Review: Denise Donatelli | Find A Heart
Singers come and go but vocalists are that rare breed who understand how to get inside the lyric and claim it as their own, regardless of the composer. The vocalist is a storyteller, a vehicle to transport you to faraway destinations that you may have nestled in the forgotten regions of your memory or have yet to be fortunate enough to visit. This is the voyage I book every time I sit down to listen to Denise Donatelli.
With her latest release, Find A Heart, Denise has compiled a cache of eleven compositions that speak To one of her favorite subjects… Love! She has the unique ability to discover rare gems that easily translate to jazz and she delivers each song with the fluidity of a seasoned concierge.
Denise surrounds herself with incomparable talent that is enviable to say the least. Her quartet is comprised of pianist and music director Geoffrey Keezer, drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith, bassist Carlitos Del Puerto, guitarist Leonardo Amuedo. Beyond this is her ability to know when less is more as with Not Like This and Day Dream where her voice is one instrument in the duet.
Like the innovators who challenged the status quo to evolve the music, Denise knows when to enlist the right voices to translate her vision for songs composed by Sting, Crosby, Ferrante and Beck, to name a few, that sit easily alongside Hampton, Mercer, Burke and Strayhorn in the Great American Songbook. As with Fagen’s Big Noise, New York she brought in the fiery tenor saxophone of Bob Sheppard only to offset the more gentle Love and Paris Rain with the mellow tones of Christine Jensen’s soprano.
She also knows when to bring in the sensuality of the Chris Botti trumpet and the lush strings of Alma Fernandes, Matt Funes, Darrin McCann and Giovanna Clayton to ease you through the exposé of my personal favorite Practical Arrangement. If that isn’t enough incentive for one to lend an ear, without any fanfare she pours out her heart to pen lyrics to Billy Child’s In This Moment.
One will notice that the arrangements equally invite the listener into the conversation between the musicians which compliments the listening experience. Each time you listen past her wonderful voice you will hear a nuance you did not notice in prior encounters. This is a key component to great musicianship and why she has been nominated once again for a Grammy.
Setting aside any prejudice one may think I harbor as a longtime fan and musical supporter, I take my listening seriously and there is no price on my musical enjoyment. Suffice it to say, I may not know where the journey will lead me but I am excitedly anticipatory of the beauty I will encounter. Denise Donatelli may not promise me the moon, but she always delivers the poetry of the stars.
carl anthony | notorious jazz | january 23, 2016
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Jerry Blake was born Jacinto Chabania on January 23, 1908 in Gary, Indiana and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. He began his musical education playing violin before switching to reeds.
In 1924 he toured with the Sells-Fioto Circus Band but was left stranded in Chicago. Making the best of the situation, he joined Al Wynn’s band, then played with Bobby Lee and Charlie Turner. He then toured Europe in 1928-29 as a member of Sam Wooding’s ensemble.
Back in the States in the 1930s Jerry played in the US with Chick Webb,Zack Whyte and Don Redman, then was off to Europe again with Willie Lewis from 1934 to 1935. After his return home he spent time performing with Claude Hopkins, Fletcher Henderson and Cab Calloway, acting as the latter’s musical director during his 1938-42 stint.
In the early 1940s Blake played with Count Basie, Earl Hines, Lionel Hampton and Redman again. Sometime around 1943 he had a mental breakdown and never played again for the rest of his life, most of which he spent in institutions. Alto saxophonist and clarinetist Jerry Blake, who never recorded as a leader, passed away on December 31, 1961.
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Michał Urbaniak was born on January 22, 1943 in Warsaw, Poland. He started his music education during high school and continued from 1961 in Warsaw in the violin class of Tadeusz Wronski. Learning to play the saxophone he first played in a Dixieland band, and later with Zbigniew Namyslowski and the Jazz Rockers, performing during the 1961 Jazz Jamboree festival.
The following year Michal played with Andrzej Trzaskowski band, The Wreckers, touring festivals and clubs in the USA in Newport, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington and New York City. A return to Poland saw him working with the Krzysztof Komeda Quintet from 1962 to 1964, touring Scandinavia and remaining to form his own band with Wojciech Karolak, that became starting point for the famous Michał Urbaniak Fusion.
