{"id":445,"date":"2006-04-07T18:17:09","date_gmt":"2006-04-08T01:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=445"},"modified":"2015-01-17T16:03:10","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T00:03:10","slug":"pinky_winters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2006\/04\/pinky_winters\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinky Winters"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my report on the Johnny Mandel concert<\/a> at the Jazz West Coast 3 festival last fall, I remarked on the exquisite performance by Pinky Winters<\/a> of one of Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s songs.<\/p>\n

Ms. Winters sang Dave Frishberg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lyrics to Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You Are There,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d accompanied by only the composer at the piano. Together, without embellishment, they created magic, something at which this masterly singer has excelled for many years to recognition that comes nowhere near her level of artistry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At JWC3, I learned from Ms. Winters and her producer, Bill Reed, that she had recorded an entire album of Mandel songs with the great pianist Lou Levy, her companion in music and life who died in 2001. In 1983, they performed in the Great American Songwriters series at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. Until this spring, the recording of their Mandel concert was squirreled away on a reel of tape. The good news for those who relish singing that serves the song is that the recital has emerged on an imported compact disc. Slightly less good is the news that The Shadow of Your Smile: Pinky Winters Sings Johnny Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6with Lou Levy<\/a><\/em>, produced by the Sinatra Society of Japan, sells for nearly forty dollars. If I had not received a review copy, I would have paid the forty bucks. Singing of this quality is worth it.<\/p>\n

Why? Maybe the key lies in that phrase from the October Rifftides<\/em> review: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153without embellishment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pinky Winters does not scat, swoop, or indulge in any form of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153jazz singer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d posturing. I have no doubt, given her innate musicianship, that she could embellish up a storm, but\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike the man who knows how to play the accordion in Mark Twain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definition of a gentleman\u00e2\u20ac\u201dshe 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153merely;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing mere about her kind of artistry. The great bassist Red Mitchell once wrote a song called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Simple Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Easy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He might have had Pinky Winters in mind.<\/p>\n

In her two minutes with Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You Are There\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (lyric by Dave Frishberg), she presents the song as a chapter in a life story. Through her subtle phrasing, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s morning,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d makes us feel the freshness of morning. She sings \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pretend the dream is true\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the softest diminuendo on the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dream,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re dreaming. At a dynamic level of double piano<\/em>, she makes the piece a soliloquy. She works the same magic with Peggy Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lyrics to Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Shining Sea,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cinnamon and Clove,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Emily,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d indeed, with all ten of the songs she caresses here. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no wonder that in his back-cover endorsement Mandel says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m proud to say that many fine singers have recorded my songs, but none of them made me as happy as what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re about to hear on this record.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Levy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accompaniment is half the story of the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success. One of the finest of the generation of bebop pianists who followed Bud Powell, he was a member of Woody Herman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Second Herd and of Chubby Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s big band. He went on to solo with power and imagination through a career that brought him together with a high percentage of the top jazz artists of the second half of the twentieth century. He worked often with Stan Getz, his pal from the Herman days. Levy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sixth sense about what singers need made him a favorite accompanist of Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson and, of course, Pinky Winters\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe royalty of vocalists in the second half of the twentieth century. Levy once said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve played for every singer except Pavarotti.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tough break for Pavarotti.<\/p>\n

In addition to the pieces with Winters, Levy plays \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Theme from M*A*S*H,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153El Cajon\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Time For Love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as piano features, aided by the late bassist Bill Takas, who also assists on the vocal tracks. The intimate quality of the recording captures all of Levy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full-bodied harmonies. The album ends with a 1991 recording of Ms. Winters singing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take Me Home,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mandel accompanying her in what is described as a demo track. Some demo. Some album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my report on the Johnny Mandel concert at the Jazz West Coast 3 festival last fall, I remarked on the exquisite performance by Pinky Winters of one of Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s songs. Ms. Winters sang Dave Frishberg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lyrics to Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You Are There,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d accompanied by only the composer at the piano. Together, without embellishment, they created […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}