{"id":9663,"date":"2018-06-15T17:21:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T00:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9663"},"modified":"2018-06-15T17:21:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T00:21:53","slug":"meeting-jamie-shew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/06\/meeting-jamie-shew\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting Jamie Shew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-9664\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jamieshewewosquarecover1600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jamieshewewosquarecover1600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jamieshewewosquarecover1600-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jamieshewewosquarecover1600-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jamieshewewosquarecover1600-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jamieshewewosquarecover1600-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/>Having heard an advance CD by Jamie Shew, a singer new to me, I asked the trumpeter Bobby Shew if she is related to him. He followed his answer\u00e2\u20ac\u201dNo\u00e2\u20ac\u201d with a question of his own, the one that musicians invariably ask about singers: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can she sing?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Meaning:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Is she in tune?<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Doe she phrase well?<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Does she have good time?<\/p>\n<p>I have listened twice to Ms. Shew\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s album and watched several of her <em>Youtube<\/em> videos. She can sing.<\/p>\n<p>The CD, <em>Eyes Wide Open<\/em>, finds her in the company of players from the top tier of Los Angeles musicians: Larry Koonse, guitar; Joe Bagg, piano and organ; Darek Oles (Oleszkiewicz), bass; and Jason Harnell, drums. Gary Fukushima\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s liner notes trace her history\u00e2\u20ac\u201d piano lessons when she was a child, advanced music degrees, marriage to bassist Roger Shew, motherhood, then the loss of her husband to cancer in 2016 when he was 42.<\/p>\n<p>The repertoire includes two of her songs, several cherished standards that include a superb version of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Detour Ahead,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and assured delivery of Thelonious Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Reflections\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Jon Hendricks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lyric. There is a rare cover of Slim Gaillard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1945 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Flat Foot Floogie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in which she and Koonse have a unison line that sounds enough like something Charlie Parker might have played that I had to investigate whether there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hidden alternate take of the 1945 Gaillard recording. There doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s watch a couple of videos. The first is of Jamie and Roger Shew together in 2011 with other members of the music faculty at Fullerton College near Los Angeles. It open with a few words from her husband and includes her performance of Antonio Carlos Jobim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Corcovado.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Fullerton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dr. Joseph Jewell, saxophonist Bruce Babad, pianist Joe Bagg and percussionist Erik Lekrone are part of the proceeding.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IfF73wJ5_9g\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Now, a more recent video, evidently recorded in Jamie Shew\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kitchen, with Larry Koonse, Darek Oles, Kevin Kanner using the surface of a music stand to simulate a drum set\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand a short, curious, member of the household.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ho-CGnJPoS0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"text-align: left;\">Ms. Shew wrote the title song of her new album, <\/span><em style=\"text-align: left;\">Eyes Wide Open<\/em><span style=\"text-align: left;\">, to express the importance of moving on from even the most discouraging losses. She seems to have done that.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having heard an advance CD by Jamie Shew, a singer new to me, I asked the trumpeter Bobby Shew if she is related to him. He followed his answer\u00e2\u20ac\u201dNo\u00e2\u20ac\u201d with a question of his own, the one that musicians invariably ask about singers: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can she sing?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Meaning: \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Is she in tune? \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Doe she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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-9663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9663","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=9663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}