--Cabaret Magazine 

Jacqi Naylor©Andrea Canter

Jacqui Naylor’s new release will either serve as a grand introduction to one of the most creative contemporary vocalists or a reaffirmation of her wide-ranging talent as inventive singer and songwriter. In assembling You Don’t Know Jacq for her Ruby Star label, the Bay area native complements her most requested tunes with never-released covers and new originals. And with the holidays approaching, her 2007 hit, Smashed for the Holidays, provides some good cheer for listeners as well. Naylor's current tour brings her to the Blue Note in Manhattan on December 16th.

Jacqui Naylor

First attracted to music through her parents’ vintage jazz recordings and collection of antique, automated instruments, Jacqui went on to perform in high school musicals and talent shows. However, she chose to pursue a marketing degree in college until a music appreciation class introduced her to a recording of Sarah Vaughan singing Gershwin. Now considering a career in music, she studied with Bay Area vocal coach Faith Winthrop for four years while simultaneously working as a marketing director for a clothes designer. She continued studying voice, working with Shirley Calloway during a year in New York and performing with a gospel choir. By 1997, music had become her fulltime passion. Although her first recordings were readily identified as “jazz,” Jacqui was as enamoured of her own generation’s pop music as she was of the classic songs of the 30s and 40s. By the release of her 2005 double set, Live East/West, she had perfected a technique of blending jazz and modern rock that she terms “acoustic smashing”—essentially, singing jazz tunes on top of popular rock instrumentals, or vice versa. “I wanted to blend genre in the interest of storytelling and bring out all of who I am and who we are as a band," said Naylor. The result is music that defies classification but appeals to a broad audience, a fresh integration of modern grooves, timeless lyrics, personal phrasing—the merging of past, present and future within a single tune or single verse. 

You Don’t Know Jacq

You Don't Know Jacq

The "smashed" tracks are as clever as they are successful. The Gershwins' “Summertime,” one of the most over-recorded of their songbook, is sung over the rock/funk groove of the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post,” propelling the song at a swinging, mid-tempo clip. Naylor’s phrasing brings a swampier feel than the usual approach to this classic. This isn’t an easy song, the intervals often stretch the limits of a vocalist’s control but Jacqui handles it with ease. Art Khu is a good match on organ, simultaneously swinging and funky. Bassist Jon Evans contributed the arrangement as well as adding depth to the swamp.  

Rodgers' and Hart’s famed tune might just as well be renamed “My Funky Valentine” to reflect the the hard rock vamp of AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” One of Jacqui’s most requested songs, this is the one that launched “acoustic smashing” during a tour of Japan. Yoon-Ki Chai opens the track with a classically enriched verse, moving into a rocked and jazzed groove that roars beneath Rodgers and Hart’s familiar melody. The heavy syncopation gives the song a raw power beyond the usual balladic presentation. Yoon-Ki Chai’s violin counters Khu’s majestic keyboard, and Naylor is utterly convincing in telling her tale. 

If not truly representative of her “smashing” technique, Jacqui’s other covers on YDKJ nevertheless highlight her genre bending tendencies. The opening “How Deep Is Your Love?” is indeed deep as well as sultry, yet with a gospel-infused reverence, falling somewhere between a jazz feel in phrasing and a rock beat in rhythm. The instrumentalists lay back to shine the light on Jacqui’s impassioned vocals as she plunges deeper than the BeeGees’ original. REM’s “Losing My Religion” takes a more fusiony turn, with a faint whine of strings and a dark wash from Josh Jones’ percussion. “Black Coffee” is another standard usually sung at a sultry pace, here given a more furious vibe thanks to Jacqui’s elastic vocals and some frenetic piano soloing from Art Khu. This is “jacq’d up” with a rock cadence. Maybe the result of too much black coffee, it has an acidic bite and a devilish groove. 

Perhaps the most interesting cover is Billie Holiday’s “Tell Me More and More and Then Some,” which may have been a bigger hit for Nina Simone than for Billie herself. This arrangement by Art Khu puts some funk and fusion into Billie’s blues, his groaning guitar contributing to a “House of the Rising Sun” feel. Their voices are certainly different but Jacqui makes this more Simone than Holiday. Or rather, now there are at least three great versions of this song!  

Jacqui Naylor©Andrea Canter

The remaining tracks are originals co-penned by Naylor and Khu, who should earn a place among the great American songwriting teams of the decade. “Celebrate Early and Often” was Jacqui’s first single release, written for and sung to her husband at their wedding. A country waltz with folk/rock momentum, one can readily imagine it as the first dance for the bride and groom. Another with a folk/rock charm, “Dreamin’ Big With You” was written to honor the births of Sadie Scott Jones (daughter of drummer and co-arranger Josh Jones?) and Samantha Neiderhoffer. I have heard Jacqui sing “Thank You Baby” a couple times in the past few years, such that it now seems like a standard country/folk cover. The instrumentals pop and bubble in large part due to the string pairing of Khu and Evans. Jacqui’s phrasing reflects her improvisational chops while her tone evokes a country twang, further enhanced by Art Khu’s organ licks. 

“Shelter” sounds a bit like “Summertime” in its chord progressions, layering a jazz sensibility over a folk/rock instrumental arrangement. Just in time for Election Day, “Rise Up” was written to encourage voting and has been featured on both You Tube and an Obama/Biden website-- “Change is coming, together we stand tall...” Jacqui salutes her home town on “City by the Bay,” while lyrics star in the clever, often funny “This Is the Spot,” a tribute to jazz radio stations that have promoted her music. An apt theme song for a small jazz club, there are numerous amusing references to jazz icons and terms—“The place to park for Parker,” “Drive for Miles,” “A tune that takes you to the bridge...”  

And if You Don’t Know Jacq when you first listen to this CD, then indeed “This Is the Spot,” a raft of tunes that will “take you to the bridge” that defines Jacqui Naylor—a bridge across genres and generations. Whether you think this one belongs in the Jazz bin or on the Fusion shelf or in the Rock or Folk aisle—well, don’t spend your time on such irrelevant decisions. This recording belongs in the collection of top vocals for 2008, as a showcase of one of the most creative talents in the business labeled “singer/songwriter.” 

Smashed for the Holidays

Smashed for the Holidays

Holiday standards of course are not given standard treatment—no trite carols here! Art Khu's electric guitar twangs the daylights out of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Khu again doubles on electric guitar on “Santa Baby,” where in combination with Jacqui’s teasing lilt the song takes on a more humorous, if suggestive, tone. John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” has a more folky overtone. Perhaps one of the most transformed is the traditional “We Three Kings,” arranged as a rock track filled with electric strings, organ, even Khu’s “scream” effects. “Silver Bells” smashes a majestic vocal over a rock-informed percussive instrumental track. Mel Torme’s “Christmas Song,” on the other hand, is as gentle as a midnight snowfall, a simple duet between Jacqui and Art Khu, this time on nylon-string guitar. Similarly, the closing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is the most straight-up jazz arrangement on the disc, sweet and deftly phrased by Jacqui, backed by piano, bass and drums. For the last taste of this holiday smorgasbord, this one will linger with a smile. 

Jacqui Naylor and her band tour the U.S. with songs from You Don’t Know Jacq, Smashed for the Holidays and more.  They travel east in December, with a night at the Blue Note in Manhattan on December 16th. More on Jacqui and her recordings at http://www.jacquinaylor.com/

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