Mary
Foster Conklin (vocals); John DiMartino (piano); Ed Howard (bass); Shinnosuke
Takahashi (drums); Joel Frahm (sop and ten sax); Warren Vache (cornet); Paul
Meyers (guitar); Nanny
Assis (percussion); Houston Person (ten sax on For No One)
(Review by Ann Alex)
New
Jersey native Mary Foster Conklin has appeared in theatres, jazz clubs and
cabarets in the New York area and throughout the USA and Canada. Photographs, her fourth CD, is the
culmination of more than 30 years of performing. Each tune is said to be a musical snapshot of
where she is as an artist today. The tunes include 5 songs from the legendary Fran
Landesman, with their slightly bitter yet tender lyrics and lesser performed
songs such as Autumn Serenade.
The
voice is a rich alto and the instrumentalists are on top form, especially the
bass, yet I was a bit disappointed with the CD as a whole. I felt that the cabaret style of singing was
rather too prominent on some tracks, which left an overall impression of the
songs being too ‘worked’, and in fact sounding like hard work. I much preferred the faster numbers such as
the Latin influenced Cinnamon and Clove,
which zings along easily with lively contributions from the percussion, or Landesman’s
Nothing Like You, with its effective
tenor solo, and the advice for living in the lyrics of Long As You’re Living.
The
other Fran Lindesman tracks, which may have been more suited to a cabaret bar,
were: Spring Can Really Hang You Up The
Most; Small day Tomorrow: Photographs; and The Winds Of Heaven
It
was good to hear an honest to goodness standard in the shape of Moonglow; the more unusual material included Night in the City (Joni Mitchell); Key Largo; For No One (Lennon/McCartney)
and Nightsong.
The
CD was released on February 2, 2016 on Mock Turtle Music, catalogue
# MT00221.
Ann Alex.
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