The Montreal
Jazz Festival has always taken pride in discovering and launching
the careers of new talent. Both Winton Marsalis and Diane Krall
-- when in their early 20s -- used the Montreal Jazzfest to kick-start
their hugely successful international careers.
For the
35th edition of the 2014
Montreal International Jazz Festival
, the festival programmers
are placing their bets on Florida-born singer (of French and Haitian
parentage), Cécile McLorin Salvant. Her passion and mission
are twofold: to infuse new life into the standards and to revive
those that have been either forgotten or neglected. For this labour
of love, she has all the right equipment which begins and ends
with a striking, exciting, and sometimes extraordinary voice aided
and abetted by an exceptional range.
Depending
on the song, it doesn’t take long to discover that she has
many voices, which leaves her vulnerable to the accusation that
she has yet to discover her proper one, a criticism which does
not stand up to concert scrutiny. If you haven’t caught
her live, check out her youtube videos: this young lady –
not yet 25 -- can sing 16 tons. The multiplicity of voices, or
rather the many shades of the dexterous instrument that she calls
her own, are the very natural and gratifying response to the ever
changing content of a song's lyric. Depending on the moment, her
voice can spin silk or spit out hemp: she can be sweet, sad, angry,
cocky, coquettish and downright serious: theatrical yes, but never
mannered. Her version of “This Isn’t Love” is
the perfect sounding board for an exceptional range and vocal
elasticity that owes its influences to Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen
McCrae among others.
Her voice
is smooth and creamy in the lower register, and unusually comfortable
in the high range, which precludes having to resort to falsetto
and gives her a natural advantage over the competition, which
in the context of the standards is a jungle where only the best
survive. The voice-bending Billy Strayhorn classic“Lush
Life” is a natural fit for Salvant all of whose facial expressions
and body contortions take their cues from the heartbreaking storyline.
Among
the many highlights on her most recent album, Women/Child,
is “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.” The ease
with which she instinctively relates to and goes with the flow
of the other musicians makes you feel you’re in the presence
of someone much older than her years. If the album is a study
and delight throughout, it’s only misstep occurs when she
takes on the ballad “There’s A Lull in My Life,”
immortalized by the incomparable Chet Baker. Unless you’ve
been to hell and back before you’ve turned 30, be wary of
the ballads. Salvant took a chance, found herself in deep water,
and still manages to win our admiration for singing what she loves
to sing and taking up the challenge of narrowing the distance
between one’s reach and grasp. That said and put to bed,
we know the next time she records, it will make us forget about
this youthful version.
Topping
off what has been a year of accentuated positives, Woman/Child
(released in 2013) was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for
Best Jazz Vocal Album.
What
else is there to say other than “she’s got what it
takes.” and what’s already good is already getting
better.
For this
year’s 2014 Montreal
International Jazz Festival,
she’ll be performing at l’Astral
on June 26th and 27th at 9 pm.
