Bryant is 94 years young and this is her 14th album. Singer, pianist, composer, arranger she's the real deal.
Back in 1987, a Betty Bryant Day was declared in Kansas City - a place that, over the years, has never been short of jazz icons and this album provides justification for the honour.
Blues, ballads and originals roll easily from both her tongue and her fingers. Caressing the words, suggesting meanings that maybe even the composers themselves didn't know were there. Part blues, part cabaret but all jazz. Think Lena Horne or Pearl Bailey and you're getting close. Blues to Get Started, an instrumental track, was possibly inspired by her mentor, another Kansas City piano legend, Jay McShann.
Kansas City, of course, was also noted for it's tenor saxophonists and Robert Kyle is true to that tradition - cooler than Herschel Evans but hotter than Lester Young. He also plays flute, co-arranges a couple and blows some bluesy harmonica back of the vocal on the hilarious half spoken, half sung Chicken Wings. I guarantee that after this track you'll be on the phone to your local fast food outlet ordering a bucketful!
The album's one of those gems that you almost dismiss from an ageism point of view until you remember that Tony Bennett made it into his '90s and Sheila Jordan is still going strong at 95. As the saying goes, age is only a number. Lance
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea; Put a Lid on it*; Baby Baby All the Time; Blues to Get Started*; Chicken Wings*; Stormy Monday; Katydid*; The Very Thought of You; A Lot of Livin' to Do.
*Originals.
No comments :
Post a Comment