Vanessa Rubin/Kevin Mahogany – More Than Words

Jazz From Lincoln Center

By Neil Tesser

(c) & (p) 2001 Jazz at Lincoln Center, all rights reserved

1) Music: "Teach Me Tonight" (Mahogany & Rubin, JFLC – 12/03)

"I think that both of them have shown they’re in it for the long haul. . . . they will be out there, they’ll still be in the clubs, they’ll still be entertaining us, and they’ll be finding new ways to do what they do."

3) Bradley:

THEY SING WITH PASSION AND NUANCE, WITH POWER AND MATURITY. "THEY" ARE VANESSA RUBIN AND KEVIN MAHOGANY. MAHOGANY JOINS A PRIDE OF GOLDEN THROATS LIKE JIMMY RUSHING AND JOE WILLIAMS. RUBIN HAS STIRRED UP THE VOCAL JAZZ SCENE WITH HER GIFT FOR CAPTIVATING AN AUDIENCE. BOTH HAVE MASTERED THE JAZZ SONGBOOK, AND ARE SEARCHING FOR THE "NEW STANDARDS."

VANESSA RUBIN AND KEVIN MAHOGANY ARE "SINGERS OVER MANHATTAN" -- ON THIS EDITION OF JAZZ FROM LINCOLN CENTER. I’M ED BRADLEY.

4) Bradley:

VANESSA RUBIN ALWAYS TAKES A BLUESY, DOWN-HOME APPROACH TO HER MATERIAL – EVEN TO SONGS THAT DON’T USUALLY RECEIVE THAT KIND OF TREATMENT.

5) Music: "I Want To Be Happy" (Rubin, JFLC – 12/03) 3:01

6) Bradley:

VANESSA RUBIN, BACKED BY A POWERHOUSE TRIO – PIANIST RENEE ROSNES (REE-nee ROZ-niss), BASSIST CHRISTIAN McBRIDE, AND DRUMMER LEWIS NASH – WITH THE TIN PAN ALLEY HIT, "I WANT TO BE HAPPY." COMPARE THAT SONG, COMPOSED IN 1925, TO THIS ONE, WRITTEN IN THE 70s BY PIANIST ROGER KELLAWAY.

7) Music: "I Have The Feeling . . ." (Rubin, JFLC – 12/01) 5:12

8) Bradley:

‘I HAVE THE FEELING I’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE" – VANESSA RUBIN WITH A TUNE WRITTEN FOR ONE OF HER IDOLS – THE LATE CARMEN McRAE.

FOR FOUR NIGHTS, RUBIN SHARED THE STAGE WITH KEVIN MAHOGANY IN A PROGRAM CALLED "SINGERS OVER MANHATTAN." LINCOLN CENTER’S STANLEY KAPLAN PENTHOUSE WAS TRANSFORMED INTO AN INTIMATE JAZZ CLUB, WITH CANDLELIT TABLES, AND A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE HUDSON RIVER. THE ROMANTIC SETTING INSPIRED RUBIN’S PROGRAM.

"I get to talk a little more in an intimate setting, because I’m kind of right at a level with people’s faces/….The material tends to probably be a little bit more ballad-y, more – well, the kind of material you can kind of pull people in with."

 

 

 

10) Music: "When We Were One" (from Soul Eyes, Novus, 1992) start@ 00:20

11) Bradley:

VANESSA RUBIN RELISHES MAKING HER SETLIST FOR PURELY MUSICAL REASONS, BECAUSE FOR MUCH OF THE 90s, SHE HAD TO BE AWARE OF MORE COMMERCIAL CONCERNS. BUT THAT WAS THEN.

"In terms of my personal development as a vocalist, I really feel like I’ve been in a transition period these last four years. // I’ve made changes with record companies, I’ve changed management: I’m not the same woman I was 10 years ago. I don’t even look at life the same way, so that affects the way I sing, the kind of songs I wanna sing; I love the Great American Songbook, but there are so many other stories that I want to tell. // So it’s constantly trying to make a good mix of music for an audience each night, give them some beautiful things that they know, but also slide something in there that’s new, so that people have new standards to listen to."

