Jane Blackstone – Natural Habitat NYC
We forget, I think, about the “basics,” the essentials. Long before the electric guitar or the piano or the trumpet or even the drums, our first instrument was our voice. Worse, those who do “play” the voice also forget its rich history. Like a beginning guitarist who has just discovered the distortion pedal, the power of subtlety and interpretation is becoming a lost art to many a would-be vocalist.
Thankfully, there are also singers like Jane Blackstone. Her album, Natural Habitat NYC, is a tribute to the power of good songs and great arrangements. Style and substance meet and the result is breathtaking.
From the first scatting notes, Jane takes you on a virtual tour of jazz stylings, making masterful work of standards like Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea and introducing us to catchy original tunes, such as Once 4U. Her voice calls to us through the entire trip, coy and carefree one moment (the opening song, Where You At), passionate and urgent the next (In The Art Of Survival). She shares her sense of joy and wonder with us, inviting us to behold the new wonders she’s found.
Nowhere is this more evident than in her rendering of Without A Song and the Rodgers and Hammerstein ballad, We Kiss In Shadow. Accompanied by Sir Roland Hanna (her former piano teacher!) and Ratzo Harris on bass, Jane demonstrates how mesmerizing understatement can be. You hang on her every syllable as her voice carries you along.
And she lets the band shine throughout, adding their voices to hers. The deeply moving The Rainbow I See In Your Eyes, an original from pianist Bob Albanese unfolds like a flower to reveal Bob Mover’s sublime saxophone. Mover, in turn, does honors by providing his piece, Mystics, which showcases pianist Tino Derado. And Derado graces us with a wonderfully whimsical accordion solo on The Human Touch.
Ratzo Harris provides the backbone with his stellar basslines, whether percolating the spicy Latin undertones of Jane’s own Room For Everybody or completely stopping the show in We Kiss In Shadow.
It takes a special kind of musician to bring this kind of talent together and not put it under her own shadow. Listening to Natural Habitat NYC makes you understand how important the right vocalist is to a band, to the music itself. Jane says, “I wanted humor, playfulness, a little toughness, some earthiness, swing and intelligence…” And since she didn’t say it, I’ll add it for her – a lot of soul, too.
Natural Habitat NYC can be found at Amazon.com