NNENNA FREELON: Blueprint Of A Lady

 NNENNA FREELON
Nos anos 80, o time do Vasco da Gama teve um jogador - GEOVANE, que tinha toda a "pinta" de que seria o "craque-da-sua-geração". A torcida vascaína ficou, durante anos, esperando - em vão - pela "explosão" do Geovane, que não aconteceu: ficou apenas na promessa. O que tem isso a ver com Nnenna Freelon? Para mim, pessoalmente, tudo a ver. Quando ela surgiu no cenário do jazz, todos acreditamos estar diante da "cantora-da-sua-geração". Tal como o Geovane, os anos se passaram e não aconteceu nada...
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NNENNA FREELON
Nnenna Freelon, (born July 28, 1954), is an American jazz singer, composer, producer, and arranger.  One critic described her as "a spell-binding professional, who rivets attention with her glorious, cultivated voice and canny stagecraft". Chinyere Nnenna Pierce was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a young woman she sang extensively in her community and the Union Baptist Church and at St. Paul AME.  "I started singing in the church, like so many others..." She suggests that her influences included several "not famous people," as well as such familiar names as Nina Simone and Billy Eckstine, artists whose records her parents played at home. On her Grammy-nominated release, Blueprint of a Lady: Sketches of Billie Holiday (2005), which comes highly recommended, Freelon pays tribute to the quintessential jazz vocalist Billie Holiday in the best possible way—without imitation and putting her own interpretations on material written by or associated with Lady Day.
~Source: wikipedia - edited by CB
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ALBUM REVIEW
Billie Holiday and Nnenna Freelon are very accomplished jazz singers of their generations who happen to be Black women. There the similarities end. Whereas Ms. Holiday sung languidly, behind the beat, with a cool that masked (sometimes, and in varying degrees) a profound sense of personal pain, Ms. Freelon sings on the beat, vibrantly and buoyantly, and does so in many styles. Whether singing soul, funk, jazz, r & b, or cool jazz, she pulls her singing off impressively. But all jazz singers ultimately owe a debt to Lady Day, and Ms. Freelon pays hers here, with this Grammy-nominated album. Rather than imitate or re-create Billie Holiday, she takes these compositions and willfully does them (except for "Now or Never") in a completely different way than the originals.  We have "God Bless the Child" a la '70's soul; "Strange Fruit" almost as free jazz; "Them There Eyes" as cool jazz; and (believe it or not), "Willow Weep for Me" as funk, to name but four examples. These certainly are not recreations of Lady Day; they are creations and, as Ms. Freelon points out, Billie Holiday says "No two people are alike, and it's got to be that way with music, or it isn't music." So, does this music work? "Don't Explain"  certainly does; this arrangement is outstanding. As to the rest: it's a matter of your personal taste. Ms. Freelon always sings well, and she and Nick Phillips do a fine job producing this album. The album is worthy of a Grammy nomination, although I personally would have picked a few unnominated ones from 2005 over this one.  But to me, the gold standard for reinterpretations of Lady Day is Carmen McRae's "Carmen Sings Lover Man and Other Billie Holiday Songs." To give this c.d. 5 stars is to suggest it is as good as Carmen's album. It isn't. I admire this album; I absolutely adore Carmen's, and believe it to be possibly the finest vocal jazz album ever made. Recommended nevertheless. Ms. Freelon is a very fine singer who should be heard.
By  Rick Cornell "RC" (Reno, Nv USA) -
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MINHA OPINIÃO:
Acho que encontrei "my soul mate": o Rick Cornell escreveu, "tim-tim-por-tim-tim", tudo o que eu iria escrever a respeito deste álbum. Pelo que se sabe de Billie Holiday, a "diva" deve ter torcido o nariz aí no segundo andar e verbalizado todos os impropérios, do seu vasto repertório de ofensas, diante da homenagem [sic]. Por muito menos, "Lady Day" soltou os cachorros, xingou e esnobou gente do mesmo calibre dela (Sarah Vaughan, Anita O´Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, etc).  A exuberância vocal e performática de NNENNA FREELON - antítese da econômica Billie - e os arranjos "modernosos", devem ter sido considerados uma ofensa... Então ficamos assim: NF apenas canta o repertório consagrado pela "Lady" pois, a meu ver, a homenagem é "torta", uma  vez que não dá pra analisar o álbum sob o prisma de uma eventual analogia com B.H. O arranjo de "You´ve changed" é muito bom. Em contrapartida, "Lover man" e "God bless the Child", numa levada  "funkeada" da bateria e as harmonias fora dos caminhos originais, soam estranhas. Mas "All of me" em ritmo de reggae (!), definitivamente,  passa dos limites: é demais para o meu (des)gosto.
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NNENNA FREELON: Blueprint Of A Lady

PERSONNEL:
Nnenna Freelon (vocals)
Brandon McCune (trumpet, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond b-3 organ)
Wayne Batchelor (acoustic bass guitar)
Kinah Boto (drums)
Beverly Botsford (percussion).

TRACKS/FAIXAS:
01. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
02. What A Little Moonlight Can Do
03. Don't Explain
04. God Bless The Child
05. Strange Fruit
06. Willow Weep For Me
07. Balm In Gilead
08. Them There Eyes
09. Only You Will Know
10. You've Changed
11. Now Or Never
12. Lover Man
13. Left Alone
14. Interlude-Little Brown Bird
15. All Of Me