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13) Bradley:

FOR THAT REASON, RUBIN SOMETIMES SINGS HER OWN SONGS. LISTEN TO THE EVOCATIVE MELODY AND PROVOCATIVE LYRIC OF "ONCE WAS NOT ENOUGH."

14) Music: "Once Was Not Enough" (Rubin, JFLC – 12/01) 4:09

15) Bradley:

VANESSA RUBIN, WITH HER OWN COMPOSITION, AND THE TRIO LED BY RENEE ROSNESS. THIS IS JAZZ FROM LINCOLN CENTER; I’M ED BRADLEY.

16) Music: under "Parker’s Mood" (Charlie Parker – Savoy)

17) Bradley:

THE CLEVELAND-BORN RUBIN FOLLOWS A LINE OF MIDWESTERN VOCALISTS WHO HELPED DEFINE JAZZ SINGING -- CHICAGO’S NAT "KING" COLE, MEL TORME, ANITA O’DAY, AND JOE WILLIAMS; AND DETROIT’S BETTY CARTER AND SHEILA JORDAN.

KEVIN MAHOGANY, A NATIVE OF KANSAS CITY, IS ALSO HEIR TO THAT TRADITION. BUT RUBIN AND MAHOGANY SHARE MORE THAN MIDWESTERN ROOTS.

"Basically what both Kevin and Vanessa do // is that they both have sort of taken a look at the whole. // Kevin in particular, I think, has taken a look at the whole history of jazz and jazz singing and blues singing."

18a) Bradley:

BUT IN ALL THAT HISTORY, SAYS AUTHOR AND CRITIC WILL FRIEDWALD, IT’S RARE TO FIND A SINGER WHO DOES AS MANY THINGS – AND AS WELL – AS KEVIN MAHOGANY.

"I mean maybe Joe Williams is an exception – // you don’t think of any one of those guys as being able to sing a blues as powerful as Kevin does, and then be able to do a long scat number, and then sing a very very tender ballad. // . . . and what I think is really remarkable about him is he does all these kind of things at once, during the same program."

19) Bradley:

AT THE KAPLAN PENTHOUSE, MAHOGANY OFFERS US THE BLUES, A CLASSIC POP TUNE, AND VOCAL IMPROVISATION – ALL IN ONE.

20) Music: "Route 66" (Troup) Mahogany, JFLC -- 12/01 5:18

21) Bradley:

BOBBY TROUP’S "ROUTE 66," A POP HIT THAT BECAME A JAZZ STANDARD. KEVIN MAHOGANY SANG AND PIANIST RENEE ROSNES LED THE TRIO.

22) Music: "Read ‘Em And Weep" (Hank Crawford, from Heart and Soul, Rhino)

23) Bradley:

MAHOGANY STARTED OUT AS A SAXOPHONIST. BUT HE SOON DISCOVERED THAT HIS SONOROUS BARITONE VOICE, REMINISCENT OF JOE WILLIAMS, WAS IDEALLY SUITED TO THE DEMANDS OF JAZZ. HE ALSO FOUND THAT HIS OWN STYLE COULD EMBRACE BLUES AND COUNTRY MUSIC TOO.

"Musically, I’m following hopefully the same lines that my predecessors did, which means learning from the gentlemen before them, singing the same types of tunes and then trying to develop and find your own way – which means creating and developing new music whether it’s original, or finding pop tunes, r-and-b tunes, country tunes – just music, regardless of genre, and changing it into a jazz style, which we can continue moving forward…/it doesn’t matter where it comes from, as long as it’s original and good material . . . ."

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25) Bradley:

THIS NEXT SONG MEETS THOSE QUALIFICATIONS: A THOUGHTFUL BALLAD BY THE BRITISH SONGWRITER CARROLL COATES, PLUCKED FROM OBSCURITY BY KEVIN MAHOGANY.

"THE CITY LIGHTS."

27) Bradley:

"THE CITY LIGHTS" -- VOCALIST KEVIN MAHOGANY, WITH DRUMMER LEWIS NASH, BASSIST CHRISTIAN McBRIDE, AND PIANIST RENEE ROSNES.

