Vocal support -- Jamie Cullum and Karrin Allyson reassert jazz singing's relevance
http://www.oregonlive.com/music/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/exclude/1087041985218220.xml"Like some sort of home remedy for a millennial hangover, pop culture has been rediscovering the appeal of jazz singing. Diana Krall has emerged as a reliable million-seller. Recording an album of standards has become the default gambit for any water-treading pop star past the age of 40. And Norah Jones, regardless of whether she actually counts as a jazz singer, has pulled mainstream taste toward a thoughtfulness and lyricism of a classic -- that is pre-rock 'n' roll-era -- stripe.
The 1990s were dark days for the jazz vocal arts, as grande dames Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter all died. But they'd already come to seem like the last survivors of a bygone era, of an antiquarian aesthetic for purists only. Now, jazz singing has its greatest moment of opportunity in decades, a chance to reassert its relevance to the cultural mainstream.
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The real challenge is to connect the skills and sensibilities of the jazz tradition to a contemporary voice, with a style and attitude that can comfortably embrace them both.
Two of the strongest artists taking up that challenge, Jamie Cullum and Karrin Allyson, appeared in Portland over the past week -- the fast-rising Cullum at the Aladdin Theater on Sunday, June 6, the veteran Allyson at Jimmy Mak's Wednesday through Saturday. Cullum, a 24-year-old Brit whose latest album, "Twentysomething," has sold around 800,000 copies in his native country, has the natural advantage of youth, something that always plays well in a media-driven marketplace. But, as the R&B hit by Aaliyah put it, "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number."----------
These two rock, er, swing. Give 'em your ears, my fellow DUers. Many of you will enjoy. Or so I suspect.
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