sait palanduz wrote
Robin McKelle comes out swinging on her second disc of big band jazz, Modern Antique. The bassist plucks some fat, rich chords, the pianist skitters over the keys, and McKelle herself confidently scats over the melody while the horn section eggs her on. (I don’t really like this sentence. I’d like something more sophisticated.)The mood is playfully flirtatious, just this side of naughty. The entire combo is having so much fun – and so are you – that the tune is almost over before you realize it’s an ingenious re-arrangement of Steve Miller’s seventies classic, “Abracadabra.”
That opening gambit sets the tone for everything that follows: The singer has created a stylistically ambitious follow-up to her debut that still managing to evoke and honor the forties big-band sound she explored on the remarkable Introducing Robin McKelle. There are more rhythm and blues touches, revealing McKelle’s torchy side, and she concludes the album with a self-penned ballad that fits in comfortably with the American Songbook gems that precede it. Modern Antique will impress the ever-growing audience who’ve already discovered McKelle — via National Public Radio, her glowing press notices, or good old word of mouth — and it should attract the even wider audience in the U.S. she clearly deserves. The Europeans are way ahead of us when it comes to McKelle; she’s already a vocal jazz star there, seriously in demand for concert and television appearances.
The adventurous spirit McKelle brings to Modern Antique has distinguished her career from the start. For her debut disc, the young singer had such a strong conviction that she was willing to risk her own finances to record it – no small feat, given the arrangements that needed to be commissioned, the top-notch players to be hired. Arranger-producer-trumpeter Willie Murillo (Brian Setzer Orchestra, Aimee Mann) also shared her vision. Together they fashioned an album that balanced period authenticity with the very present-tense thrill of hearing an artist eager to put her own stamp on songs like “Something’s Got To Give” and “Night & Day.”
Susan Stamberg of NPR’s Morning Edition says McKelle “brings new life to some old standards.” The Christian Science Monitor remarked, “She sings with the ease and grace of Ella Fitzgerald and the soul of Sarah Vaughan.” Jazziz declared, “Whether it’s ‘Dream,’ ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ or ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street,’ McKelle gives the words lilt, meaning and swing.”
“I was fortunate to connect with the right people,” says McKelle of her first recording. “Everything fell into place.” Both producer Murillo and Cheap Lullaby label owner Joe Ross were old friends and colleagues from Boston, where Rochester native McKelle went to study at the Berklee School. ( Willie isn’t from Boston, he’s from LA) Ross immediately offered to pitch in once he heard what his former classmate was up to. They all stayed true to the thirties/forties big-band concept, even though McKelle knew there were other stylistic directions in which she could branch out. McKelle admits, “I did worry that people might think it’s the only thing I can do. But, looking back, I think it was the best decision, it helped me focus.”
On Modern Antique, however, McKelle does allow herself more room to stretch artistically and “put a little bit more of my personality and my own touch on it. I had more of a hand in the production and the arrangements. Everyone who played on the record is amazing. I had the opportunity of working with some guys from my trio and a drummer (Nate Morton) from a band I had while I was in LA. Pianist Alain Mallet and I did a couple of the arrangements, and he plays on some of them, bringing a little more of my everyday musical approach onto the record.”
Mckelle especially helped to shape smoldering ballads like “Save Your Love For Me,” which boasts a sumptuous string arrangement, and the urbanely sexy “Lover Man.” As she explains, “The ones I had more of an influence on have a kind of bluesy sound. I really like blues and a groovy kind of feel. I love Nina Simone and Etta James and gravitate towards that sound. I worked on ‘Lover Man’ and ‘Save Your Love For Me’ with my trio. Being a producer on Modern Antique was important to me because I have strong ideas of what I want to do with the music and the direction that I want to head toward musically. I am a pianist and a writer so it was satisfying to help create the sound and style of the record.”
As for that unlikely but utterly convincing cover of Steve Miller, it serendipitously fell into McKelle’s lap as she was driving. McKelle says, “I was coming home from a gig one night and I heard that song, and the idea popped into my head. I turned up the radio and thought, this could be great as a swing tune. I called Willie right away. At first, he wasn’t interested in the idea, but after thinking about it, I think he became inspired.”
These days McKelle may seem to be leading an at least semi-charmed life, especially with the way she’s been so deeply embraced in Europe after her debut was released in France, but her burgeoning success is really the result of countless gigs, lots of study and artistic drive. McKelle’s mother was a liturgical singer; McKelle herself, as a child, was drawn to pop music and musical theatre. As a teenager, she started listening to jazz and learning jazz piano. For a time in high school, she envisioned going off to study opera, but then began to seriously contemplate further education in jazz. She went to the prestigious University of Miami jazz program before deciding to transfer to Berklee. After graduating with a music degree, she spent time in Los Angeles doing back-up singer work, then returned to Boston where she formed her own trio, joined Berklee’s Voice Department and became a featured soloist with the Boston Pops. In 2004, she took third place honors at the Thelonious Monk Vocal Jazz Competition in Washington, D.C. Says McKelle, «That opened a lot of doors for me in the jazz world.»
Modern Antique – and the path that got her there – is perhaps epitomized by “Abracadabra”: A lot of hard work went into it, but all we hear is the magic.
— Michael Hill
