Most jazz vocalists
sing standards. Allegra Levy writes her own. From the plaintive title track of
her brazenly autobiographical debut album, Lonely City, to the haunting strains
of its intricate closing ballad, "The Duet," the 24-year-old New
York-based vocalist and composer has penned a lyrical collection of 11
harmonically adventurous-yet-familiar originals steeped in the tradition of the
Great American Songbook.
"This is a
mature first recording by a singer you're sure to hear more from," says
renowned trumpeter John McNeil, who produced the album. "The tunes are catchy and
well-constructed, and you'll probably find yourself singing them in a short
time. I sing them still."
The album features
Levy with an all-star band: drummer Richie Barshay, bassist Jorge Roeder, tenor
saxophonist Adam Kolker, guitarist Steve Cardenas, trumpeter John Bailey,
pianist Carmen Staaf, and violinist Mark Feldman.
"Richie is one
of the most imaginative drummers of our time," Levy says of the
percussionist, a fellow native of West Hartford, CT, who has played with Herbie
Hancock, Chick Corea, and Esperanza Spalding. "He had a really clear
understanding of all my tunes and took them to other places."
Staaf, a rising piano star recently chosen as
the pianist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at
UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music, contributed several arrangements.
"Carmen is a very emotional, passionate musician and would know what I
wanted even before I knew," Levy says. "I've never connected more
musically with a person on so many levels."
She also found a
musical soul mate in McNeil, with whom she studied at New England Conservatory.
"John and I are very like-minded people. We have a dash of cynicism in all
of our work," she said of the trumpeter-composer, who has played with
Horace Silver, Thad Jones, and currently leads the quartet Hush Point.
"He's been a real mentor to me. He performs the high-wire balancing act of
embracing tradition while championing the progressive. "
Levy is currently
completing a seven-month residency at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. She
made her international debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008, and has
since cut her teeth in New York and New England clubs including Tomi Jazz,
Somethin' Jazz, The Flatiron Room, and Black-Eyed Sally's.
Levy takes her
inspiration from legendary vocalists Carmen McRae and Betty Carter-altos
comfortable exploring the lower register-but also classic composers Richard
Rodgers, Jule Styne, and Henry Mancini. "Their melodies have lasted for so
long and are still so beautiful," she says. "My goal was to retain
that timeless sound with modern lyrics. Bring standards into now."
Yet there is nary
an old standard to be found. As a prolific composer, she ultimately chose the
daring route of restricting her debut to originals. "That was definitely a
risk," she says, "but I figured I'm going to be myself, this is what
I have to say, and I'm just going to say it now the way I want to say it."
Levy began composing the material for Lonely City when she was a freshman at
NEC, encouraged by vocalist Dominique Eade, whom she describes as "a jazz
goddess."
Lonely City focuses
on the most universal of themes. "The album chronicles the emotional ups
and downs of being with somebody else and not being with somebody else,"
Levy explains. The Joni Mitchell-inspired ballad "Everything Green"
waxes nostalgic about those ephemeral, often painful moments. "Joni
Mitchell tells stories. Her lyrics are very strong and very intimate," she
says. "It's meaningful when somebody just lays her life out there like
that."
Levy finds this
emotional rawness with an understated vocal style that emphasizes phrasing over
pipes. "You go to concerts and hear these incredible powerhouse voices,
and it's very moving, but I really like to explore the little corners of
subtlety in the harmonics and lyrics."
On the wistful
"A Better Day, " Levy draws from the legacy of the great scatters to
convey the ineffable, breaking down the barrier between vocalist and
instrumentalist. "Improvisation is just another way in which I like to
express myself," she says. "Every once in awhile I just want to let
loose and explore the harmonics more-say something else." Despite a
propensity to improvise, she still believes that powerful lyrics can
"bridge the gap between the audience and the music."
The lilting title
track, "Lonely City," is "about finding your lost love,"
she says and has a harmonic simplicity that belies the bewilderment that goes
into the search. "There are a lot of ship references, and the idea is that
by the end of the song you get to that lighthouse or safe harbor."
Most of her other
compositions diverge from the typical lament that "my man has up and
gone," tackling instead the deeper angst of struggling to cope in a world
that cries out for levity and conformity.
"There's a
different kind of blues for a woman," she contends. "There's a
different tale of woe. And it's a little more complex than 'I lost my love.'
Now it's 'I want to find my place in the world.'"
Typical of this
realist's outlook is "I'm Not OK," a self-deprecating yet defiant
anthem that is the only true blues track on the album, and the samba "I
Don't Want to Be in Love," the record's most up-tempo entry. "You
hear Latin music and can't help but dance to it, and love is the same to
me-only this is kind of an unwanted dance," she says. A decidedly
different dance number is the propulsive "Clear-Eyed Tango,"
featuring virtuoso Mark Feldman on violin. "Mark brings the edge and
explosive emotion that the song needed. There are few violinists in the world
who could provide that."
Writing Lonely City
was a cathartic experience, and Levy hopes that hearing it will be cathartic
for the listener as well.
"These are
real experiences that I've had, and I want somebody else to know that they're
not alone," she says. "That's what the blues is all about. It's about
togetherness. It's not just, 'I've got the blues.' It's not just, 'I'm not OK.'
It's 'Let's bear this all together.'"
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