Customer Reviews

It's About Time

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I should start by stating I know Ms. Wilsyn personally. She taught my freshman Music Theory course at Columbia College last fall. On a personal level, Bobbi Wilsyn has enriched my artistry with an attitude and musical caliber of the utmost strength and conviction. She is a fine woman, blessed with a myriad of talents and a voice that assumes varying identities. She interprets each piece on her solo recording with nuance and soul, ranking among one of the finest vocal technicians I've encountered. Bobbi Wilsyn has an astounding reputation in Chicago not only for her intoxicating performances, but also for her influence on the many young musicians she personally cultivates at Columbia College. Bobbi is a warm, humble human being, capable of translating her life experiences through the dedicated interpretations of the many pieces she sings on record, on stage, and yes, even in the classroom. This is a consummate artist of many gifts, and a person of immeasurable beauty. Thanks Bobbi.

Bobbi Wilsyn teaches music and voice at Chicago's Columbia College. In her spare time, she is the featured vocalist with several of Chicago's premier jazz bands. "It's About Time," is her debut, and so far only, solo album.

Ms Wilsyn has a pretty soprano voice with a little brass at the edges. She phrases well, articulates precisely and has a relaxed swinging style. I'm not a big fan of sopranos - but Ms Wilsyn is very easy to listen to.

"It's About Time" is an interesting mix of standards, like "A Time for Love," "Here's That Rainy Day," and "I Didn't Know What Time It Is;" a couple of rarities like Henry Nemo's "'Tis Autumn;" and four originals written or co-written by Ms Wilsyn. For the most part, Ms Wilsyn takes these numbers on a relaxed Sunday afternoon ride - the exception being "Summer in the City," where she really kicks loose - and unfortunately almost overwhelms the mood of the album, (but she does prove that she can get down with the best of 'em).

Ms Wilsyn gets outstanding musical support from her band: pianist Miguel de la Cerna, bassist Jim Cox, drummer Frank Parker and saxman Pat Mallinger - guitarists Curtis Robinson and Frank Dawson each contribute to a couple of cuts.

The sonics are excellent: Ms Wilsyn's voice is crystal clear and there's plenty of instrumental separation.

Next to if not alongside the times I caught Ole Blue in the Windy City were the occasions I'd find Bobbi Wilsyn performing at some venue. She was always the complete package (probably still is--though i rarely get to Chicago anymore). Tremendous pipes (so proficient technically, it never occurs to you to question that dimension of her talent), exquisite musical taste, always in the pocket rhythmically while making the time "feel" turbocharged, and a highly communicative sense of her audience (with an uncanny ability to close the space between you and her).

I was fortunate to see her for the first time at a small Rush Street club, The Back Room. She couldn't have been more than two feet from me in a postage-stamp-sized space that somehow accommodated a rhythm section. Time simply stopped, or disappeared. I'm not even sure I was breathing the whole time she was singing. It was one of those unrepeatable moments that you just have to be grateful once occurred--and that, moreover, you just happened to be present. On other occasions, I caught her in more spacious digs--the featured performer of a Las Vegas-styled lounge band led by someone called Milt Trenier and, on another occasion, heading up her own aggregation that seemed to have some sort of feminist theme (I'd applaud these directions if there was some sign that the size of the audience, however gender-specific, was growing in its support of the music).

The present album is, of course, inadequate to represent her talent and spirited "come-after-you" approach over many years of grueling club work. The energies she exhibited in person, transmitting a radiance capable of lighting up a space, and audience, of any size, are not in evidence on the recording. It's a more deliberative, reflective, meditative side of an entertainer who's much more--a complete artist who, like her last name, requires close attention. (For years I never found any info on her because I was spelling her last name the same as Nancy's, with whom Bobbi shares a sense of pitch so secure that she can play with those quarter tones as freely as she pleases.) I remember her as a "power singer," but from the evidence on this album she's elected to bring the heat down to a cozy simmer, not unlike the sound of Diana Ross. Nonetheless, the sum effect of her reading of a tune like "Here's That Rainy Day" is one leaving a powerful impression with the listener--unquestionably one of the best of the many recorded versions of the song.

On second listening the album is not as restrained as it might initially appear. Rather that use the familiar device of throwing everything you've got at the listener from the git-go, Wilsyn takes her time--an approach that is equally respectful of the time the listener is committing to the album. The performance grows in power, with the vocalist eventually pulling out all the stops, so memorably that her closing obligato, though ethereal and sublimely operatic, impresses the listener with its strength, a voice as dynamic and unyielding as a tornado funnel. It's about time that it receive overdue recognition, but experiencing the beauties of the project is equally about the listener's time. To give this artist your time is to receive a revelatory experience in return. Those seeking instant gratification would best look elsewhere.

Coda: Her support includes Chicago's best. Guitarist Curtis Robinson is one leg of a triumvirate of outrageously talented guitarists including Bobby Broom and Howard Johnson (don't ask me who has the edge. Broom has bragging rights, his credit sheet listing both Miles and Sonny Rollins, though Howard Johnson's octaves and chordal work more readily bring Wes to mind, and he has recorded--vocally!--with Nancy Wilson. Nevertheless, the real sleeper may be Robinson, whose playing, on occasion, is reminiscent of the blistering solos Joe Diorio used to deliver at 63rd and Cottage Grove during the South Side's glory days of jazz. All three of the contemporary aforementioned have performed with the trio Deep Blue, led by drummer Greg Rockingham. Ask him which of three he'd be quickest to make a session for--with no money or roadie assistance in the deal--and no doubt you'll get equally positive evaluations of all three).