Search - Sheila Jordan, Cameron Brown :: Celebration: Live at the Triad

Sheila Jordan: Jazz Messenger

John Vasile | Nashville | 08/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This live album, recorded over two nights during Sheila's 76th birthday celebration, is so engaging, so revelatory, such an out and out thrill. At one point, Sheila advises the audience to be messengers, and nothing else--just messengers, keeping alive the works of great musicians and composers like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and, most significant here, Oscar Brown Jr. More than any other figure represented, Brown (who wrote both "Dat Dere" and "Hum Drum Blues" from Sheila's debut, Portrait of Sheila) emerges as the real find for the uninitiated. Within a thoroughly refreshed repertoire, Sheila unveils Brown's "Brother Where Are You?," a searching, haunting ballad so arresting that it is sure to kick off many searches for Brown's old albums. Sheila has been performing Brown's songs for decades, which we're reminded of at the top of the set with a snappy take of "Hum Drum Blues," but she pulls all the threads together here and allows us to see the whole picture, one we've been glimpsing bits of over the years. And we realize simultaneously what a wonderful composer Brown is and what a gift Sheila has for keeping jazz vital. She is thoroughly herself, never straining for effect or showiness, and deftly steps aside and lets her fellow jazzmen and -women, past and present, come forth into the light. And the sound is wonderful on this album--crisp, uncluttered, with an in-the-room intimacy. Sheila is a masterful messenger and this is one of the most exciting releases of her career."

Cameron Brown, the Back Story and "The Crossing"

Rick Cornell | Reno, Nv USA | 02/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember reviewing Ann Dyer's "When I Look Into Your Eyes", which consisted of Ms. Dyer, bass and percussion. Though Down Beat rated that as the best vocal jazz album of 2003, I dissented, and argued in my review that you simply can't make great, stirring music with that instrumentation, no matter what you do.



Along comes this album, consisting of voice and bass only, which proves me to be absolutely wrong. Recorded live in late 2004 on Sheila Jordan's 76h birthday at the Triad, on Manhattan's upper west side, this is a great album and is one of 2005's very best.



I ask myself why, unable to convince myself that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I arrive at three reasons (hence the title of this review):



1) Cameron Brown, the bassist. What a performance! Mr. Brown has such a rich, fat sound on the string bass, whether plucked or bowed, that he creates overtones on virtually every note. Given that I was familiar with most of this program (unlike Ms. Dyer's), I could hear the harmonic fills as the notes were being played and sung. And on the second most special track, Dizzy's "Birks Works", Jay Clayton (another ridiculously underrated, long-time jazz singer) joins Ms. Jordan in a scatfest that made me want to sing along and create countermelodies.



2) The back story. At age 76, Ms. Jordan looked and sounded about 20 years younger. But though she vaguely referenced it during the set, she had a 99%-blocked artery and was going in for surgery the next morning. Given that jazz singers generally don't have health insurance or social security, she did this concert with the belief that it could have been the last thing she was ever to do on earth. And that leads to



3) Her encore, "The Crossing." Ms. Jordan, a recovered drug and alcohol addict, wrote this song as a tome to her recovery. But the song is even more universal than that. It is a song about the best of the human spirit, overcoming life's troubles. She survived the surgery; but imagine if she hadn't, and imagined that this was the last thing she ever was to sing. That thought, together with how she actually performed the song, brought me to tears the first time I heard it and still gives me chills.



Two albums recorded in 2005 had the presence of God on them: Lizz Wright's "Dreaming Wide Awake" and this one. In my book, that makes them the two best of 2005. RC"