Finger-Songwriter

Jeremy Siskind is a young pianist/composer with degrees in music from Eastman and an MA in Literature, now turning heads on the New York jazz scene. Tessa Souter, a former journalist, was already 40 when she moved to New York and launched an acclaimed career as an inventive vocalist. This month, both musicians have released recordings uniquely merging songwriting, voice, and jazz ensemble.

On Finger Songwriter (BJU Records), Siskind adapts existing texts from poetry and prose into new lyrics supported by his original compositions; he enlists New York newbie Nancy Harms to give voice to these works, with additional support from young saxophonist Lucas Pino. On Beyond the Blue (Motema Records), Souter takes compositions from classical repertoire and (mostly) creates new lyrics for her own voice, enlisting a veteran jazz ensemble headed by pianist Steve Kuhn to reinvent Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy, Schubert and more. Both projects are immensely satisfying compositionally, musically, and conceptually.

Jeremy Siskind, Finger-Songwriter (2012, BJU Records)

Jeremy Siskind Trio (Siskind, Harms, Pino)

A major source of inspiration was British vocalist/lyricist Norma Winstone and specifically her work with pianists John Taylor and Fred Hersch, the ensemble Azimuth, and her recent recordings with European saxophonist Klaus Gesing and pianist Glauco Venier, the latter providing the blueprint for Siskind’s trio here. Notes Jeremy, he was moved by “the warmth of the sound, the intimacy of the setting, and the emotional power of a lyric delivered against a subtly morphing acoustic backdrop.” Hence his choice of collaborators for Finger Songwriter – young vocalist Nancy Harms, a recent transplant to NY from Minnesota, who “has an intense, focused, and captivating way of delivering a lyric” and a “beautiful, dark tone that’s perfect for the music,” and young saxophonist Lucas Pino for his “warm, deep and heartfelt tone reminiscent of Stan Getz… and phrasing similar to Joe Lovano.” As for the album title, Siskind explains that “it suggests that performer and composer/confessor are conflated into a single being, permitting emotional openness in ways that don’t always happen in jazz.” And although he is not a vocalist himself, Siskind notes that “I’m still a composer/performer and I’ve shaped the whole process of each song’s interpretation.”

Several highlights of the project as a whole are Siskind’s lyrical, delicate compositions and deft touch on the keyboard; Harms’ charm as a storyteller and subtle shadings that evoke a voice somewhere between Gretchen Parlato and Norma Winstone with an authentic layer of Midwestern innocence; and Pino’s earthy tone and human-voice phrasing that, in tandem with Harms, creates a duo of human expression, a duo of horns. The set begins with the wistful “One Art” (for Elizabeth Bishop); “Vanished Music, Twill Water” (for Seamus Heaney) intertwines voice and horn such that at times they are indistinguishable, both Harms and Pino navigating wide intervals with delicate ease over Siskind’s crystalline musings over dark chords and “gathering stars.” Harms delivery here is one of the high points of the set, so horn-like, so human. The adaption of Kerouac’s On the Road, “What Is That Feeling?” features a subdued conversation between voice and piano, Pino’s insertions adding points of energy and debate that evolve into a bop-inspired commentary. Harms is haunting in her a capella intro to “A Single Moment” (for Lisa Hannigan), Pino echoing her phrases on clarinet. It’s almost a hymn, but initially more restrained, over the track Siskind builds momentum that finally resolves in a final voiced plea.

A pair of short tracks, “Mirrors I” and “Mirrors II” (for J.L. Borges) pair Harms airy phrases with Pino’s bass clarinet, a combination that could easily stand on its own but finds lacey support from Siskind’s keyboard crystals. The “Mirrors” tracks bookend a gorgeously dreary, aptly titled piano interlude, “More Mist Than Moon” (for Wallace Stevens), saxophone coming in briefly before Siskind’s tinkling fade out, and the clever elastic lyrics of “Swift-Winged Darkness” (for Vlaidmir Nabokov), clearly and assuredly delivered by Harms (“I wonder if I should give you one last poison kiss?”), while Pino’s bass clarinet dances in a counterpoint bridge with piano. On the classically informed “Aubade” (for Paul Auster), Harms in her higher register suggests a wide-ranging Parlato against Pino’s bass clarinet; Pino, himself a serious storyteller, mines more beauty and melodicism than seemingly possible from the unwieldy woodwind as Siskind envelopes the track in a Chopin-meets-Ellington rhapsody.

