John Radanovich - Music writing

Jazz • Stacey Kent • Al Jarreau • Henry Butler Cuba, Latin Jazz, Salsa Louisiana Reggae	Jazz
Stacey Kent is the American Songbook idol For a jazz musician, Stacey Kent has had a fairy-tale career. She left New York for grad school in England, then decided to study instead at the Guildhall School of Music. A chance meeting with British saxophone player Jim Tomlinson led to marriage and the idea of singing cabaret at the London Ritz. There she was scouted for an appearance in a film of "Richard III," which led to a record deal, which led to accolades and an invitation to play at Clint Eastwood's 70th birthday party. Kent's delivery is uniquely mesmerizing and seductively powerful in its simplicity. Kent, a South Orange native, is a regular each September at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel in New York. After one show this year, former big band singer Margaret Whiting — famous for first singing "Moonlight in Vermont" and "Baby It's Cold Outside" — stood in line with other well-wishers, took Kent's hand and heaped on the praise. Such adoration is not unusual for Kent, who describes herself as an "accessible" artist. She never leaves home without her laptop because fans e-mail her constantly, and she cherishes these exchanges. "There is nothing as rewarding as signing on to my e-mail and picking up mail from people," she says. Their letters "let me know that the music I'm making touches them in such a personal way." Fans appreciate the way she cleans the patina off old jazz and show tune standards, using a romantic delivery style to showcase their power and originality. She explains her attraction to one of the American Songbook greats: "It's that feeling of excitement when you first meet someone. Even though I'm not the person literally dancing with someone wearing polka dots and moonbeams, it becomes a metaphor for something else." Kent loves the songs she performs, but she's no musical Luddite. "I have no feelings of nostalgia for the 1950s. I love my electronics, my wireless Internet access," she says, laughing. "But a great romantic, evocative song has no time, no place. It's just human. Human emotions do not evolve, and good poetry will always pull at you."
Al Jarreau May 2001 Singer Al Jarreau was born into a Milwaukee family in 1940, a family that fully expected him to exceed in everything he did. He credits his success in entertainment to his Midwestern upbringing. “The neighborhood where I went to high school was a true melting pot. We were Mexican, black, Polish, and the school was in an Italian neighborhood, so all of us knew a little Italian. We got along famously. It was a wonderful climate and we all grew because of it.” Jarreau?s New Orleans-born father had gone north in search of work in the late 1930s. As a boy, Jarreau was just as interested in sports as he was in music. He excelled in several high school sports, winning a basketball scholarship to Ripon College. He even spent a summer at the training camp for the Milwaukee Braves major league baseball team. He still keeps in touch with high school friends, some from his old Lincoln High track team. “If I?ve achieved anything it was in large part because I was watching those guys strive and achieve, learning how to be a cross country runner, a lonely runner. I watched those guys become state champs, and have since watched them become serious citizens of the community.” – article continues – download pdf
Henry Butler August 2002 Pianist and blues explorer Henry Butler is contradictory in the best sense. His virtuoso playing is influenced by McCoy Tyner and Schubert, yet Butler most often plays barrelhouse blues. Blind from birth, he is a well-known photographer who exhibits around the country. A musical intellectual, Butler loves nothing more than playing his stride/blues/jazz in clubs in rough New Orleans neighborhoods. Henry Butler is the best pianist in New Orleans, and is one of America?s most widely talented musical figures. Really, his only shortcoming is his taste for driving. The 53-year-old Butler began singing at age 7 in the boys glee club of the Louisiana State School for the Blind in Baton Rouge. He studied classical piano and voice, and jazz with Alvin Batiste at Southern University. He earned a Master?s in voice at Michigan State. Formal education done, Butler studied with Cannonball Adderley, and Adderley?s newest pianist, George Duke. “George taught me that you don?t let your right hand play anything your left hand can?t play, and vice versa. Both hands needed to be equally strong. I?m still working on that.” – article continues – d ownload pdf

Jazz

Stacey Kent is the American Songbook idol

For a jazz musician, Stacey Kent has had a fairy-tale career. She left New York for grad school in England, then decided to study instead at the Guildhall School of Music. A chance meeting with British saxophone player Jim Tomlinson led to marriage and the idea of singing cabaret at the London Ritz. There she was scouted for an appearance in a film of "Richard III," which led to a record deal, which led to accolades and an invitation to play at Clint Eastwood's 70th birthday party.

Kent's delivery is uniquely mesmerizing and seductively powerful in its simplicity. Kent, a South Orange native, is a regular each September at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel in New York. After one show this year, former big band singer Margaret Whiting — famous for first singing "Moonlight in Vermont" and "Baby It's Cold Outside" — stood in line with other well-wishers, took Kent's hand and heaped on the praise.

Such adoration is not unusual for Kent, who describes herself as an "accessible" artist. She never leaves home without her laptop because fans e-mail her constantly, and she cherishes these exchanges. "There is nothing as rewarding as signing on to my e-mail and picking up mail from people," she says. Their letters "let me know that the music I'm making touches them in such a personal way." Fans appreciate the way she cleans the patina off old jazz and show tune standards, using a romantic delivery style to showcase their power and originality.

She explains her attraction to one of the American Songbook greats: "It's that feeling of excitement when you first meet someone. Even though I'm not the person literally dancing with someone wearing polka dots and moonbeams, it becomes a metaphor for something else."

Kent loves the songs she performs, but she's no musical Luddite. "I have no feelings of nostalgia for the 1950s. I love my electronics, my wireless Internet access," she says, laughing. "But a great romantic, evocative song has no time, no place. It's just human. Human emotions do not evolve, and good poetry will always pull at you."

Al Jarreau
May 2001

Singer Al Jarreau was born into a Milwaukee family in 1940, a family that fully expected him to exceed in everything he did. He credits his success in entertainment to his Midwestern upbringing. “The neighborhood where I went to high school was a true melting pot. We were Mexican, black, Polish, and the school was in an Italian neighborhood, so all of us knew a little Italian. We got along famously. It was a wonderful climate and we all grew because of it.”

Jarreau?s New Orleans-born father had gone north in search of work in the late 1930s. As a boy, Jarreau was just as interested in sports as he was in music. He excelled in several high school sports, winning a basketball scholarship to Ripon College. He even spent a summer at the training camp for the Milwaukee Braves major league baseball team. He still keeps in touch with high school friends, some from his old Lincoln High track team. “If I?ve achieved anything it was in large part because I was watching those guys strive and achieve, learning how to be a cross country runner, a lonely runner. I watched those guys become state champs, and have since watched them become serious citizens of the community.” – article continues – download pdf

Henry Butler
August 2002

Pianist and blues explorer Henry Butler is contradictory in the best sense. His virtuoso playing is influenced by McCoy Tyner and Schubert, yet Butler most often plays barrelhouse blues. Blind from birth, he is a well-known photographer who exhibits around the country. A musical intellectual, Butler loves nothing more than playing his stride/blues/jazz in clubs in rough New Orleans neighborhoods. Henry Butler is the best pianist in New Orleans, and is one of America?s most widely talented musical figures. Really, his only shortcoming is his taste for driving.

The 53-year-old Butler began singing at age 7 in the boys glee club of the Louisiana State School for the Blind in Baton Rouge. He studied classical piano and voice, and jazz with Alvin Batiste at Southern University. He earned a Master?s in voice at Michigan State. Formal education done, Butler studied with Cannonball Adderley, and Adderley?s newest
pianist, George Duke. “George taught me that you don?t let your right hand play anything your left hand can?t play, and vice versa. Both hands needed to be equally strong. I?m still working on that.” – article continues – d ownload pdf

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