The end of
one chapter means the beginning of another. Like all the best cliffhangers,
Cyrille Aimée Live leaves the audience wanting more...but also eager to
discover what comes next. Recorded at a typically lively and engaging
performance at New York City's (Le) Poisson Rouge in August 2017, the album
finds the acclaimed vocalist bidding a fond adieu to her long-standing band and
looking forward to a brand-new phase in her life and career. The August
performance marked the band's final show together, saying goodbye to this
configuration of Aimée's band while welcoming a new chapter of creative output.
As anyone
who has followed her work over the last decade can hear, Aimée thrives on
living in the moment. Nowhere is that more evident than on stage; throughout
Cyrille Aimée Live (due out June 22 via Mack Avenue Records) she holds the
audience in the palm of her hand. Rapt during quiet moments, raucous as the
spirited band swings into high gear, roaring with laughter at Aimée's charming
and quirky banter, or singing along with a Michael Jackson medley, the crowd is
an essential part of the buoyant show.
The concert
captured here marks the end of an era, but the tone is celebratory, not
bittersweet. Aimée's tight-knit band -- guitarists Adrien Moignard and Michael
Valeanu, bassist Dylan Shamat, and drummer Dani Danor -- share as warm and
playful an energy as ever. This group of musicians is so close that they once
missed a flight as they sat at the gate, so engaged in catching up after a mere
two weeks apart that all five remained completely oblivious to the boarding
process and departure!
But Aimée,
restlessly creative and an inveterate improviser -- in her life as in her music
-- is anxiously looking forward to new opportunities, new sounds, and even a
new home. Born in France and long based in Brooklyn, the free-spirited singer
recently relocated again, this time to New Orleans, an intriguing prospect not
only for her all-embracing approach to music but for its cultural resonance
with her French-Dominican heritage.
"I want
to find new inspirations and a new energy," Aimée says. "I feel like
you always have to search further, and that's what I constantly try to
do."
That
questing spirit has already led Aimée on a staggering variety of adventures in
her life, promising countless surprises to come. She's ventured from singing on
street corners in Europe to dazzling audiences at the world's most prestigious
jazz festivals; from sneaking out to sing in gypsy encampments in her native
France to acting on Broadway; from singing Sondheim alongside Bernadette Peters
to sharing her story in a TEDx talk; from braving the notoriously tough
audiences at New York's Apollo Theatre to being called a "rising star in
the galaxy of jazz singers" by The New York Times.
Significantly,
Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't," with its refrain of "It's
over now," comes not at the end of Cyrille Aimée Live but somewhere around
the midpoint, prompting her to assure the audience, "It's not over now.
That's just how the song goes." It's a significant promise as she winds
down her time with the band with which she's traveled the world and shared
indelible experiences.
The set list
for this special performance (one among a lifetime of special performances)
captures the wide spectrum of Aimée's eclectic tastes and talents. It opens,
appropriately enough, with Peggy Lee's "It's A Good Day," the title
track from the singer's 2014 Mack Avenue debut. The band's utterly joyous
rendition only amplifies the optimistic message of the song. Language barriers
be damned, Aimée's "Nuit Blanche" remains enchanting even for those
who don't understand a word of French. As she says when introducing Sidney
Bechet's lovely "Si Tu Vois Ma Mère," "the rest is up to your
imagination."
With
"Live Alone and Like It," Aimée reprises her show-stealing
performance from the 2013 Stephen Sondheim tribute concert she starred in with
Bernadette Peters, backed by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra, at New York's City Center. Her rendition is just as winning
complemented by only four musicians as it was with the powerhouse ensemble.
On Michael
Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," Aimée becomes her own
backing band, looping vocal percussion, bass lines and harmonies (with an
enthusiastic assist from the (Le) Poisson Rouge crowd on handclaps and
"yeah, yeahs"). The band reenters for a beguiling take on Jackson's
"Off The Wall," which brings the heat down to a captivating simmer.
"Day By Day" exemplifies the band's finesse with gentle swing, while
"Three Little Words" is taken at an unrelenting, breakneck pace that
shows off why she originally wanted to call the band "Cyrille Aimée and
the Guitar Heroes" (though Shamat and Danor turn in equally heroic feats).
"Each
Day," co-written by Aimée and Valeanu, brings the date to a poignant
close. As the vigorous cheers of the live audience fade away, listeners to
Cyrille Aimée Live are left to ponder what the future holds. Given the myriad
of directions and styles the singer has embraced, her spirit of freedom,
adventure, and exploration, it's safe to say that anyone within earshot will be
thrilled to follow wherever she leads.
Improvisation
is not just a technique for vocalist Cyrille Aimée, it's a way of life -- one
that has not only allowed her to share her engaging voice and sparkling
creativity with the world, but has led her on an unexpected journey. Growing up
in the town of Samois-sur-Seine in France, Aimée would sneak out of her bedroom
window to join the gypsy caravans gathered for the annual Django Reinhardt
Festival. Those experiences exposed Aimée not just to the joys of gypsy jazz
but to the gypsies' spontaneous, nomadic, music-filled way of life, imbuing a
spirit that has earned her accolades from the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal
Competition and the Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition. In 2014
Aimée made her major label debut with It's A Good Day (Mack Avenue), featuring
an innovative two-guitar band that returned for 2016's highly acclaimed Let's
Get Lost. She shares her story with audiences and students alike, having been
invited to present a TEDx talk and to address the Conference on World Affairs,
and teaching master classes for aspiring musicians.
Cyrille
Aimée · Cyrille Aimée Live
Mack Avenue
Records · Release Date: June 22, 2018
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