Kelley Suttenfield (vocals); Tosh Sheridan (guitars,
backng vocals, arrangement, production); Matthew Fries (piano, Fender Rhodes); Phil
Palombi (bass); Eric Halvorson (drums, percussion); Derek Ratzenboeck (violin);
Vincent Lionti (viola); David Calhoun (cello).
(Review by Ann Alex).
Yet another woman singer doing something out of the
ordinary, bravely reimagining the songs of Neil Young as jazz. A regular on the
New York jazz scene and around the East Coast, Suttenfield has performed at the
Iridium and Jazz at Kitano, at Ronnie
Scott's in London and also toured Europe. This is her third album and her band
includes Tosh Sheridan, guitarist and graduate of Berklee College of Music and
the rhythm trio 718. I found the bass player of this outfit particularly good. The
line-up is completed by the Memling Ensemble String Trio on 5 of the 11 tracks.
An exquisite rendering of Harvest Moon, airy
cymbals and light drums give an ethereal sound which is definitely jazz,
skilled bass, with improvising solos from piano and guitar. The Needle and the
Damage Done, a powerful song about drug-taking, is a really interesting
version, with strong bass, haunting guitar, clanking drum effects to set the
scene and a rise in tension towards the end of the track. However I found the
strings a bit too romantic-sounding for the subject in hand.
The Losing End is
a real swinger; Love Is A Rose, which concerns the thorny parts of love,
is done appropriately with funky guitar; Down By The River is a
countryish version of the standard folk song about drowning your beloved; and Barefoot
Floors, which was never actually released by Young, is a charming song
written for a child, with suitably relaxing, laid back guitar. The rest of the
tracks are: Heart of Gold; Only Love Can Break Your Heart; Flying on the
Ground; Fool for Your Love; Old Man.
The CD is very enjoyable and successfully transfers
Young's music from rock to jazz, which made me wonder if our standard genre
divisions are really of any use. If the songs had been firstly treated as jazz
and we'd never heard them sung by Young, would we have liked the music any
less? I love Young's voice, which has a
very pleasing haunting tone with a certain tense quality which adds meaning to
the lyrics, and this is what I missed from the CD. But comparisons are
difficult and I enjoyed the CD for its own merits.
The album is currently available in stores and online.
See www.kelleysuttenfield.com
and also Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, using the artist’s name.
Ann Alex
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