Naama Gheber
Dearly Beloved Noted vocalist Naama Gheber makes her auspicious, radiant
recording debut with Dearly Beloved, to be released April 10 on Cellar Music
Records, preceded by the release of two singles -- the title track on February
14 and "So in Love" March 13.
The New York-based singer (by way of
Beér Sheva, Israel), who first turned heads during her yearlong residency at
Manhattan's Mezzrow Jazz Club, engages the superb trio that has long supported
her at that residency (pianist Ray Gallon, bassist David Wong, and drummer
Aaron Kimmel) for a dozen interpretations of classic jazz standards. She is
given a further helping hand from esteemed vibraphonist Steve Nelson, who
features on five tracks.
Gheber fell
in love with the singers and tunes from the Great American Songbook while
studying at the Center for Jazz Studies in Tel Aviv. "I immediately felt
at home with standards and worked on finding my own voice within them,"
she explains. "I was just trying to sound like myself." When it came
time to make an album, she chose the ones for which she felt the deepest
personal significance. "Recording songs that I feel strongly connected to
was a way to bring myself to the album."
There can be
no doubt about those strong connections in Gheber's singing of "So in
Love," infusing it with pitch-perfect mood and intimacy, or in her fond
playfulness on "Just Squeeze Me" and "I Can't Give You Anything
But Love." Her feeling for the material also allows her to give
sophisticated expression to them, as in her charming mix of ruefulness and
romance on "Since I Fell for You" or the astonishing compound of joy,
tenderness, and a tinge of longing on "Good Night My Love."
The impact
of Nelson's presence on Dearly Beloved is difficult to understate. He is a
vibraphonist of considerable prowess, which he honed through years of work with
the likes of Dave Holland, Mulgrew Miller, and Donald Brown. But for all his
virtuoso chops, he improvises behind Gheber using first and foremost his gift
for memorable, lyrical melodic statements (as on his solo on the title track,
and both his solo and luminous fills on "You Stepped Out of a
Dream"). Likewise, Gheber has formulated a powerful chemistry with the
trio of Gallon, Wong, and Kimmel, clearly evident in the delight and aplomb the
quartet lend to the swinging "'SWonderful."
Naama Gheber
was born in Beér Sheva, Israel on January 2, 1991. Though she primarily grew up
in the city in the Negev Desert, she spent four of her early childhood years
living in Baltimore, Maryland, while her parents attended Johns Hopkins
University. It was the start of a lifelong bond with America and American
culture.
The child of
a musical family, Gheber sought to be a singer from her youth. Instead, she
trained as a classical pianist until her final year of school, when a
graduation gift from her grandparents enabled her to take voice lessons from
legendary Israeli singer Riki Gal. She learned Gal's Hebrew songs, but it was
on an unusual attempt at Ray Charles's "Hit the Road, Jack" that both
Gheber and Gal realized her gifts were uniquely suited to American music.
Thus
inspired, she enrolled in Tel Aviv's Center for Jazz Studies after completing
her mandatory military service, where she first encountered such singers as
Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Helen Merrill. "I was seduced by
their urbane lyrical style," she recalls; Gheber had found her creative
direction.
She left Tel
Aviv for New York in 2015, after receiving a scholarship to study music at the
New School. (She graduated in 2017.) Though she was a stranger in a strange
land, she began frequenting jazz clubs to ingratiate herself with the scene,
drawing on her experiences in Baltimore to relate to her new acquaintances. She
soon developed a network of connections -- not least among them pianist Ray
Gallon, bassist David Wong, and drummer Aaron Kimmel, a relationship that was
solidified when they began accompanying her in regular late-night sets at
Mezzrow in Greenwich Village. (She'll next be performing there Tues. 3/3, and
Tues. 4/14 [10:30]. Gheber's CD release show is set for Sat. 5/9 [8:30] at Cafe
Bohemia, NYC.Upcoming European shows include Hot Club, Lyon, France, 3/26;
Clarence Jazz Club, Malaga, Spain, 3/28; Ultamar Jazz Club, Girona, Spain, 4/2;
La Boveda, Zaragoza, Spain, 4/3.)
"The
creation of this record has been a yearlong adventure," says Gheber.
"I feel like I went through a full range of experiences -- failure,
success, excitement, anxiety, disappointment, and fulfillment. In the end, this
process, like this album and, really, like life itself, is a lot of everything.
What makes it mine is the unique balance within these factors. A balance that
is only true to me."
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