Lena Seikaly - Looking Back

Lena Seikaly is one of the Washington DC area’s finest vocalists with the clarity of her singing along, her control of her pitch and vibrato and the instrumental quality of her phrasing and scatting. One could cite a number of influences, and Ella Fitzgerald may be one, but the overall quality of her singing is akin to Roberta Gambarini. Her third, self-priced album Looking Back has her backed by the Chris Grasso Trio (Grasso, piano; Zach Pride, bass; and Lenny Robinson drums), the go to trio to back jazz vocalists in the Nation’s Capital. Also present is the marvelous guitarist Paul Pieper, whose subtle single note solos and chords add to the wonderful accompaniments here.

The eleven songs here take us back to what John Edward Hasse calls the “golden age of American songwriting” (mostly from the twenties and thirties) with emphasis on material recorded by Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. I am not familiar with I’m Nobody’s Baby, which gets things off on a swinging note, with some scatting, a crisp drum break and wonderful piano. Fascinating Rhythm opens as duet with Pride with her scatting before the full group enters. Her phrasing is such a delight to listen to and Pieper adds a choice solo before she scats in unison with him for a few bars on this delightful performance. Her rendition of Foolin’ Myself suggests Billie Holiday in her phrasing, with the clean, restraint shown by band adding to the performance's feel.

The settings here lend freshness to familiar songs. A duet with guitarist Pieper results in a lovely,  lively Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone, while on the Gerald Marks- Walter Hirsch ballad, Baby, What Else Can I Do, Grasso and Pride provide relaxed backing. Donald Heywood and Will Marion Cook’s collaboration, I’m Coming Virginia, may be better known today from the Frankie Trumbauer- Bix Beiderbecke recording, but  was popularized by Ethel Waters. Seikaly and the trio are a bit more vigorous performing it. It is followed by a moody I Cover The Waterfront. Duke Ellington’s I Love You Madly is a pretty duet with bassist Pride. Pieper’s guitar replaces Grasso’s piano on Guilty, which in addition to Pieper’s sublime playing has Pride taking an arco bass solo while Robinson’s tastefully employs brushes.

Of special interest is Irving Berlin’s Supper Time whose lyrics take the perspective of an African-American wife and mother whose lost her husband to a lynching. Written for Ethel Waters, this has been previously done by Roberta Gambarini with the late Hank Jones on piano. Simply accompanied by Grasso, she straightforwardly sings the lyrics. The simplicity of the performance delivers the stark imagery of Berlin’s lyrics powerfully,

With superb backing, imaginative and varied settings for the songs, Looking Back is another wonderful recording by Lena Seikaly. I have seen Lena Seikaly perform on a number of occasions, and this recording captures  the qualities that make her live performances so marvelous. Her website is lenaseikaly.com, and this CD is available on cdbaby.com.

I purchased my copy. I should not that I saw her perform this on April 19 at Loew's Madison in Washington backed by Grasso and Pride and she was wonderful as usual. She will be appearing Friday April 25 at a special Jazz Appreciation Month Take 5 program at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art's Kogod Courtyard dedicated to the music of Ella Fitzgerald. The Museum's website says she will be part of a performance by the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra on a program that will highlight Ella Fitzgerald’s collaborations with big bands, including the Count Basie Orchestra and the Duke Ellington. More information can be found on the Museum's website. Here she performs After You're Gone from her new album.

Capital Bop's DC Jazz Loft Series Needs Your Kickstart

I highlighted the upcoming DC Jazz Festival back in late April. Well the Festival starts in two weeks from today. One of the events associated with the Festival is the DC Jazz Loft Series that is being produced by the website Capital Bop, one of the DC area’s prime sources for what is happening jazz wise. Additionally they produce regular jazz loft shows highly upcoming performers and performers who have their own highly original approach to America’s musical art form.

To quote Luke Stewart and Giovanni Russonello, “We run CapitalBop.com, a website dedicated to promoting the city’s jazz scene by providing full-press coverage and by putting on concerts. … Since December 2010, we’ve been organizing D.C. Jazz Loft shows to spotlight this city’s vast and varied jazz talent in low-frills, exciting settings.” With respect to the DC Jazz Loft series, “[W]e’re proud to announce our return to the DC Jazz Festival for the second annual D.C. Jazz Loft Series. At three exciting shows next month, we’ll be presenting a tenacious argument for the relevance and power of contemporary jazz, and we'll be doing it at engaging, community-oriented venues." The shows at this year’s Jazz Loft series are:

