Christopher Loudon
Christopher’s Contributions
05/19/12 Albums
Girl Talk
Kate McGarry
To prepare for Girl Talk , a collection of loving homages to her role models, rather than listen to Sheila Jordan, Betty Carter, Nina Simone and others sing, Kate McGarry sought out interviews with them, drawing inspiration from their tales of courage and...
05/16/12 Albums
Lauren Henderson
Lauren Henderson
It remains a not-uncommon inclination among neophyte jazz singers to favor style over substance. On her eponymous debut album, Lauren Henderson is guilty as charged. Her funkification of both “Skylark” and “Born to Be Blue,” along with her reinterpretation...
05/13/12 Albums
Mischievous Moon
Jill Barber
Four years ago, Canadian folksinger Jill Barber reinvented herself as a smoky chanteuse with the lush Chances . Thanks largely to its catchy “Oh My My,” the album ignited a rapturous outpouring of praise across her native land, and she was heralded as the...
05/10/12 Albums
Don't Look Back
Mary Stallings
Just over 50 years have passed since 22-year-old Mary Stallings established herself as the finest new voice in jazz with the release of Cal Tjader Plays, Mary Stallings Sings . Since then, Stallings has released fewer albums than the average person has fingers...
05/02/12 Albums
Romance Language
Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum stepping into the Coltrane role to remake John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman is rather like getting Norman Rockwell to reinterpret van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” The results are undeniably pretty but rather pointless. To fill the Hartman half of the...
05/01/12 Albums
Tempo
Tania Maria
Entering her sixth decade as a performer and fifth as a recording artist, Brazilian pianist and vocalist Tania Maria notes both landmarks with one of her finest albums to date. Teamed solely with legendary bassist Eddie Gomez, Maria delivers a somewhat brief...
04/30/12 Albums
I'll Take Romance
Steve Tyrell
This is surely the first jazz album ever inspired by Chelsea Clinton. Actually, it was Chelsea’s dad, no stranger to jazz, who ignited the idea when, in late 2010, he caught up with Steve Tyrell during the singer’s annual festive-season stint at the Café...
04/27/12 Albums
Yesterdays
Sheila Jordan/Harvie S
For as long as she’s been singing, Sheila Jordan has had a predilection, rather unique among vocalists, for seeking out bass players as solo accompanists. Early on, when married to Charlie Parker’s pianist, Duke Jordan, she’d often practice duets with bassist...
04/24/12 Albums
By Myself
Meredith d'Ambrosio
How appropriate that Meredith d’Ambrosio devote an entire album to the music of Arthur Schwartz, for neither has ever received anywhere near the appreciation they deserve. Just as Schwartz (who, for the record, never won an Oscar and received only two nominations...
04/23/12 Albums
Kisses on the Bottom
Paul McCartney
McCartney fans will likely be perplexed by Sir Paul’s ninth-inning foray into the Great American Songbook. But aficionados of deftly crafted vocal jazz will appreciate this as an exemplary exercise in reinvention. McCartney successfully strips away the pop...
04/20/12 Albums
Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush
Theo Bleckmann
Great jazz singers are inveterate boundary-pushers, but even the boldest among them stop far short of the distances Theo Bleckmann travels. Over the past two decades, Bleckmann has created a singular pastiche that extends from Weimar cabaret and Italy’s...
04/02/12 Albums
Digging Me Digging You
Amy Cervini
No one could possibly match Blossom Dearie’s sly, wry style or her baby-with-a-blowtorch sensibility. But if tribute must be paid, Amy Cervini seems a wise choice. Cervini’s honeyed voice is laced with just enough arsenic to mirror the sweet yet piquant...
03/29/12 Albums
The Clare Fischer Voices...And Sometimes Instruments
Clare Fischer
Pianist, arranger and composer Clare Fischer, who died at age 83 this past January, often described himself as the best-kept secret in jazz. In a career spanning six decades, he worked with myriad masters, among them Bud Shank, Joe Pass, Cal Tjader, Prince...
03/27/12 Features
Landau Eugene Murphy Jr.'s Very Good Year
The America’s Got Talent victor dials down the Sinatra influence
03/27/12 Albums
Detour Ahead
Alan Leatherman
The debut album from Juilliard-trained Texan Alan Leatherman is, quite literally, an intriguing demonstration of emerging talent. At first, the all-standards set unfurls like a vintage black-and-white film, with Leatherman’s burnished baritone hovering midway...
03/25/12 Albums
Telling Stories
Paulette McWilliams/Tom Scott
Before it was Rufus with Chaka Khan it was Ask Rufus with Paulette McWilliams. Since then, McWilliams has lent her voice to dozens of national TV ads, toured with the likes of Michael Jackson, Bette Midler, Marvin Gaye and Johnny Mathis and recorded with...
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ReportAbout Christopher Loudon
When the rest of the baby-boomers were wrapped up in the Beatles and the Stones, Christopher Loudon was discovering Sinatra, Fitzgerald and Bennett. Since 2003, Loudon has critiqued upwards of 700 vocal albums in these pages and shaped about a dozen profiles, including Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Harry Connick Jr., Roberta Gambarini, Jamie Cullum, Nancy Wilson, Curtis Stigers and Dianne Reeves.