Search - Jay Clayton :: The Peace of Wild Things

Lyricists strive for that poetic resonance; and poets want their words to swing and sing in a musical way. What the esteemed vocalist/educator/innovator/composer Jay Clayton who first burst on the scene in 1963 combines both aesthetics on her latest Sunnyside release project: an incredibly complex recording featuring solo voice, backed by electronics, featuring the verse of E.E. Cummings, Wendell Berry, and vocalist Jeanne Lee.

Technically, Clayton s supple vocals fall in the contralto range. But she truly uses her voice as an instrument; she slides, swirls, chirps, bees and bops it with lightning quick precision and improvisational passion, buoyed by the ethereal, yet tasteful electronic effects that amplify her gifts without burying them in a haze of sound. The selections featuring Cummings s work, written with an angular, improvisational nod to jazz, are aurally illuminated by Clayton s vocal flights on the kalimba-cadenced Free Me, the double-tracked Why Because, the percussive Love is a Place, and Let It Go. Berry s words on the title track are augmented by an evocative string/synth arrangement, buttressed by Clayton s haunting choir effects. Lara Pelligrinelli s "Sheila's Dream," an ode to the great jazz singer, Sheila Jordan, features Clayton s walking vocal basslines, contrasted by the choral counterpoint of Clayton s Sometimes. No Words, Only a Feeling, written by the undeservedly neglected jazz singer Jeanne Lee who was a brilliant interpreter of Thelonious Monk and partner of pianist Ran Blake is the CD s jazziest track, where Clayton lets everybody know that she knows the tradition, while she puts it in transition.