June 1 // Todd Marcus Jazz Ensemble with D.C.'s Christie Dashiell Quartet, live at the Dunes. Baltimore’s Todd Marcus is among the few who specialize in the bass clarinet and is scheduled to lead his nine-piece ensemble headlining this show. Capital Bop notes that he leads a nine piece ensemble. “Thankfully, both Marcus’s oddball instrumentalism and his offbeat ensemble are astonishingly strong, modern and infectious. Few people improvise with more fervor or write music better than he does.” Opening will be vocalist Christie Dashiell featuring the former member of Howard University’s famed acapella group Afro-Blue. she’ll she’ll lead her own quartet through a blend of original compositions, and covers of jazz and pop songs.


June 2 // Tarbaby (Orrin Evans, Nasheet Waits and Eric Revis) with D.C.'s Kris Funn & Corner Store, live at the Fridge. Tarbaby is a jazz supergroup on a mission. Featuring pianist Orrin Evans (leader of the acclaimed Captain Black Big Band), bassist Eric Revis (a longtime collaborator with Branford Marsalis and a strong bandleader) and drummer Nasheet Waits (who performs with Jason Moran, among other greats), this band is uncompromisingly experimental and unabashedly outspoken. Opening will be bassist Kris Funn & Corner Store. Funn is currently a member of Christian Scott’s touring band, Corner Store, also features drummer Quincy Phillips of the Roy Hargrove Quintet. The band debuted at a jam-packed D.C. Jazz Loft where they “burned the house down, with Funn’s blues-battered bass lines, rocking originals, and dramatically danceable revisions of John Coltrane and Sam Cooke tunes taking center stage.”

June 9 // Jazz Loft MegaFest, feat. Marc Cary's Cosmic Indigenous with Lenny Robinson's Mad Curious and Elijah Jamal Balbed/Tarus Mateen/Lee Pearson II, live at the loft at 629 New York Ave. NW. “The series will culminate in a daylong Jazz Loft MegaFest on Sat., June 9. This won’t be any old concert: From 3 p.m. till 2 a.m., you’ll be immersed in a marketplace of improvised sound, visual art, quality food, drinks and creativity. We’re converting a gorgeous loft space on New York Avenue ( into a pop-up shop, music venue, art gallery, movie theater, and – with assistance from the foodies at the Taste of DC – an eatery and bar, catered by some of the top restaurants in the District.

With respect to Mark Cary, “His latest project, Cosmic Indigenous, throws everything into a pot and turns up the heat to a boil. The quintet is devastatingly danceable, which distracts you from how much creativity is happening onstage: Cary plays keyboard and laptop music, Malian singer and dancer Awa Sangho croons and yowls, two percussionists interweave (Sameer Gupta on tabla and drums, and Daniel Moreno on Latin percussion) and trumpeter Igmar Thomas brings a punchy rhythmic sensitivity to his melodic improvisations.”

Drummer Lenny Robinson is a DC fixture who plays with precision and grace, even at the swiftest tempos – but he’s also attuned to the malleability of a cymbal, or a snare drum. In his trio, Mad Curious, Robinson is joined by two of the greatest musicians in D.C. jazz, saxophone searcher Brian Settles and star bassist Tarus Mateen.

Tenor saxophonist Elijah Jamal Balbed is a young gun who plays every note like he’s got something crucial to prove. He swings hard, and calls up the memory of his forebears in the music such as John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. He will be accompanied by two veterans of the DC scene, bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Lee Pearson II.

This is quite a series of concerts and more that I highly recommend. Much of what I have taken is from Capital Bop’s own post on this series of shows, http://www.capitalbop.com/2012/04/25/announcing-this-years-d-c-jazz-loft-series-at-the-dc-jazz-fest-marc-cary-tarbaby-much-more/#ChristieDashiell. They have videos of several of the performers on that page. I am looking forward to attending a good portion of the performances at this year’s series. Tickets for the series can be purchased at the Capital Bop website.

Capital Bop is also engaged in a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to help produce this series. As I type this they still need to raise approximately 40% of their $4000 goal. I am one of those who are financially supporting this Kickstarter campaign and I encourage my fellow jazz lovers in the Washington DC area to show their support for the DC Jazz Loft Series, part of this year’s DC Jazz Festival. The Campaign is scheduled to end on May 31 at 11:00PM. Here is the link to the Kickstarter campaign, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/capitalbop/capitalbops-dc-jazz-loft-series-at-the-2012-dc-jaz.