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"Eventually, in order to find out if you really have what it takes, you have to go to the center, and that's New York...you can only do so much in your hometown." - Sonny Fortune |
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 Wednesday, 07 January 2009 |
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Wrap Yourself in “A Blanket of Blue,” Courtesy of Paula Lammers |
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Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor
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Tuesday, 07 February 2006 |
“I don't have any desire to sing a
song that I don't have the life experience or emotional connection with
which to be able to sell it to an audience. Singing is intimately
connected to the spirit, and that is where it is at for me.” –Paula
Lammers
Twin Cities’ vocalist Paula Lammers has spent five years aboard the
Minnesota Zephyr in Stillwater, singing standards, growing an audience,
and wondering where her musical journey would take her. With the recent
release of A Blanket of Blue
(Nightingale Jazz), the destination seems clearly focused on the
presentation of great songs reflecting a personal “longing for
connection,” sung with clear conviction and exemplary musicianship.
Attracted to the songs she heard on her parents’ records as child,
Paula found music to be her connection to school and community,
ultimately majoring in music at Gustavous Adolphous College and earning
a master’s in vocal performance (opera) at the University of Minnesota.
After concentrating on teaching at the high school and college level,
Paula found herself pulled back into performing as part of the Zephyr
Cabaret. It was a tug that wouldn’t let go.
For her CD debut, Paula “wanted to set a mood for this recording while
still having a variety of sounds to keep the listener interested.” Thus
she organized a playlist that ranges from standards such as “I Thought
About You” and “Honeysuckle Rose” to Brazilian classics (“Gentle Rain,”
“Meditation”) to the seldom heard “Moon and I” and her own composition,
“Goodbye…Again.” But she says it was “dumb luck” that she was able to
merge her talents with some of the best instrumentalists of the Twin
Cities. Working with audio producer Darren Rust, Paula was connected to
bassist/arranger/producer Billy Peterson, and soon she had a dream team
to support her music—Peter Schimke on piano and Fender Rhodes, guitarist Clay Moore,
sax/harmonica veteran Gary Berg, drummer Kenny Horst, and of course
Peterson on bass. “They are all fabulous human beings who make the most
incredible music,” notes Lammers.
Incredible music, indeed. Lammer’s “easy-to-listen-to” soprano has a
warm tone, crisp articulation, true pitch, and not a hint of shrill in
her top notes. If any comparison is valid, perhaps it’s with Jane
Monheit, less theatrical but in the same vein of gentle persuasion,
warmly charming, lighting the tracks less with fire and more with
glowing embers. Frequently Paula stretches the vowel, giving the music
a silken legato that makes the occasional clipped phrase more
effective. The sound quality from Winterland Studios (engineered by
Brian Johnson and Darren Rust, mixed by Rust), is clean, every
instrument so well articulated with the intimacy of live performance
that at times I started to applaud a solo. And while Blanket of Blue was recently named to the Top Ten list for 2005 by Smooth Jazz and More, this is "smooth" only in the quality of the voice; this is not "Jazz Lite."
A Blanket of Blue opens with the Mercer/Van Heusen classic, “I Thought
About You,” “in tribute to my gig on the Minnesota Zephyr, where I got
the performing bug 5 years ago, and where this musical and personal
journey, so to speak, began for me,” says Lammers. The tune gets a big
lift from Gary Berg’s harmonica intro, and his solo rides over spacious
chords from Schimke and a continuous walking pace from Billy Peterson.
Kenny Horst provides a nice rolling transition back to Lammers after
the bridge, and she twists the tune a bit in the outchorus, giving it a
more interesting pace than a simple straight run through the melody.
“Isn’t It Romantic” could be the theme-song of the recording, the mood
enhanced by Schimke’s lyricism, Horst’s caressing brushwork, and Berg’s
gruffly warm tenor. Lammer’s offers a beautiful introduction that was
not familiar to me, then moves the tone from wistful to optimistic.
Schimke has a spacious approach to comping, with both voice and sax,
while his solo is a gentle swing, filling the spaces with delicate
runs. Lammer’s closes with “every note that is sung well is like a
lover’s kiss” –and so it is—“Isn’t it romaaannnnnce?” Like Monheit on
one of her signature tunes, Lammer’s rendition of “Honeysuckle Rose” is
gently restrained, more playful than feverishly sultry. Paula takes
more liberties with melody and rhythm here than on most tracks, while
Gary Berg delights with swirling phrases on his tenor.