Urbaniak returned to Poland and the violin, and created the self-named Michał Urbaniak Group, to which he invited, among others, vocalist Urszula Dudziak, pianist Adam Makowicz, bassist Pawel Jarzebski and on drums Czeslaw Bartowski. Their debut recording on the international scene was in 1970 with Parathyphus B, and during the Montreux ’71 festival, he was awarded “Grand Prix” for the Best Soloist and a scholarship to the Berklee Colege of Music, though he declined to attend.
He played his final concert in Poland in 1973 and emigrated with Urszula Dudziak to the United States, signed with Columbia Records, formed the band Fusion and released Super Constellation. His 1978 Urbanizer project fused rap, hip-hop and a R&B vocal quartet. By 1995 he was engaging a 60-piece full symphony with jazz group, rapper and Apple computer in concert and recorded both CD and DVD.
Over the course of his career he has performed and recorded with Steve Jordan, Marcus Miller, Kenny Kirkland, Tony Bun, Omar Hakim, Victor Bailey, Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, George Benson, Billy Cobham, Joe Zawinul, Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Buster Williams and Quincy Jones.
Violinist Michal Urbaniak played on the 1985 session of the Miles Davis Tutu album and in 2012 appeared in the Polish film My Father’s Bike. He hs recorded thirty-eight albums to date and continues to perform, record and compose.
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Shigeharu Mukai was born on January 21, 1949 in Nagoya, Japan. While attending Doshisha University he played trombone in the big band and won the 1970 Yamaha Light Music Contest. A move to Tokyo in 1971 saw Shigeharu career taking off in the bands of Yoshio Otomo, Fumio Itabashi, Ryo Kawasaki, Terumasa Hino, Sadao Watanabe and Yosuke Yamashita and along with Hiroshi Fukamarau, he led a band with two trombones.
In 1972 he formed his own band with which he won the Shinjuki Jazz Festival prize. Dissolving the group in 1977/78 he lived in New York City, afterwards he returned to Japan, leading various bands and working with Kazumi Watanabe, Naoya Matsuoka, Akira Sakata and again with Yosuke Yamashita. He went on to play with Elvn Jone and Billy Hart.
In 1982, he performed along with Astrud Gilberto on the album So & So: Mukai Meets Gilberto on the Denon label. He later founded the quartet Hot Session with Ryojiro Furusawa, Fumio Itabashi and Mitsuaki Furuno, and toured Japan in 1991-92.
In 1992 he released his debut album as a leader Better Day Of Shigeharu Mukai on the Japanese subsidiary label of Columbia Records along with several others by 1997. In 2004 he made the album Super 4 Records sensation, in which he created the illusion of a big band with a “horn section” of alto and tenor saxophone, trombone and trumpet.
Designated by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler as one of the most respected trombonist on the Japanese jazz scene, Shigeharu Mukai has won several critics’ prizes from 1975-1993 in reader surveys conducted by Japan’s Swing Journal. He continues to perform, record and tour also exhibiting his mastery of Latin, Brazilian and other ethnic rhythms.
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José James was born January 20, 1978 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has been referenced as a jazz singer for the hip-hop generation. Blending modern jazz and hip-hop, his influences come from John Coltrane, Marvin Gaye and his “musical mother” Billie Holiday.
José attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and in 2008 he released his debut album, The Dreamer, on the Brownswood label. Blackmagic followed in 2010 and the same year For All We Know came out on the Impulse label, winning both the Edison Award and L’Académie du Jazz Grand Prix for best Vocal Jazz Album of 2010. His styling on his early singles and in live performances borrowed from the soul jazz of Terry Callier and the crossover of Gil Scott-Heron to make his sound distinct.
2012 was the year James signed to Blue Note Records issuing Trouble, his first single for the label. His fourth album, No Beginning, No End, followed and he began composing while on the road, reflecting the music of Nirvana and Radiohead that he grew up with as well as newer artists like Frank Ocean and James Blake. This led him to a recording session for While You Were Sleeping, blending rock, R&B and jazz.
In commemoration of Billie Holiday’s 100th birthday, he recorded nine songs written or associated with Billie Holiday, titled Yesterday I Had The Blues and utilizing the talents of Jason Moran, John Patitucci and Eric Harland. To date he has six albums as a leader and seven collaborations with Junior Mance, Jef Neves, J.A.M., Kris Bowers and the Soil & Pimp Sessions. Vocalist José James continues to compose and perform, record and tour.
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