SUPPORT FOR JAZZ FROM LINCOLN CENTER COMES FROM N-P-R AND ITS MEMBER STATIONS, WHOSE CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE THE LILA WALLACE READERS DIGEST FUND, SEEKING TO ENRICH COMMUNITY LIFE THROUGH SUPPORT OF EDUCATION, THE ARTS AND CULTURE.

FOR MORE ON KEVIN MAHOGANY AND VANESSA RUBIN OR TO HEAR THIS PROGRAM AGAIN, VISIT US AT WWW.JAZZATLINCOLNCENTER.ORG.

YOU’RE LISTENING TO JAZZ FROM LINCOLN CENTER. I’M ED BRADLEY.

VANESSA RUBIN IS ALWAYS LOOKING FOR GOOD NEW SONGS TO SING. BUT EVEN ON THE STANDARDS, SHE FINDS SOME FRESH THINGS TO DO. IN THIS INVENTIVE ARRANGEMENT OF "IF I SHOULD LOSE YOU," WE’LL HEAR CHANGES IN METER, NEW HARMONIES, A JUGGERNAUT PIANO SOLO BY RENEE ROSNESS (REE-nee ROZ-niss), AND AN IRRESISTABLE VOCAL.

30) Music: "If I Should Lose You" (Rubin, JFLC – 12/03) 5:05

RALPH RAINGER’S "IF I SHOULD LOSE YOU" – VANESSA RUBIN.

"She’s seen what’s come before her, she’s seen Nancy Wilson, Ernestine Anderson, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta Jones – and again, she’s picked and chosen what she likes and what she can concentrate on."

33) Bradley:

JAZZ CRITIC AND BIOGRAPHER WILL FRIEDWALD.

34) Music: under "Love Is Stronger Than Pride" (H. Hancock, The New Standard)

"and again // traditionally you could say, ‘Well, this singer just does bossa nova, or this singer just does heavy blues, or this particular singer does very avant-garde scat-type things’; and again, Vanessa puts it all together in a way that’s coherent and adds up to one cognizant statement, that’s not just based on one aspect of it, but based on the whole history of it . . . // And of course that includes repertory too. I mean, they could do a song from the 20s, and they could do Stevie Wonder // y’know, it’s a gap of 70 years – but they both sound like these songs are part of

the same aesthetic."

36) Bradley:

FROM RUBIN’S PERSPECTIVE, ANY SONG IS FAIR GAME FOR A JAZZ VOCALIST.

alt: (AT STANLEY KAPLAN PENTHOUSE, SHE SERVES UP STEVIE WONDER’S 1972 HIT "SUPERWOMAN.")

"Jazz is the kind of music you can do almost anything with. It allows you to use so many different other kinds of music . . . // My age bracket likes Stevie Wonder; we grew up on him. // I can take a Stevie Wonder piece that we know and put it in a jazz format; so you’re giving ‘em what they know and givin’ ‘em what they like, but you’re just serving it to them differently. //

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38) Bradley:

VANESSA RUBIN SERVES UP STEVIE WONDER’S 1972 HIT "SUPERWOMAN."

39) Music: "Superwoman" (Rubin, JFLC – 12/03) 7:16

40) Bradley:

STEVIE WONDER’S "SUPERWOMAN," VANESSA RUBIN AT THE STANLEY H. KAPLAN PENTHOUSE. IT’S JAZZ FROM LINCOLN CENTER; I’M ED BRADLEY.

"When you listen to some of the young artists out there now // and they’re playing a lot of funk and r-and-b in their jazz music, because that’s what they grew up with.

 

42) Bradley:

KEVIN MAHOGANY THINKS THAT JAZZ VOCALISTS NEED TO STRETCH BEYOND THE JAZZ STANDARDS AND TAP INTO THE MUSIC THEY HEARD GROWING UP.

