This post reviews two albums recorded by female vocalists. If you haven’t gotten to know them yet, take a listen to these lovely ladies of song.
Veronica Swift and Confessions
The first time I ever heard of Veronica Swift was when she was the first performance of the year for the Leshner Center Jazz Series in Walnut Creek, CA last August. When Becky and I left the performance, we knew we had heard a young artist who was truly special. I don’t know how I had missed her previously. She came in second in the 2015 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition when she was just 21.
Swift was raised in Charlottesville, VA in a family of musicians. Her parents were the late jazz pianist Hod O’Brien and singer Stephanie Nakasian. At the age of nine, she recorded her debut album, Veronica’s House of Jazz. When she was 13, she released her second album, It’s Great to Be Alive.
First Major-Label Album
Confessions, her major-label album is on Mack Avenue. Only a very self-assured singer could begin her debut major-label album with “You’re Gonna Hear From Me.” I promise you, at her concert and on this album, that’s an understatement.
The album was a carefully curated over two years. It is a collection of standards, but Swift manages to find the contemporary sound in these old songs. She can sing with great passion, with beautiful delicacy and even with humor. And, if you like scat, she is amazing, which is rare for a singer who is so young.
Confessions is available on CD or on Qobuz, and I recommend it very highly. You can see the list of tracks and listen on Mack Avenue, her record label, here.
There Is No Other, Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi
I want to thank David Cope for introducing me to this album by Rhiannon Giddens. I was familiar with her work with The Carolina Chocolate Drops, but this was my first exposure to her as a solo artist. She is a founding member of that country, blues, and old-timey music band, where she is the lead singer, a fiddle player, and a banjo player.
A native of Greensboro, NC and a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, where she studied opera. Listening to her voice, it is easy to imagine her as an opera singer. This collaboration is with the Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. Their partnership combines Giddens’ interest in the folk instruments and traditions of the African-American culture with Turrisi’s heritage from the Mediterranean to the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe.
Rhiannon Giddens has one of the most beautiful voices that I have ever heard. It is simply exquisite! Her new album, There Is No Other was released on Nonesuch Records on my birthday, May 3rd, last year. No, it wasn’t a personal birthday present to me, but as good as it is, I can pretend.
About the Album
Produced by Joe Henry, this album was tracked over an intensely productive five-day period in Dublin, Ireland. There Is No Other is at once a condemnation of “othering” and a celebration of the spread of ideas, connectivity, and shared experiences. Basically, it is a celebration of how barriers and cultures can be broken through in a celebration of music.
As the album’s title indicates, the music here deals with opposition to the almost universal prejudice of dividing the world into us and others. This “divide” is conveyed on the album with an interesting presentation of words and sounds from the African, Arabic and Southern European cultures.
Available on Qobuz, you can also find a list of the tracks and play them here on AllMusic. The album’s mix of original songs written by Giddens and a diverse group of her interpretations of songs like “Wayfaring Stranger,” “Black Swan” and others presents a rich musical heritage that I can imagine playing over and over again. It is also a wonderfully moving album that I highly recommend!
