Roots and Byways [CD]

Blake,ran / Eade,dominique - Roots and Byways [CD]

Roots & Byways is a model 21st-century recital of 20th-century song, a well-rounded program of jazz, folk, soul, stage, movie, and TV tunes rife with interconnections. There are five or six jazz art songs (counting Mancini's "Dreamsville"), four in a row at the top. Max Roach's "Mendacity" has a dead earnest political lyric, contrasted with the Gershwins' satirical "Who Cares" (sung, in 1931 musical Of Thee I Sing, by a self-absorbed US President). Two tunes from the French include Michel Legrand's Umbrellas of Cherbourg ballad "Watch What Happens," the closer here whose melody alludes to the opener "Mood Indigo." There's one R&B obscurity-"I Remember," a deep track from the 1973 sophomore album by Memphis family band the Sylvers-and a stone soul classic which spawned few jazz versions, Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love for You," where Dominique Eade catches the central contradiction between the melody's soaring confidence and the lyric's wallow in self-abnegation. American lyrics often get weird or grim of course. That one's followed by the tale of another troubled soul who's fallen far, the Hank Williams chestnut "Lost Highway." And then there's "On Top of Old Smokey," homey oldie kids are taught to sing. It's cheery finish: "You'll be forsaken/And never know why." Our duo's spontaneous treatments of these rich songs are just as singular. So it goes with a singer who paraphrasing the astute Ed Hazell-combines uncynical youthful exuberance with depth of experience. She illuminates those lyrics and their implications. And then there's celebrated pianist Ran Blake's deft pedaling, exquisite touch, spare and/or metallic chord voicings, deep feeling for a tune's nuances, and ability to paint a scene. Hear his piano glossing the lyric of the first verse of Mingus's gorgeous "Portrait," or on the top of "Old Smokey": chaste chords as blindingly white as sun on fresh snow; then dark clouds roll in. A Blake paradox: he's enjoyed longtime working relationships with several singers (none longer than Eade) while drawing inspiration from Monk's subversive/treacherous comping strategies. (Monk's own helpful advice: "Don't listen to me. I'm supposed to be accompanying you!") Hear the Ivesian clusters Blake drops behind Eade at the beginning of "Mendacity." There are abundant examples of such oblique backing strategies here. Blake might comment on the action with harmonies or decorative phrases that pivot to another key (leaving Dominique free to follow or hold steady). Or he'll disappear altogether when a tune's end comes into view. Doesn't faze her a bit. Ran Blake and Dominque Eade first worked together over four decades ago when she came to New England Conservatory as a student-a partnership that grew closer after she joined the faculty. For this recital, he picked all the tunes. Eade says, "The 'Roots' in the title, that's the more familiar material, like 'Pannonica' or Chris Connor's 'Way Out There.' The new stuff we learned together, to really get to know the melodies so we can confidently take them in any direction. We want to honor a song, but it's not a still life. Ran likes to play together a lot, to build trust"-sensitive to byways they might discover in the moment. Eade sings the little-known Chet Baker vehicle "Grey December" straight, after taking great liberties with the ultra-familiar "Mood Indigo" (swinging, slow, over Ran's donkey-lope on the bridge). Her tour de force is a no-holds-barred "What's Your Story, Morning Glory," that ancestor to "Heartbreak Hotel" (via "Black Coffee") where her swoops, dips, and swerves approach both ends of her considerable range, in response to all the ways Ran audibly eggs her on. Listen to the minefield he lays when she re-enters after his solo chorus, and how she responds in kind: that's a big comfort zone.