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February 16, 2007

Pinky Winters, Part Two

Nearly a year ago, reviewing The Shadow Of Your Smile: Pinky Winters Sings Johnny Mandel...with Lou Levy, I went on at length about that remarkable release by the vocalist and the pianist. Here is a bit of the review.

Pinky Winters does not scat, swoop, or indulge in any form of "jazz singer" posturing. I have no doubt, given her innate musicianship, that she could embellish up a storm, but--like the man who knows how to play the accordion in Mark Twain's definition of a gentleman--she chooses not to. She merely sings the song, with impeccable diction, interpretation, time and phrasing, and with intonation that is centered in the heart of each note. Strike "merely;" there's nothing mere about her kind of artistry. The great bassist Red Mitchell once wrote a song called "Simple Isn't Easy." He might have had Pinky Winters in mind.

To go to the archive and read all of that piece, click here. Then come back and get the good news; at the same 1983 concert that produced The Shadow Of Your Smile, Pinky Winters and Levy recorded enough songs for an additional CD, which has just been released for the first time. Called Speak Low, it includes that Kurt Weill song along with eleven others by Gershwin, Berlin, Arlen, Kern, Styne, Blane, Livingston, Loesser--the usual suspects among great American song writers, plus Jobim's "No More Blues" and Luiz Eca's "Dolphin." Assisted by bassist Bill Takas, Winters and Levy perform with the practiced ease of master musicians who know one another's qualities inside out. Longing comes with no more poignancy than in their treatment of "Never Let Me Go," joy no more infectious than in their romp through Jobim's "No More Blues." And there is plenty of Levy in solo, including his and Takas's exhilirating duet on an unlkely vehicle, Berlin's "The Piccolino." Levy's work here reminds us what a complete pianist he was.

Like Levy, Takas has been gone for several years. A bassist who sustained notes the way lovers prolong caresses, he was a musicians' favorite who never got the acclaim he deserved. Winters is in Southern California, singing beautifully and recording for obscure, expensive, import labels. It is obvious what that says about the state of culture and of the recording industry in the United States.

Posted by dramsey at February 16, 2007 1:05 AM

COMMENTS

Your last comments in the Pinky Winter's piece compel me to write. Although your columns are uniformly informative and enjoyable, your postings on the economics and business of jazz are of particular interest to me. I do not find it coincidental that the prospects for jazz commercially perpetuating itself are about as good as as iceberg in the current climate. I would very much like to know your thoughts on the Grammy nomination/selection process since there were many glaring oversights in both the jazz and blues catagories. Your past columns on record companies and all of the hurdles involved in keeping seminal works of jazz in the market place were especially illuminating.

Your work is, and always has been some of the best in journalism. Keep it up and best wishes on the work on the novel.

Posted by: Barry K. Schmidt at February 16, 2007 9:27 AM



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