Collaboration Magic and the Beauty of Jazz
One benefit of retirement, obviously, is time flexibility. Sailing on two consecutive one-week cruises while working full time would have been unlikely, but that’s just what we did in January. First there was The Jazz Cruise (TJC) and then it was Blue Note At Sea (BNAS).
Each was run by Jazz Cruises, LLC, formerly Entertainment Cruise Productions, out of St. Louis and headed by Michael Lazaroff. The company also does two other cruises devoted to smooth Jazz, but the company’s history started with the first Jazz Cruise put together by Mr. Lazaroff’s mother, Anita Berry, in 2001.
Among the two cruises’ dozens of highlights were two concerts, one from each cruise, with a special commonality making them irresistible: collaboration magic with phenomenal pianist Sullivan Fortner accompanying an extraordinary vocalist.
Sullivan was scheduled to appear with Cecile McLorin Salvant on BNAS, which was one very good reason to book that cruise. In a similarly great reason to book, Dee Dee Bridgewater was bringing a working band with her for TJC the week before. When something came up to prevent Carmen Staaf from taking the piano with Dee Dee’s band, the call went out to Fortner to come aboard a week early. Now, that was a perfect phone call.
Dee Dee
It seems there is only one vocalist to attain the following trifecta: win a Grammy (three, actually), win a Tony, and become a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master. In truth, these are but three of a long list of accolades for Dee Dee Bridgewater. More impressive than the number of her achievements and awards, though, is their breadth. At 72, Dee Dee remains in her lengthy prime, a force of nature.
Known primarily as a Jazz singer, Bridgewater has also had successful forays into pop, R&B, acting, and philanthropy. In short, she does well and does good in virtually anything she undertakes. As a result, anyone about to see Dee Dee Bridgewater can be sure a treat is in store, with little idea what treat it will be. As a headliner on 2018’s Blue Note At Sea, for example, she did a concert of songs associated with her birthplace, from her 2017 album Memphis…Yes, I’m Ready.
Moments into her concert on this year’s Jazz Cruise, after thanking Fortner for taking the gig on such short notice, Dee Dee announced that she would be doing an entire set of Billie Holiday.
For many singers, this could be problematic. Taking on the music of the inimitable icon tempts lesser talents to make one of two mistakes: either try to imitate Lady Day or ignore her altogether in doing lame versions of her stuff. Adding to the potential for trouble was the timing: the show was just a few hours after the ship set sail on day 1, and immediately after the big Welcome Concert in which headliners participated. Bridgewater and Fortner may not have had a chance to say “hello”, much less rehearse.
This being a savvy crowd, however, there were no muffled groans, but rather murmured excitement, coming from the audience. Many undoubtedly were aware of Bridgewater’s celebrated portrayals of Billie in Lady Day in 1987 and 2014 and her 2010 Grammy for Eleonora Fagan: To Billie With Love. Sure enough, those lucky enough to be there soon witnessed the special magic that only Jazz can provide.
The Concert
Dee Dee did what masters do. She was her gifted self, but captured the spirit of Billie – wisdom drawn from painful experience, joy where salvageable, and the essence of the blues regardless of song form – without delving into imitation.
Thus, the evoking of a revered influence inspired Dee Dee to be a special version of herself. Any young musicians in attendance, and not just singers, could hardly miss the point; this is how the art form evolves and grows. Meanwhile, there was transcendent piano accompaniment, from the first note through the last. Drawing on his unique combination of virtuosity, taste, and command of Jazz piano history from Harlem stride through swing, bop and beyond, Fortner had something better than perfect at every turn.
By “perfect” here we mean standard classy comping, flawlessly executed. Sullivan went beyond that. The expected was nowhere to be heard. Whether weaving lines underneath the vocals, punctuating with phrases or individual notes, or soloing at Dee Dee’s nodded invitation, Fortner delivered sublime creations. They were better than the expected because they enhanced what a superb singer was creating, right there and then.
None of this was showing off. Everything was in service to the music, to the song in the moment, and to what Dee Dee was achieving – musically and emotionally. It wasn’t long before the two of them were luxuriating in each other’s brilliance, instantly and seamlessly responding to fresh ideas. It is in this rarefied air that real magic happens. In the one-hour set there were moments that took listeners’ breath away, from the understated hurt/anger of “Don’t Explain” to the ironic humor praising those stripes that are really yellow in “Fine and Mellow”.
Cecile
There is an exciting wave of remarkably gifted young (20s through mid-30s) singers making their mark in the music these days. Among those wowing audiences and listeners all over are Jazzmeia Horn, Veronica Swift, and Samara Joy (who lived up to her last name on this year’s Jazz Cruise). Leading the way, arguably, is Cecile McLorin Salvant.