Lammers “knew I had to do my arrangement of 'The Moon and I' [from
Yentl] if for no other reason than to introduce this little- known song
to my listeners.” Here Clay Moore shines on his introduction, comping,
and a solo that soars above Horst’s tingling percussion, giving the
track a Brazilian tinge; Moore and Lammers are a sympathetic pairing.
More direct Brazilian influences abound with the Dubey/Bonfa “Gentle
Rain” and Jobim’s “Meditation,” both sung in English. Clay Moore sparkles
on both tracks with appropriately samba-drenched bass and percussion
from Peterson and Horst, respectively. Schimke lifts “Gentle Rain” with the
Fender Rhodes; Berg provides “Rain” with a unique touch from
harmonica, and a gentle “Meditation” on tenor.
Having just heard Kurt Elling sing a most ethereal “In the Wee Small
Hours of the Morning” at Birdland, I feared any other rendition would
prove disappointing. But fortunately Lammers’ interpretation is quite
different. Following a duet intro with Clay Moore, the track
takes a more swinging, mid-tempo approach than what is often rendered.
Moore (whose solo here is spectacular) gives the Hilliard/Mann
standard an upbeat lilt and a slightly south-of-the-border feel, while
Lammers shows off her upper register and ability to jump around the
scale, landing squarely on each note every time. Not heard as often as
it deserves, “Too Close for Comfort” (Bock/Weiss/Holofcener) is a
showcase for Gary Berg on tenor. Again there is a sense of mild
restraint in Lammer’s interpretation; the tune takes her from the top
to bottom of her range, and she seems very comfortable with the ride,
while Berg swings through with elastic ease.
Lammers notes that her one original composition,
“Goodbye….Again,” “is the kind of piece that requires a real
connection of mood and feeling between the pianist and the singer
to work, and to do it justice, I felt it had to be recorded… It is a
metaphor in many ways for the process of letting go, of accepting how
things are and being okay with the reality of one's life at any
given moment. ” Finalizing the piece for the recording was in part
due to the arrangements by Peter Schimke and Peterson’s mother,
pianist/composer Jeanne Arland Peterson. “When we started work on the
project, I had only a lead sheet with the words, melody, and rhythm--no
changes,” says Paula. “We were rehearsing at Jeannie's house, and she
ended up sitting down and writing the changes out.” Piano and
voice are in the spotlight, Schimke starting out with a lyrical line
and some dissonant chords. With Lammers carrying lyric and melody,
Schimke fills space with countermelodic lines and minimalist comping.
The most interesting track on the recording, one hopes that Paula will
focus more on songwriting for the next go-round.
“More,” Marcello Ciorciolini’s Oscar-nominated song from the 1962
Italian film Mondo Cane, feels more like Brazil than Italy, while Gary
Berg provides a boppishly turned tenor solo. Lammers sings in the
original Italian until the last chorus, and her sublte hesitations in
phrasing add some propulsion to a rendition that is more sweetly
wistful than impassioned, and perhaps at a slower pace than usually
delivered. The title track, “Under a Blanket of Blue,” moves as a
bluesy waltz, an upbeat closing with swinging accompaniment from the
ensemble. The listener is indeed “wrapped in the arms of sweet
romance” and the night belongs to anyone within earshot.
And certainly, anyone with an ear turned in the direction of A Blanket of Blue will feel wrapped
in the world of Paula Lammers, a world of beautiful melodies, “sweet
romance,” and graceful “meditations,” a voice falling perfectly like a
“gentle rain.” Let’s have “more.”
Paula Lammers can be heard aboard the Minnesota Zephyr in Stillwater
throughout February and beyond
( www.minnesotazephyr.com).
She’ll be on stage with the Minnesota Jazz Vocal Coalition at the
Dakota (1010 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; www.dakotacooks.com) on
February 9th (7:00 pm); with the River City Jazz Orchestra at the North
St. Paul Snow Frolics on February 10th (American Legion, 2678 7th Ave.
East, 8-11 pm); and again with the RCJO during the KBEM Winter Jazz
Festival at the Doubletree Hotel (St. Louis Park) on February 26 (visit
www.jazz88fm.com). A Blanket of Blue is available from
CD Baby
(www.cdbaby.com) or from
the artist’s website at
www.paulalammers.com.
Click here for a Jazz Police interview
with Paula Lammers.
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