Customer Reviews

don't go to strangers

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Colleen McNabb is a jazz singer, working out of Chicago. She studied with Jackie Allen and Patricia Barber, and has toured with Joey DeFrancesco, (who backs her up on this album). She has also appeared with folks like George Coleman, Ron Blake, Von Freeman and David "Fathead" Newman.

Ms McNabb's style has been compared to Carmen McRae and Shirley Horn - although she does not deliver a lyric with the same "authority" those ladies brought to the party - of course, that may come with time.

According to the liner notes, "don't go to strangers," is Ms McNabb's debut album. That's a little odd since there is another album, "It Might as Well be Spring," featuring her vocals and apparently released more than five years ago. A little mystery - but be that as it may, "... strangers" certainly has the "feel" of a first-effort.

There is another album bearing the title "Don't Go to Strangers," (this one properly capitalized). The 1960 break-out album by Etta Jones - one of the best, (although under appreciated), jazz singers ever recorded. As I listened to Ms McNabb's version of "don't go to strangers," I couldn't help but compare her to Ms Jones. That comparison didn't work in Ms McNabb's favor - but then, in all fairness, there are very few singers who can keep up with Ms Jones.

Ms McNabb's "don't go to strangers" is a set of standards. Besides the title song, it includes such old favorites as "I'm in the Mood for Love," "Waltz for Debbie," and "Save Your Love for Me."

Ms McNabb has a pretty, well-trained, mid-register voice. But, at least at this point in her career, she lacks the ability to take "ownership" of a song the way Ms Jones, or for that matter, Ms McRae and Ms Horn did. Great jazz singers have the ability to BECOME the song - Ms McNabb simply sings the lyrics - the words are there, but the emotional content is not.

The sonics are well done: Ms McNabb's voice is clearly and precisely presented while Mr DeFrancesco's stuttering, skittering organ chords weave in and out of the mix, (indeed, Mr DeFrancesco's organ work is outstanding - an excellent counterpoint to Ms McNabb's vocals).

Ms McNabb is clearly a talented singer. I look for more and better records from her in the future.

My late discovery of Colleen merely shows how out of touch I've been with the Chicago jazz scene for the present millennium. Mention Chicago vocalists, and the first and foremost singers who come to mind are Jackie Allen, Judy Roberts, Bobbi Wilsyn, and perhaps the two Calloway sisters (who rarely perform in Chicago, their hometown). But Colleen McNabb, based on the evidence of this release, belongs right alongside them. And it doesn't hurt that she receives accompaniment--on both Hammond B3 and piano--from jazz superstar Joey DeFrancesco.

I'd given Etta Jones' classic "Don't Go to Strangers" (the RVG edition) to my daughter, who is a highly stressed, ultra-conscientious physician and mom, serving all members of her "extended family" (patients and children) with the same thorough devotion and care. So understandably, she hadn't had the luxury of time that I did to fully make Etta's acquaintance. So I'm betting she'll take more instantly to the utterly "present" (in terms of the audio as well as the unassuming elocution and execution of the material) quality of this more recent recording which, moreover, includes one of her favorite tunes, "For All We Know," along with some rare fare (I don't recall a single vocal interpretation of "Canadian Sunset," and "A Dream Is a Wish" is certainly a winning "family song" if there ever was one. I'm impressed also by the inclusion of "Waltz for Debbie" (some other vocal versions of the Bill Evans' composition have left me wishing it had been left as an instrumental) as well as "Autumn Serenade" (Coltrane and Johnny Hartman certainly whetted our appetite for this gorgeous ballad but few singers picked up on the cue).

The "Down Beat" review of this recording was favorable, though I was somewhat perplexed by one of the sentences (written, of course, with a youthful audience in mind): "Although Colleen sticks with traditional standards in the swing tradition, she sings with soul." My thought was: since when are the two mutually exclusive? Since when are these tunes an obstacle to personally-felt, emotional expression? Did the fact that Sinatra in the 1950s made a deliberate decision to go back 20-30 years to the great tunes of Gershwin, Kern, Berlin, Ellington, Arlen, etc. result in shallow, unsoulful recordings on his Capitol all-ballad and all-swing albums? How familiar are younger listeners with these so-called "old-fashioned" songs? If an artist chooses not to sing them, what sort of material constitutes "soul"? A hymnal, perhaps? A Yoko Ono impersonation?

Some of us read too closely.

[For another great Chicago female singing talent--this one I'd overlooked for 50, rather than a mere 10, years--do an Amazon music search for Lucy Reed. She made only 2-3 albums, but what albums they are! On the first, she's accompanied by pianist Bill Evans; on the second, she not only receives musical support of the same order but benefits from the arranging skills of Chicago's great pianist, Eddie Higgins, as well as two of the all-time legends in jazz composition, arranging, and music theory: Gill Evans and Bill Russell. The albums are out of print, of course, but at least one can still be acquired (last I looked) and at shockingly affordable prices.]

What a delight to "discover" this new talent! Her selection of material is excellent and well-suited to her voice and style, and having Joey DeFrancesco backing her up is a real bonus. Repeated listenings of this CD will only make you more fond of the music and the singer.