Mary Foster Conklin
These Precious Days
(Mock Turtle Music)
December 29, 2022
Reviewed by Alix Cohen
Mary Foster Conklin has a voice that unfurls like a wide roll
of satin ribbon, which is the way Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson’s “Summertime”
arrives. It’s a splendid use of Sara Caswell and her fine violin begins here
and occurs throughout the CD. The piano of John Di Martino’s beckons; he’s responsible for the arrangements.
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On “Some Cats Know” (Jerry Lieber/Mike Stoller) her vocal raises an eyebrow and shrugs. It’s cool, measured, insouciant. Her sense of movement is sheer Fosse. Impeccable phrasing and inflection imbue the song with attitude. The familiar “Just a Little Lovin’” (Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil) stretches languidly like a cat. Light is soft, piano music dappled, vocal smooooth, airbrushed.
“Come In from the Rain” (Melissa Manchester/Carole Bayer Sager) is tamped down from the usual expansive pop treatment; the lyrics are spaced like deep breaths. Guilherme Monteiro’s subtle guitar, Ed Howard’s shadowy bowed bass, and Samuel Toreres’ rhythmic, muffled percussion create atmosphere. The strings are wistful. Conklin sounds vulnerable, hopeful. The song ends in with a wary urging.
Unfamiliar to me, “Scars” (Simon Wallace/Fran Landesman) has a poetic lyric here partly recited, partly sung in an effort for drama. The performance seems monotone despite or in part because of the elegiac piano.
Always ready to samba, Di Martino’s arrangement of “Just for Now” (Andre and Dory Previn) uses percussion as vertebrae with the violin adding strokes of color. “Lahuve me not forever/Just for now,” Conklin sings jaded, willing. The piano emerges braided with the violin.
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Until It’s Time for You to Go” is a jazz rendition of a melancholy song. In my opinion there’s a bit too much artful arrangement in the background distracting us from somber meaning. “September Song” (Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson) is blanketed with elegant sentiment. Di Martino’s piano ambles unwilling to move forward. Ghosts are glimpsed. The bowed bass feels personal. The song is rife with feeling.
