Record date: December 21, 22 and 28, 1983
Mal really was fond of female singers. Of course his affiliation with Billy Holiday is the thing some people know him best for. And his calm, dark tones really blend well with most female voices. Yet between 1964 and and 1983 he only recorded once with a singer: with Kimiko Kasai for Victor Japan. In 1983 he recorded with another Japanese singer: Sumiko Yoseyama. And from this session, he would record lots of times with female vocalists: Italian singers, Japanese singers and American singers. As I mentioned in my Kasai review, I am really not a big fan of vocal jazz. The only ones I really, really enjoy are Lady Day and Ella. So please bear that in mind while reading these reviews.
This session…. oh boy I really, really dislike it. Not to offend anyone, especially not Sumiko, but I really think she’s much of a singer. She has a very flat voice, not vibrato whatsoever and not capable to improvise with it. It sounds a bit cold and sometimes even out of tune. But she also isn’t really speaking the English language very well. Where Kasai sounds pretty fluent, Sumiko has a very thick Japanese accent which makes a lot of sentences pretty hard to understand. And a bit laughable at times. Then there’s the band. Mal really is nothing more than an accompanying pianist with zero space to improvise or stretch out. Same goes for the rest of the band: they could probably play very well but can’t show off anywhere. Now Jeanne Lee was a singer who could really give that space. And there’s the songs with strings…. which makes it even worse. Not much of a strings fan anyway but I know plenty of examples where it actually adds something. Here: it really does not and they sound as chords coming from a keyboard. Yuk.
As I am not so fond of vocals anyway one should always check out for themselves of course. Plenty of samples to be found on the internet. Not cheap to buy so be sure this is really you’re thing. I’ve got the cd version which is fine.
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