With the release of her second album, Cities Between Us, on
SteepleChase Records, young New York-based jazz vocalist Allegra Levy
demonstrates that she has moved on from her rookie recording to reach higher --
and noticeably happier -- ground. As Neil Tesser observes in his liner notes,
this sophomore outing does not officially bear the subtitle, "The Lighter
Side of Allegra Levy." Yet clearly something new and contagiously
uplifting is underfoot, most notably on tunes like "Soy Califa,"
which includes one line that virtually sums up the entire album: "This
beat is full of romance."
Levy's first record, the critically acclaimed Lonely City,
released in 2014, was hailed by The New York Times as "freshŠ exoticŠ far
beyond the ordinary." DownBeat called it "consistently
engaging," and JazzTimes declared her "unquestionably one to
watch." Yet with song titles like "Anxiety," "I'm Not
OK," and the eminently danceable yet sardonic samba "I Don't Want to
Be in Love," the now-27-year-old singer-songwriter's first record was seen
by many to be surprisingly downhearted, especially for someone so young.
"I wasn't exactly criticized for that, but yes, people
were saying that my music was on the darker end," Levy admits. That,
however, was then. This is now. With catchy, upbeat melodies, many of them
bursting with unrestrained vivacity and verve, the new songs prove that any
prior feelings of melancholy or malaise have gone the way of the eight-track,
boy bands and pet rock.
They also show that Levy is still writing lyric-centric
songs steeped in the Great American Songbook and still focused on recording her
own original music, though she also continues to find inspiration in classic
melodies. Fresh off a seven-month stint as artist in residence at the Hong Kong
Four Seasons Hotel, she had penned several new compositions, yet also felt
inspired to insert her own words into a trio of well-known jazz artists'
instrumental tunes.
Legendary pianist Duke Jordan's "Lullaby of the
Orient" resonated due to Levy's own recent experiences in Asia. As she
explains, "It had such a haunting melody that reminded me of the emotion I
felt when I was living abroad." A second is "Soy Califa," by the
late, great tenor sax man Dexter Gordon. "It had this really happy,
positive, exciting sound and groove," Levy notes, "and I was able to
write lyrics about feeling that way because I was feeling that way."
Then there's "Down Sunday," by renowned jazz
trumpeter John McNeil, whom she has regarded as a mentor and musical soul mate
ever since she studied with him at New England Conservatory of Music. McNeil
produced Levy's first album, and supplied arrangements for two of her originals
on this one as well. "John has such a talent for arranging in a style that
adds intrigue to simple melodies and expresses the mood of the piece in a deep,
meaningful way."
Also featured on the new record are Kirk Knuffke on cornet,
Stephen Riley on tenor sax, Jay Anderson on bass, and Billy Drummond on drums,
as well as pianist Carmen Staaf, who also did some of the arrangements.
"To me, Carmen is one of the most amazing musical
voices in jazz, man or woman, today," Levy says of the rising piano star,
who recently served as pianist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of
Jazz Performance Ensemble at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music.
As for Knuffke and Riley, "They are such incredible
modern players, and have such specific sounds that nobody else has," she
says. "Plus, I got the honor of
working with Billy Drummond and Jay Anderson, a powerhouse duo who have recorded
with so many amazing musicians and really bring it to another level."
These two elder jazz statesmen also helped Levy rise to
another challenge: the need to keep the spirit of jazz alive. "I think the
best thing about this album is that it's very true to jazz," she says,
"because it's pretty much a 'live' album - not in the sense of it being
recorded before a live audience, but in that we recorded everything in one
day." In today's world, too many musicians rely too much on technology,
she believes.
This is not to suggest that the album was created overnight.
The new set of songs evolved over time, some written while she was living in
Hong Kong, others gradually acquiring added meaning in light of her travels -
"new meaning and also more meaning," she says. Typical is the title
track, "Cities Between Us."
"When I wrote it, it was about a long-distance
relationship between New York and LA. But when I moved to Hong Kong, it became
more about all of my relationships and how difficult it was to live so far away
from friends and family."
Then there's the song that most directly explains why this
lady is no longer singing the blues.
"When I recorded my first album, I was going through a lot of
emotional turmoil," she says. She
had recently graduated college and was grappling with a complicated
relationship.
"But with the second album, I had gained a sense of
freedom by moving to the other side of the world," she says. "I was
feeling strong and independent, not to mention happy." Unfortunately, for
a composer, feeling up also has its down side. "I wrote 'Misery Makes the
Music' because after I met my boyfriend in Hong Kong, I had a hard time writing
now that I was feeling happy." She found herself wrestling with writer's
block in the absence of emotional angst and a need to achieve catharsis. As the
song wryly laments, "It isn't right, refusing to put up a fight. Instead
you fill me with delight. But what's a song without some bite?"
Not everything on the album is sunshine, lollipops, and
roses, of course. Another far more plaintive track finds her stuck "on endless
middle ground/Love tossed me in the lost and found like a forgotten glove or
winter hat."
That song, "Dear Friend," is probably her favorite
song on the record, she says. "It's actually meant to be a letter. I was
going through a breakup, and I was thinking about a particular friend I was
trying to tell the story to. So it's also about the power of true friendship -
how important it is, and how fleeting it can be when you travel. You see who
sticks around and who doesn't. It's also about that feeling that you're at the
end of your rope. That feeling of 'There's no help.' "
Wait, what happened to the lighter side of Allegra Levy? It
evidently has learned that love is not all you need. There's also friendship.
And, yes, music.
"I became a musician because when I heard certain songs
and I was going through something difficult, I felt like I wasn't alone,"
she says. "When I heard Chet Baker, and Joni Mitchell, I thought those
songs specifically spoke to me in that moment, and thought, 'That person knows exactly
what I'm going through.'"
As for what she's going through now, with an album entitled
Cities Between Us, at least one thing clearly remains to be remedied in her
life.
"My music is like an open diary," she says,
"a testament to where I am at any point in my life. Right now? Yes,
there's still an issue to be resolved. My boyfriend still lives some distance
away. But maybe by the next album he won't."
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