Australian-born Nicki Parrott emigrated to the USA in 1994 and after studying with Rufus Reid and Ray Brown she soon acquired a reputation in New York circles as a stellar, big-toned bass player. She has become even better known as a high-quality vocalist with an intimate delivery, perfect intonation and exquisite taste in material. She reminds me a little of Blossom Dearie and her Dear Blossom album is well worth tracking down.
She has revisited the older songbook repertoire on her 27 recordings so far and Black Coffee, which won the Golden Disc Award in 2010, is one I often return to. It has numbers you don’t hear every day, such as Don’t Smoke In Bed, Go Slow and Just One More Chance. In recent years she has found inspiration performing songs of a slightly newer vintage on her Carpenters Songbook, the Burt Bacharach Songbook and Great 70s albums.
This release with an all Australian personnel is a follow-up to If You Could Read My Mind and she opens with Paul Simon’s laid-back hymn to the 59th Street Bridge aka Feelin’ Groovy. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton sat alongside that bridge in one of the standout scenes from Allen’s 1979 masterpiece Manhattan.
Mas Que Nada finds Nicki singing in what sounds like authentic Portuguese. It was Sérgio Mendes’ first hit just after Herb Alpert’s wife Lani Hall had joined Brazil ’66. Todd Hardy (trumpet and flugelhorn), Shane Hannan (trombone) and Martha Baartz (tenor) help create a raunchy, foot-tapping groove on He Called Me Baby and These Boots Were Made For Walkin’. As an aside, West Coast bassist Chuck Berghofer played the bass on Boots, Nancy Sinatra’s big 1965 hit, including inventing its distinctive descending chromatic riff.
Ballads such as Everybody’s Talkin’ and the lovely Pure Imagination provide a welcome change of pace. Nicki’s sensitive reading of the latter is a delight.
Discography
(1) Feelin’ Groovy; He Called Me Baby; Everybody’s Talkin’; These Boots Are Made For Walkin’; (2) Mas Que Nada; (3) Catch The Wind; (1) Pure Imagination; (4) I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight; (5) If I Fell; (1) Up On The Roof; (4) Both Sides Now; (1) What The World Needs Now Is Love (52.08)
Nicki Parrott (b, v, x) with:
(1) Todd Hardy (t, flh); Shane Hannan (tb); Martha Baartz (ts, f); Steve Russell (p); Dave Sanders (d). New South Wales, Australia, August, September 2023. (2) as (1) add Nanny Assis (pc). (3) as (1) omit Hardy, Hannan Baartz; add Jim Kelly (elg). (4) as (3) omit Kelly. (5) as (4) omit Saunders.
Arbors Records ARCD 19490
