Carolyn Fitzhugh
Living in Peace Carolyn Fitzhugh's soul-infused jazz vocals attain new heights
with her March 15 release of Living in Peace, for Lenny White's IYOUWE Records.
Fitzhugh's second album also finds the Chicago native in esteemed company.
Produced by Grammy nominee Mark Ruffin and given lush arrangements by
state-of-the-art pianist and composer Amina Figarova, the recording features
Figarova's working band -- a murderer's row of major jazz musicians that
includes tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, guitarist Rez Abbasi, and drummer
Rudy Royston -- and, on one track, the legendary Freddy Cole.
"I can't tell you what a thrill that was for me,"
says Fitzhugh. "When Mark asked me would I like to sing with Freddy Cole,
I couldn't believe it."
Elder and fellow Chicagoan Cole appears in a sly duet with
Fitzhugh on Ivan Lins's "I'm Not Alone," one of eight "new
standards" on Living in Peace. Brazilian singer and percussionist Nanny
Assis joins her on another tune, his cowritten "Intimate
Acquaintances" from the 2016 musical Rio Uphill. Among the other jazzed-up
modern staples are a lively take on the Average White Band's "Queen of My
Soul"; Gil Scott-Heron's startlingly tender "Combinations"; and
"Strollin'," Prince's swinging George Benson pastiche.
Alongside these scintillating interpretations, however, are
four of Fitzhugh's own original compositions. "Mark said he was impressed
with my writing and wanted to showcase it," she says. The selections
include the fragile, wounded title track; the funky "Wish I Knew";
the upbeat charmer "Once Upon a Lover"; and "In the
Autumn," a sweet bossa nova that also features a bravura bass solo by
Yasushi Nakamura.
Fitzhugh's elevated technical accomplishment on Living in
Peace is not incidental. While she received acclaim for her 2016 debut album,
Simply Amazing, Ruffin felt that her voice needed further development before
she recorded a follow-up. Fitzhugh accepted his constructive criticism gamely,
even agreeing to work with vocal coaches to hone her instrument. (Among other
things, the coaches helped Fitzhugh discover that she was not an alto, as she
had long believed, but a mezzo-soprano.)
Her self-improvement efforts are evident on the new album,
which shines not only with moments of grand virtuosity but with attention to
the smallest of details: the precision, in short, that marks the truest and
most dedicated of artists.
Carolyn Fitzhugh Born in Chicago on May 16, 1961, Carolyn
Fitzhugh began taking classical piano lessons at the age of five. She became
enchanted with all kinds of music through the songs she heard on the radio --
songs like Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song," which
she started playing when she ventured into playing popular sheet music at about
nine.
Fitzhugh sang in her high school chorus and played piano in
a jazz combo, dreaming of becoming a professional musician. At her family's
insistence she studied accounting at Chicago's Roosevelt University, but
supplemented that education with evening vocal and piano courses at Bloom
School of Jazz. Even after she embarked on a 30-year career as an accountant
and analyst for the federal government, she continued nursing her dream,
sitting in with musicians at various clubs and restaurants and singing for two years
straight as part of the legendary Von Freeman's weekly jam session.
In 2011, with her children growing up, Fitzhugh made the
decision to begin a six-year retirement plan from her accounting job and devote
herself full-time to singing and songwriting. She retired in the summer of
2017. In 2014, she began recording her first album, Simply Amazing, in a sextet
setting featuring guitarist Larry Brown Jr. and pianist Stu Mindeman. Upon its
release in 2016, Fitzhugh was lauded as "an artist of the first order,"
with "that something extra that inspires you to keep an ear cocked in her
direction."
That cocked ear finds its reward on Living in Peace.
Carolyn Fitzhugh will be performing at the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Chicago on Tuesday 8/13 and will be announcing other
Chicago-area dates in the coming months.
Web Site: CarolynFitzhughMusic.com
No comments:
Post a Comment