43) Music (under): "Yesterday I Had the Blues" from Kevin Mahogany

"And a lot of that is also the same roots that I come from, especially the r-and-b, because I grew up in that very strong r-and-b period in the 60s and the 70s, y’know, the beginning of Motown, and Stax Records, and the Philly Sound, Gamble & Huff – there were so many wonderful music things going on, but they were different from jazz. And so now, hopefully, a few of us will start bringing those songs into the jazz genre."

45) Bradley:

MAHOGANY HAS ALREADY RECORDED MUSIC BY HAROLD MELVIN AND THE BLUE NOTES, SAM COOKE, AND FATS DOMINO. BUT AS MUCH AS MUCH AS HE BRINGS RHYTHM AND BLUES HITS TO JAZZ, HE’D NEVER ABANDON THE JAZZ SONGBOOK. THAT VOLUME INCLUDES THE BOSSA NOVA RECORDINGS OF STAN GETZ, WHICH MAHOGANY FIRST HEARD IN THE 1960s. AT THE KAPLAN PENTHOUSE, HE PERSONALIZES THE BEST KNOWN BOSSA NOVA WITH A CANDID APPRECIATION OF "THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA."

46) Music: "The Girl From Ipanema" (Mahogany, JFLC – 12/01) 4:39

47) Bradley (alt):

"THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA" -- KEVIN MAHOGANY WITH THE RENEE ROSNES TRIO.

"In a way, he’s upped the ante, because you can’t just do one thing anymore, you have to be able to do it all, and I guess Kevin will kind of come to represent that. If that’s the thing that he’s known for, I mean maybe it’ll be like Benny Carter, who could play like six instruments and arrange, even though he’s one of the greatest alto players of all time. // Maybe Kevin is the Benny Carter of singing."

 

49) Bradley:

AS WILL FRIEDWALD SAYS, KEVIN MAHOGANY MAY BE CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE FOR JAZZ VOCALISTS -- BRINGING IN R&B, COUNTRY & WESTERN, AND OF COURSE -- THE BLUES.

AS HE TRADES RIFFS WITH BASSIST CHRISTIAN McBRIDE YOU CAN HEAR JOE WILLIAMS AND BLUES SHOUTER JIMMY RUSHING – MILES DAVIS’S "ALL BLUES."

50) Music: "All Blues / West Coast Blues" (Mahogany, JFLC – 12/03) » 6:40

51) Music: "Teach Me Tonight"

52) Bradley:

KEVIN MAHOGANY AND VANESSA RUBIN SANG "TEACH ME TONIGHT" AT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER’S "SINGERS OVER MANHATTAN." TWO VOCALISTS WHO EMBRACE THE JAZZ TRADITION WHILE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO BRING IT INTO THE FUTURE – KEVIN MAHOGANY AND VANESSA RUBIN.

THE TRIO WAS LED BY RENEE ROZNESS (REE-nee ROZH-ness) WITH CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE ON BASS AND LEWIS NASH ON THE DRUMS, AT THE KAPLAN PENTHOUSE.

JAZZ FROM LINCOLN CENTER IS PRODUCED BY JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER AND MURRAY STREET ENTERPRISE NEW YORK. THIS PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY NEIL TESSER. OUR SENIOR PRODUCER IS STEVE RATHE.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS ARE AVE CARRILLO AND JOSHUA P. JACKSON. THE PROGRAM WAS EDITED BY VALERIE GLADSTONE.

THE RECORDINGS AT THE KAPLAN PENTHOUSE WERE MADE BY EDWARD HABER AND GEORGE WELLINGTON, WITH DIGITAL POST-PRODUCTION BY DAVID GOREN AT STEVEN ERICKSON'S.

THE PRODUCTION TEAM INCLUDES LEE ANN BERNARD, GWENDOLYN DEAN, LAUREN KRENZEL, LARRY JOSEPHSON AND ANDREW ROSENBLUM (ROW-zen-blum.)

52) Bradley: (cont.)

THANKS TO ROB GIBSON, SUSAN RADIN, CAT HENRY, TRACEY SCHUTTY, THE RADIO FOUNDATION, AND THE STAFF AT THE STANLEY H. KAPLAN PENTHOUSE.

THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER IS WYNTON MARSALIS.