| In all the
arts, the writers, painters, composers who have lasted
and kept on resonating in our lives have their own story
to tell. A personal, and therefore, original story.
Charlie Parker put it best: "Music is your own
experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t
live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They
teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But,
man there’s no boundary line to art."
Charlie Parker was speaking about jazz horn players,
but his truth applies equally to jazz singers. What
you hear in Deborah Davis is the sound - a signature
sound - of her experiences, in and out of music. She
is a long - distance runner who has riveted audiences
throughout this country, Europe and Asia. And like Bird
(Mr. Parker) said, she is not limited by any boundary
or category of expression, being a poet, artist, actress,
dancer, lyricist, as well as unmistakably a jazz singer.
To be recognized by other musicians, and by audiences,
as an authentic jazz singer, you have to possess first
of all your own sound. From her roots in gospel music,
blues, and jazz, she tells her stories with a disciplined
personal passion, immediacy, and a mosaic of textures
that are so compelling, you can still hear her after
the music stops.
To express yourself in jazz time, you have to move
yourself and your listeners with a flowing pulse - a
beat - that is the engine of jazz. As true original,
clarinetist Pee Wee Russell put it: jazz players and
singers "have a heart feeling and a rhythm in
their systems that you can’t budge. A rhythm you
can’t take away from them even if they were in
a symphony organization." That heart feeling,
that rhythm wave, courses throughout Deborah Davis’
singing in this set - from the ballads to the up tempo
swingers. And because that jazz time impels her improvising,
she keeps surprising herself, as well as her listeners.
Deborah Davis knew what her calling in life would be
when she was very young in her hometown of Dallas. At
first, there being no record player in the house, and
coming from a family with no musical background, she
created her own style out of an irresistible desire
to sing. She sang in church, in school shows, in party
bands; and by the time she was in high school, the choir
director, Robert Sanders, recognized her true vocation,
and had her join his weekend jazz gigs.
Deborah earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree
in vocal studies from North Texas State University -
a testing ground for evolving jazz musicians that is
known throughout the jazz world. Furthermore, being
intent on learning all dimensions of her profession,
she added an Associate Arts Degree in Recording Engineering
at Cedar Valley College.
Since 1986, based in New York, she has performed with
and impressive range of jazz masters, including Clark
Terry, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard,
Benny Green, Christian McBride, Brian Blade, and Russell
Malone; as well as appearing in such demanding clubs
as the Blue Note, Birdland, The Village Vanguard, and
Sweet Basil. Her annual tours of Europe and Asia have
been received with admiring press notices. For example,
in Japan’s premier jazz publication, Swing Journal,
she is listed among the best singers who have come to
Japan, and is bracketed with Betty Carter and Chaka
Kahn .
The title of this reverberating recording, "No
Ways Tired," is very much that of her own story,
in sound and spirit. As she says," the title sums
up my feelings about having been in this biz singing
for 30+ years, booking myself all over the globe, hustling,
paying my dues, not really becoming a major player in
the game, and watching what this biz is becoming with
the invention of the new jazz celebrities." "Invention"
is the key word because many of these sudden celebrities
are more craftily mechanical than fundamentally, irrepressibly
individual. But Deborah is indeed in no ways tired,
as you can hear so vividly and infectiously in this
session. "Some might have given up at this point,
she says. Many I know did. But when given a chance to
record, even at out of pocket expenses, and all it took
to save to do it, I’m still here, and still believing
it was what I was put on the planet to do." Hearing
the glory of that determination, and the powerful evidence
of the truth of her very reason for being, assures that
this recording will always be contemporary like the
testaments of all the jazz storytellers who have lasted.
Accompanying her on this set, is a rhythm section -
and front line - equal to her musicianship and spontaneity.
Pianist James Weidman, like the other players, has a
more impressive list of credits than I have space for
here. They include five years with saxophonist Steve
coleman and the Five Elements and the M-Base collective;
nine years as accompanist for Abbey Lincoln, and two
years with Cassandra Wilson. He’s also pianist
and musical director for Kevin mahogany.
Bassist Essiet, Essiet has performed with Abdulla Ibrahim
Dollar Brand, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Freddie
Hubbard, Benny Golson, Sam Rivers, Kenny Barron, Ralph
Peterson, and many other jazz originals - as he is too.
He also leads his own group, IBO, a Nigerian jazz project.
On drums, Alvin Atkinson has toured through the United
States and abroad with his own group, and has been featured
in concert with a wide range of musicians - from Roy
Hargrove to Barry Harris, Jimmy Heath, Branford Marsalis,
and Wycliffe Gordon. He is noted for his ability to
create harmony and melody through the drums, as in the
music of Africa, Brazil, Cuba, and other countries where
the rhythms of life and nature are an integral part
of all music.
Soprano and tenor saxophonist Keith Loftis, (At The
Mambo Inn, The Very Thought of You, and You Don’t
Know What Love Is), is a permanent member of the Frank
Foster Loud Minority Big Band, tours with Ray Charles
Orchestra, and has worked with Clark Terry, Joe Williams,
and Benny Carter, and many other renowned musicians.
He appears in a diversity of musical contexts throughout
Europe and the Orient.
Trumpeter Kenyata Beasley, (At The Mambo Inn, Dearly
Beloved) is an alumnus of the prestigious New Orleans
Center for Creative Artists (whose alumni also include
Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and Terence Blanchard.
He has won a galaxy of awards, among them: the International
Association of Jazz Educators Clifford Brown/Stan Getz
Fellowship. Among the diverse artists he has recorded
and performed with are: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ellis Marsalis,
Carlos Santana, Lauren Hill, and Frank Foster.
Percussionist Daniel Sadownick (At The Mambo Inn) earned
a Master’s in Music Education at New York University.
He has performed with Lionel Hampton , Nat Adderly,
Dianne Reeves, Dewey Redman, Lonnie Smith, Steve Wilson
and others. Daniel never limits himself to one genre
and is now busy with a number of different projects
including Steely Dan, Nnenna Freelon and a Saturday
Night Live appearance with Jennifer Lopez.
The combination of these enlivening, multiply skilled
musicians with a singer who is also indeed a musician
(not all singers are) make "No Ways Tired"
a celebration of the resilience of the life force that
is jazz.
--Nat Hentoff
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