But it isn’t all dark. “The Inevitable Letdown” (for Steven Millhauser) is almost a throwback to the heyday of swing and stride, Siskind showing an affinity for 20s and 30s embellishments while Harms meets the emotional uplift with a touch of sass; Pino similarly delivers a swaying, swooping break. “Theme for a Sunrise” (for H.W. Longfellow), “singing and bright,” capitalizes on Harms’ sunny mid-register and lithe delivery, much like Pino’s clarinet, dancing across the horizon as morning breaks, hopefully. Ultimately the three voices converge as joyful “birds in flight,” in the triumph of a new day. And by now, reaching the finale, “All You Wanna Do Is Dance,” Harms and Pino on bass clarinet starting Billy Joel’s gem in duo (somewhat akin to Harms’ Double Bass/Double Voice project), with Siskind adding his swinging countermelody.

 All you wanna do is hit the replay button.

Beyond the Blue

Tessa Souter, Beyond the Blue (2012, Motema Records)

Born in London to English and Trinidadian parents, Souter overcame the challenges of teen motherhood, moving to San Francisco in the early 1990s to establish a career as a journalist covering travel, celebrities, the city’s homeless and more for major media outlets. Yet she had long yearned to be singer, ultimately landing a scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music at age 40. She didn’t stay long, opting instead for four years of study with vocal legend Mark Murphy. Melding American jazz with flamenco, Brazilian, Indian and Middle Eastern music, her first three recordings received considerable attention--Listen Love (Nara, 2005), Nights of Key Largo (Venus, 2008), which won Swing Journal’s Gold Disc Review, and Obsession (Motema, 2010). The latter included two Souter originals.

While these recordings particularly highlighted Souter’s clear articulation, resonant contralto, and haunting phrasing, Beyond the Blue puts her talents as lyricist front and center, as well as her interest in the relationship between European classical music and “American vernacular.” And aside from the historic tradition of American icons like Ella and Sarah and the Modern Jazz Quartet putting jazz spins on the likes of Debussy and Rachmaninoff, here Tessa Souter seems to follow an inevitable melding of her own multi-cultural influences in setting English lyrics to European classical works in the context of a jazz ensemble featuring an A-Team of the Steve Kuhn Trio with bassist David Finck, drummer Billy Drummond, and adding additional voices from saxophonist Joel Frahm, vibraphonist Joe Locke, and accordionist Gary Versace. Tessa wrote the lyrics to nine of the pieces (all but one specifically for this project), drawing on existing words for three more. And despite the source material, the recording was completed in the true spirit of jazz, lyrics finished at the last minute, most arrangements spontaneously created in the studio, and no rehearsal. And the result – one wonders, what if these classical composers had the opportunity to hear jazz and to work with artists like Tessa Souter?

Tessa Souter©Andrea Canter

The tracks with existing lyrics include Mitchell Parish’s take on Ravel’s “Pavane,” now the standard “The Lamp Is Low,” with Tessa lingering over each word, Kuhn sitting out to allow the vibes full leadership; Larry Clinton’s adaptation of Debussy’s “Reverie,” another strong vehicle for Frahm and showcase for Tessa’s clarion phrasing; and the popular “Baubles, Bangles and Beads” from Borodin’s String Quartet in D, another romp for Kuhn with extra sparkle from Finck. And with Souter, there is no such thing as a “standard,” each interpretation as new as those shiny beads, as if these really are new words.

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