I don’t need vocal gymnastics, nor attitude, nor posing. Just gimme a guy that can take a tune and use his God given gift of sound and rhythm to make the material speak to me. Here are two gents that are living the jazz life and sound like sages of the scene.
Freddy Cole is simply amazing in that he finds more obscure songs to resurrect than any other vocalist in memory. Sure, he revisits chestnuts such as “Where Are You?” and “Sometimes I’m Happy,” but more often he uses his sorghum thick voice to add texture to left field beauties such as “What Color is Love,” “Never, Never, Never” and “Who (Will Take My Place)”. A couple Boomer tunes, “Everybody’s Talkin’” and the Isley Brothers’ “For the Love Of You” sound marvelous when puree’d through Cole’s delivery. The team of John Di Martino/p, Randy Napoleon/g, Elias Bailey/b and Curtis Boyd/dr along with the occasional horn team of Bootsie Barnes/ts and Josh Brown/tb keep the music in the right frame of mind, which is second set hip. This is everything that’s right about singing.
Giacomo Gates is from the next generation, coming from the world of hard bop, and this tribute to songs written or attributed to Miles Davis is so hip that you may need to see a chiropractor afterwards. Di Martino is again on the piano, along with Dave Stryker/g, Lonnie Plaxico/b, Vincent Ector/dr and Freddie Hendrix/tp, and together they sound like they were breast fed on tunes like “Milestones” “Walkin’” and “All Blues.” Gates’ delivery is like a veteran junk baller; he knows when to throw them high and hard as on “Four” or when to change the speeds and spin as on an agonizingly perfect “I Fall In L ove Too Easily.” He can scat and do the vocalese thing if necessary, and even write his own lyrics, but the whole thing you take away is the love of the jazz form. He makes it look easy with an inherent sense of cool, but like pitchers like Greg Maddux, you’re deceived by the easy precision. A cooker!
High Note Records
Savant Records