Customer Reviews

At The Village Gate

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Always regarded as a "cool," somewhat distanced singer, in the tradition of June Christy and Anita O'Day, Chris Connor found her real audience when she decided to leave big band concerts for the more intimate jazz clubs where she spent most of her later years. In this live performance (1963) at the Village Gate, Connor is anything but "cool." Freed from audience expectations, she is loose, uninhibited, and spontaneous, creating moods through innovative timing and phrasing, and drama far more intense than what one hears in her studio recordings.

Backed by her trio of Ronnie Ball (piano), Richard Davis (bass), and Ed Shaughnessy (drums), along with famed jazz guitarist Mundell Lowe as guest, Connor sings two "shows"--bright, jazzy songs in the "Early Show," with much darker, meditations on lost love in the "Late Show." The two "shows" allow Connor to do it all!

Throughout the CD, Connor changes timing and phrasing, using her great diction to enable her to sing some lyrics at lightning pace before slowing down and becoming moody. In the "Early Show," "Something's Coming" starts out fast, with express-train excitement, before Connor and the band pause for six or seven seconds, then switch moods, as Connor contemplates the uncertainty about what might be coming and when. In "You've Come A Long Way from St. Louis," Connor uses unique phrasing, grouping words in a staccato tempo during which she barely takes a breath. From the beginning of "Anyplace I Hang My Hat is Home," she makes interpretive variations, her husky contralto playing with the melody and tempo until she is wailing.

Standouts in "The Late Show" include "Goodbye," a meditative, bluesy song which Connor sings slower than most other singers, and when she sings "It's time we parted...So kiss me as you go" she displays a powerful sense of drama and heartbreak. In "Only the Lonely," she remains almost totally within herself, singing quietly in a minor key (perhaps with her eyes closed) and creating personal variations that leave the listener exhausted. "Ten Cents a Dance" comes alive here as she tells the story of a dance hall dancer who deals with "rough guys who tear my gown" and "customers who crush my bones," and as she continues, she increases the volume till at the end she is wailing. An unforgettable live jazz album by one of the all-time great ladies of jazz. n Mary Whipple

If you're a jazz vocalist fan and somehow unfamiliar with Chris Connor -- as was the case with me until a couple of years ago -- then her fiery delivery will be a revelation. There are a few cuts on this CD, especially "Ten Cents a Dance," "Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home," and the opening "Got a Lot of Living to Do," that are truly unique interpretations. And that's good-unique, not bad-unique.

This is one of those CDs where, recorded live, you come out the far side smelling the cigarette smoke and tasting the cocktail from that long-ago nightclub scene where it was recorded. Put this one on when you want to return to New York, circa 1960 or so.

I recently was introduced to Chris Connor via a family member and fell in love with her sound. This entire album delivers what I love about jazz and jazz vocalists.