La Tanya Hall: Say Yes

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La Tanya Hall

Say Yes

(Blue Canoe Records)

June 8, 2020

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Jazz vocalist La Tanya Hall offers up a delicious mix of jazz and Broadway standards, with quite a few surprises thrown in, for an immensely satisfying recording. Despite the positive title of the CD, Say Yes, there is a great deal of moody, introspective work here. However, the first track, “All You Need to Say” (Nat Adderley), is very close to serving as a title track. It offers a swinging bright arrangement that features the diva’s outstanding trio of Andy Milne on piano (he also produced the album and supplied the musical arrangements), John Herbert on bass, and Clarence Penn on drums, as well as “guest artist” Michael Leonhart on trumpet.

“Because I Told You So” (Jonatha Brooke) is a far moodier study in shifting tones and moods with Hall keeping pace with the broken lines and enhancing the emotional hesitation of the lyrics, which describe an uncertain lover. A major surprise is the treatment of “Poor Butterfly,” a song more than a century old; it could easily slide into parody or camp but here is given an empathetic delivery without comment or excessive ornamentation. The instrumental treatment of the number is also gentle and reflects the emotions expressed by the song.

“Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” dates from the great days of American operetta and somewhat inexplicably has been transformed into a jazz standard over the years, shedding all its original trappings to become a masculine blues song. Here it’s given a fresh approach, falling between the two styles, as Hall shapes the song around the original Oscar Hammerstein lyrics, embracing their meaning while letting her voice play across a chiefly bass accompaniment supporting the Sigmund Romberg melody.

Cole Porter’s heart-wrenching “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” is given a lovely, dramatically restrained, interpretation. The more spritely “Well You Needn’t” (Thelonious Monk) is given a pure jazz delivery, with Hall getting a chance to show off some scatting skills as well as her light touch on the lyrics.

A few tracks are a bit more problematic: Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz” is given a loose, swinging interpretation that allows the singer to be sultry and the musicians to have fun riffing, but there is not the least suggestion of the dance form named in the title. The final selection of the album, Joni Mitchell’s “Fiddle and the Drum,” which was certainly given a loosely structured delivery by its singer/songwriter, here is so formless as to move from song to performance piece, albeit in a deeply felt interpretation by Hall. It might have been better placed within the playlist as opposed to at its end.

The album packaging has been given an impressive look by Christopher Drukker and Bill Westmoreland, with a stunning photo of the beautiful vocalist and an elegant choice of typeface for the interior information. Despite its occasional slips, this is indeed a terrific jazz collection worth repeated explorations.

Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Nobel, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."