Long established internationally as a front-rank jazz singer, Tierney Sutton has sung with small groups and big bands, won many awards, and has also worked in jazz education, at one time as head of the Jazz Vocal Department at the University of Southern California.
Sutton’s considerable talent is admirably displayed on this, her 15th album, where she teams up with her husband, the guitarist Serge Merlaud. The repertoire drawn from stage musicals, the Great American Songbook, films and the musical wealth of Brazil.
The songs include Vernon Duke & Yip Harburg’s April In Paris (blended seamlessly with Joni Mitchell’s Free Man In Paris), George & Ira Gershwin’s Isn’t It A Pity (with Merlaud as the featured instrumental soloist), Alan & Marilyn Bergman’s I Knew I Loved You (coupled effectively with Ennio Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso) and Cole Porter’s You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To (featuring a solo from flautist Hubert Laws, with whom the singer wordlessly harmonises).
From a more recent generation of songwriters come Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley’s Pure Imagination and Sting’s August Winds, on which Kevin Axt, who is supportive throughout, has a solo moment. Other notable instrumental solos include Merlaud on Antônio Carlos Jobim’s Zingaro, on which Laws is also featured; the flautist is also prominent on Thad Jones & Alec Wilder’s A Child Is Born.
On some songs, Sutton sings passages without words and is wordless throughout Antônio Almeida & Dorival Caymmi’s Doralice and Sérgio Mendes’s Chorado.
Although some of these songs are familiar, others are lesser known as the singer maintains her long-held liking for exploring new melodies and lyrics. Throughout, Sutton brings mature and worldly understanding to her interpretations of the lyrics, and her vocal sound, with its slight and appealing vibrato, remains engagingly fresh and her diction clear. This album will appeal not only to lovers of top-quality jazz singing but also to all who like to hear good songs sung well.
Discography
Triste; April In Paris / Free Man In Paris; Zingaro; Isn’t It A Pity; Beautiful Love; Cinema Paradiso / I Knew I Loved You; Moonlight; Pure Imagination; A Child Is Born; Doralice; August Winds; You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To; Chorado (69.03)
Sutton (v); Serge Merlaud (g); Hubert Laws (f); Kevin Axt (b). Glendale, California, 10 & 11 March 2021.
BFM Jazz
