Record date: May 28 & 29, 1985
Kim Parker was Bird's stepdaughter: she was Chan's daughter. I'm not an autobiographical expert on Bird but I am pretty sure he has written his classic 'Kim' for the singer that is present here. She has made some records with the likes of Kenny Drew, Tommy Flanagan, Phil Woods (another stepfather) and.... Mal Waldron. She wasn't very active on the scene and this record for Soul Note was one of just a few records as a leader. She composed a killer band for it with Mal at the piano, the underrated Isla Eckinger on bass and the great Ed Thigpen on drums. Unfortunately it resulted in a rather dull record.
It's pretty much the same story as with quite a lot of Mal's encounters with the female singers. Mrs. Parker could sing. She could sing in the sense that she would be a nice presence at a local restaurant singing jazz classics with a pianist at her side. But her vocal skills doesn't really pass the level of a good amateur singer. In fact, I am pretty sure she is out of tune here and there. She's doesn't have a high technical reach and her singing is little innovative. Listening to her while eating a nice steak and having a beer would be lovely. But listening to a whole record is something else.
And where the lovely Jeanne Lee easily blended with more challenging forms of jazz, Kim mostly sings in the tradition that really was the tradition in the '50's. It means for Mal and his band that they are pushed in the role the accompaning artist again and that kills most of the creativity. The solo's that he plays here are all fine as one expects from him but there is nothing exceptional in them. And Mal was definitely capable of playing exceptional things in this decade. Eckinger's and Thigpen's roles are even more modest. They hardly have any space to show off some of their excellent playing.
Got this one in the 11cd boxed set. A nice addition to complete your collection but I would not buy the seperate release as it's not a very good record.
No comments:
Post a Comment