Eclecticism comes naturally to Cecile. Born in Miami into both French and Haitian heritage, she studied classical piano and voice starting very young. Her household featured all genres of music. Extensive formal study in both France and the US included a move to Darius Milhaud Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence at age 18. Cecile was 21 when she won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for vocalists. Her second album, WomanChild, was Jazz Album of the Year in the 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll; it’s been a steady stream of critical acclaim for Salvant ever since.
Hers is a rare instrument, a voice with rich lows and ethereal highs. This tempts comparisons to Sarah and Ella, but her harmonic risk-taking brings to mind my favorite vocal explorer, Betty Carter. The thrill of seeing Carter had much to do with her use of dissonance, unexpected key shifts and other devices that left the listener wondering, “How is she ever going to get out of this one?” Then she would resolve everything brilliantly, of course; you imagined her winking at you.
When Cecile takes on a standard, she probes aspects seldom previously explored. Her other two sources of material, generally, are her own compositions and obscure songs from every realm, especially show tunes and folk songs from anywhere. If she launches into something unfamiliar, an initial impression from esoteric, dated or quirky lyrics can be that the piece’s obscurity was well earned. It isn’t long, however, before Salvant injects pain, humor, wisdom, irony, or other slices of humanity with an unexpected phrasing, bent note, or key change. Wonder quickly replaces skepticism for the listener paying attention.
Taking In the Set
Cecile does not so much sing a song as become its protagonist. She inhabits a song while performing it. Perhaps that’s why her interludes between selections can be a bit longer, and her exchanges with Fortner more substantive, than typically heard between singer and accompanist. She’s coming down from one role and taking on another.
Theirs was a true collaboration, as it always is, with exchanges both playful and knowing. One gets the feeling that Cecile and Sullivan take sly joy in proposing to each other songs to perform. Once one of them starts, however, they’re all business in creating something special with the piece.
There is something else that makes Salvant and Fortner an intriguing pairing. Each of them is on the artistic journey of discerning exactly what to do with their prodigious talents and how to utilize their limitless resources. Delights await those who search the Internet for their two names together. Imagine what’s to come.
Sullivan
Then there’s hearing Sullivan Fortner when he’s not accompanying, but leading, at the piano – whether alone, in a larger group, or leading a trio. We did, several times between the two cruises. Tellingly, so did a number of other pianists. One of the pleasures of being on a Jazz cruise is seeing the kick great musicians get out of listening to each other, as many of them do.
When Sullivan was playing in one of the ship’s venues, it seemed any pianist on board not playing elsewhere was there. The delight on their faces validated what I was feeling, and reflected an artist’s appreciation more profound than anything I could muster. (At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuUUoMsRXTU, one can see him leading a trio in concert.)
In the pantheon of history’s pianists, one who does not always appear as high up on the lists as he deserves is Jaki Byard (1922-1999). One of the joys of seeing or hearing Byard was the command he had of virtually everything that had preceded him on the instrument right through the current cutting edge. Byard employed just about all of it on many of his wondrous solos with the great band Charles Mingus brought to Europe in 1964 (Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, Johnny Coles, Byard, Mingus and Dannie Richmond). See in particular the versions of the masterpiece “Meditations on Integration” available from that tour. At only 36, Fortner seems intent on bringing similar mastery through the 21st Century.
How does one so young acquire such musical resources? An interview of Fortner by another astounding young pianist on both cruises, Emmet Cohen, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MTzH0QffiU) provides a hint, starting around the 19-minute mark. In going over Fortner’s musical upbringing in the church, Cohen has Fortner tell the story of how as a kid, he’d be handed a cassette of a new piece, listen to it once and “have it”. He had it not just for that day’s service but for years to come, and not just the piano part but what the altos and tenors in the choir were singing.
Emmet Cohen describes realizing “Wow, this is a different kind of mind that Sullivan has, to be able to channel everything he’s ever heard into something he can express through his fingers…this guy thinks differently than anyone I’ve ever encountered.”
Indeed.
Appreciation
Generational talents of different generations (Dee Dee and Sullivan) and the same (Cecile and Sullivan) collaborated to create something truly special. In our two weeks of jazz cruising, they were hardly alone. It was, like Jazz itself, an embarrassment of riches, from and for all generations.
Recall a time when you had a really good idea, nobody squashed it, you brought it to fruition, and it worked. How did that feel?
Somewhere, right now, an unknown fourteen (or thirty, or seventy) year-old is working on something exciting that peers and even teachers may consider wrong, silly or crazy. Maybe that idea changes everything. Maybe the idea is in a setting other than music.
Happy Jazz Appreciation Month. What we celebrate is the music, of course, but it’s also the daring to be creative, to be open to all that is possible as human beings.
Ken Bossong
© 2023 Kenneth J. Bossong