2 hours ago
9
When the US-raised French-Haitian singer Cécile McLorin Salvant played Ronnie Scott’s for the first time as a 25-year-old in 2014, the awestruck atmosphere recognised a young multilingual jazz artist of rare gifts – but it was soon apparent that her sublime technical skill as a singer wasn’t the half of it.
Salvant had all the jazz tools: coolly hip timing, improv quick-wittedness, the crystalline sonic clarity of her early model, Sarah Vaughan. But she could also conjure up a dream world of her own that listeners would willingly follow her into. Her new album, Oh Snap, is a set of 12 originals and one cover that she created on her own over four years, before adding her band. She experimented for the first time with computer-generated sounds to draw on grungy pop and intimate folk music and expand on the classical-vocal education and extensive jazz input she acquired while living in France in the 2000s. Salvant says her enthusiasms as a visual artist also liberated her for this adventurous step-change.
The opening I Am a Volcano is a diaphanous vocal that builds intensity against a drum loop, while Anything But Now – themed around procrastination – is a breezy jazz swinger featuring freewheeling pianist Sullivan Fortner. Take This Stone, featuring Salvant’s folksy harmonising with favourite fellow singers June McDoom and Kate Davis, is a standout – as is What Does Blue Mean to You, a brushes-cushioned, quietly conversational and then starkly soul-wailing epiphany inspired by Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The meditative, pandemic-induced Expanse, the playful Auto-Tuned electro-pop of A Little Bit More and the skipping, scampering synth-hooked title track all show how ingeniously and fearlessly this remarkable artist can reinvent herself.
Also out this month
Distant geography and other ventures have periodically silenced 2009 Mercury nominees Led Bib, the unique UK band led by expat American drummer Mark Holub – but Hotel Pupik (Cuneiform) returns to strip the lineup down to just two saxes, bass and drums, and recaptures much of their original directness in the tracks such as the polyrhythmic, raw Iron Ore, and the ensemble spontaneity of the long, hypnotically bass-thundering title track. American bass star Christian McBride reconvenes his acclaimed big band for the star-packed Without Further Ado Vol 1 (Mack Avenue), hitching the outfit’s terrific scores to guest performances by Sting and Andy Summers, Dianne Reeves and Samara Joy. And on She Looks Up at the Trees (JAM String Collective), all-female UK violin/viola/cello trio the JAM String Collective bring old-school violin swing into the 21st century with their sinuously entwined ensemble inventiveness, succinct solo breaks and cruising grooves; trombonist/composer Rosie Turton and grime MC Kayes Mensah guest.
