton. She has come out with a number of albums that show us how good she is. And now the same with the latest. In the new volume she sings songs made classic by Nancy Wilson, but puts her own instrument into it. That album is Save Your Love for Me (Felton Entertainment 0004).

I suppose it is fitting that this album was recorded in Capitol Studies, where if I am not mistaken Nancy did much of her tracking. The instrumentation is from small to middle-sized, with the emphasis on a jazz orientation. There are too many to name here, but they all do exactly what they need to do to set off Ms. Felton's fine voice.

The repertoire is both American Songbook gems and some others less typical but worthwhile. So "I Wish You Love" is on the agenda, but also Wes Montgomery's waltz-time "West Coast Blues," with lyrics by Sascha Burlan. Nancy did this one in 1963 but Cynthia nails it, too. Ms. Felton has the feel for the blues as much as she can do a sophisticated ballad. Like Nancy. But like Cynthia, really.

Cynthia has soul, a projection of her considerable vocal ravish with phrasings that are never less than impeccable. She adds and subtracts notes here and there with the sureness of the major jazz vocalist she is. And it always works.

I am hardly going out on a limb to say that she is an indispensable member of the vocal elite today. This album is yet another feather in her considerable cap. It's a great one to start with if you don't already know the voice. And it is a wonderful confirmation of her talent, something that hangs just right in its instrumental frame. Get this and you'll hear it!

Virginie Teychene, Bright and Sweet

A singer who has it all? Nobody has it all. But there are those that are close. Virginie Teychene, and her Bright and Sweet (Jazz Village) CD, has a whole lot of all. It's a small combo of worth backing up one real, full-blown JAZZ VOCALIST. There is no mistaking, whether in be a standard or something less known, what she brings to the mix.

A great instrument that has velvet silkiness and power when she needs it, intonation exactitude in a pretty big way, nuance and control, phrasing brilliance, melisma, scat, intervallic sharpshooting.

A singer this good, she must be heard. Well I am not a DJ so I can't put the music in front of you. She can swing, she can wistfully dwell on balladic thoughts and phrases.

No she is not Betty Carter or Sarah Vaughan. Who is? But there is something musical there, very much so, and so there is some relation to the invention of Betty and the pitchy-sass of Sarah. That's why I like her. In part. Great!

Deborah Latz, Fig Tree

I've never been anything less than honest on these blog pages and I am not about to stop that. Truth is, your own mood and the music you hear do not always mesh. The first thing a fellow like me must do is recognize that there are times when a CD can be very good, even excellent, yet expresses a mood that is miles away from your own. That is the case with vocalist Deborah Latz and her new CD Fig Tree (June Moon Productions 3 0304).

She's good. Very good. She is backed by a solid, small jazz group. The problem is with me right now. Her music is pretty darned happy and I am currently pretty darned hapless. So honestly, when she sings "nothing but blue skies from now on," along with "S'Wonderful," "I'm Having A Good Time," and these joyous sorts of songs, as well as she does them, I have a thought-phrase in my head, remembering Shakespeare, namely "Sirrah, you mock me!"

It's not all joy there, though, there is also "Ill Wind." But it's high spirited much of the time. What I must do is put my mood aside, and I've been doing my best in that wise this week as I've been hearing the disk.

It is not her fault if my mood is grim. She has a marvelous instrument and she uses it to give you nuanced vocal performances of the highest sort. She is less a swinger than a proclaimer, a chanteuse, a declamatory jazz artist. And what she does is singular, hers. I don't like it right now because my life doesn't match the mood. But I like it anyway because I recognize she is very good.

So there you have it. A real singer!!