CD Review: JoAnn Funk: “Pick Yourself Up”

JoAnn Funk

JoAnn Funk doesn’t sing a song as much as she whispers it in your ear. Sometimes her voice is silky and warm; sometimes it’s hot; sometimes it tickles. She’s part Blossom Dearie, part Dusty Springfield, a bit Nellie McKay, a hint of Norah Jones, a dash of Stacey Kent, a splash of Diana Krall (like a smoky Scotch on ice), yet somehow all those references to other singers with breathy voices fade the more you listen to JoAnn.

At first you can’t help wondering, “Who does she sound like?” and then you realize—she sounds like herself. It’s what we want from every singer.

Her new CD, Pick Yourself Up, is only her third, after Holidays (2000) and Solo Piano (2003). Her singing has changed since Holidays, which is mostly instrumental, though we get a hint of what’s to come with “Let It Snow!” 

Since 2008, she and bassist Jeff Brueske have had a regular weekend gig at the elegant Lobby Bar in the historic Saint Paul Hotel. In her liner notes, she thanks the hotel staff for “giving us a chance to incubate jazz in the Lobby Bar, where so many of these arrangements originated.” Good things can happen when artists have the chance to play together in the same place for a long period of time.

Pick Yourself Up is a mix of familiar standards (the title track, “Girl from Ipanema,” “If I Had You,” “Two Sleepy People”) and songs heard less often. The Gershwins’ “He Loves She Loves” (also covered by Stacey Kent, whose version is more straightforward) features deep, rich arco notes on Brueske’s bass and soft brushes from Nathan Norman, whose sensitive, expressive drums throughout make this a trio recording. 

Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” was done a few years back by Madeleine Peyroux; JoAnn’s version is more inventive and seems truer to the spirit of Cohen’s original, while not sounding at all like it. Her musical pas de deux with trumpeter Greg Lewis (in his only appearance on the CD) is playful and unexpected.

Like many women jazz singers, JoAnn accompanies herself on the piano, and you realize as you listen to Pick Yourself Up how nice that must be for a singer, how ideal, to have a piano player who gives you exactly what you want.

“If I Had You” begins as a spare, sensuous bass-and-voice duet; when JoAnn adds piano (at around 1:15), it’s delicate and understated. She sings Jobim’s “Triste” in Portuguese, planting one foot firmly in the Brazilian tradition of spacious, relaxed singing, then lets her piano lead. Jeff and Nathan both shine. "Triste" is the CD's longest track and it’s delightful.

The arrangements are out-of-the-ordinary; all are by JoAnn. “You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me” experiments with rhythms before settling into an easy swing. (Although, once you’ve heard it, you can detect the melody in Norman’s opening drums.) “What Is There to Say” begins with a bit of arco bass before turning into a song of pure bliss (“The dream I’ve been seeking has, practically speaking, come true… I knew in a moment contentment and home meant just you”). 

In a nod to Dearie (and probably Maurice Chevalier as well), JoAnn delivers a sassy, upbeat “Moonlight Saving Time.” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Two Sleepy People” is the perfect ending, especially if you listen to Pick Yourself Up late at night, which I highly recommend.

Jeff Brueske and JoAnn Funk in the Lobby Bar

Throughout, there’s a sense of casual, effortless, very skilled swing. All but three of the 11 songs date back to the 1920s and ’30s, which infuses Pick Yourself Up with a bouquet of timelessness. JoAnn’s arrangements are intimate and personal, and her camaraderie with Brueske and Norman makes this feel like a true collaboration. 

Even when JoAnn’s interpretations seem mannered, which they sometimes do, she wins you over with her confidence and her storytelling. You’ve probably never heard “Girl from Ipanema” sung the way she sings it. Go with the flow and you won’t be sorry.

JoAnn and Jeff (and drummer Nathan Norman) will celebrate the release of Pick Yourself Up on Saturday, April 2, in the Lobby Bar. I’ve had amazing martinis there and the chilled shrimp cocktail is classic.

The Bad Plus "On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring": Reviews of the premiere at Duke

I'm excited to hear The Bad Plus's take on Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for two reasons. First, it's Stravinsky. Second, they're The Bad Plus. I've been listening to Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson, and Dave King live and on record since their very earliest shows at the old Dakota in Minneapolis. I've been reading their press for nearly as long, including the ranting that went on when they were signed to Columbia at a time when other jazz artists were being tossed. There was talk about TBP being a fad, a fashion, an artificial construct of the money-grubbing music biz, just another cover band. Instead, they have stayed deeply interesting, evolving and changing around a rock-solid core. They have never disappointed me, and I trust them.

So, how was the show at Duke last Saturday?

Stravinsky bookends: "The Rite" at OH and the Loring

How lucky is this? The week before The Bad Plus brings its "reappraisal and rearrangement" of The Rite of Spring to the Loring Theater, the Minnesota Orchestra will perform The Rite of Spring at Orchestra Hall.

Even better, Orchestra Hall's performance is part of its popular "Inside the Classics" series, led by conductor Sarah Hicks and violist Sam Bergman. During the first part of the program, Hicks and Bergman explore the Rite, talk about it, and share insights, and the Orchestra performs musical examples. The second part is a full performance of the Rite.

If you're planning to see The Bad Plus and you sort-of know Stravinsky's original, think of the OH concert as Stravinsky school. Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson, and Dave King are all Stravinsky fans, and they have spent months studying this music. Of course, you can go to TBP and just listen and enjoy without knowing squat about Stravinsky, but I promise you'll enjoy it more with some background in your brain and the orchestral version fresh in your ears.

Thanks to composer Bill Kempe for telling me about the OH performance.

Press release for The Bad Plus Stravinsky show at the Loring

The Bad Plus by Cameron Wittig

Bonnie Marshall of the American Composers Forum is in Durham, NC this weekend for the premiere of this event at Duke University. I'll get the lowdown when she returns. Meanwhile:

Press Release: The Bad Plus comes to Loring Theater with

“Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring”

For Immediate Release

The Bad Plus follows the March 26 world premiere of “On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring” with two performances at Loring Theater May 20 and 21, 2011.

In the band’s ten years together, bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King have become one of the most talked about groups in jazz today thanks to uncompromising artistic vision and dazzling chops. Over the course of nine albums, the band became famous for its spellbinding covers of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the Pixies’ “Velouria” and Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” not to mention a deep catalog of original compositions written by each band member. Now the trio returns with its most audacious move yet: “On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.”

This week's jazz picks for Minneapolis-St. Paul

Are you in your car or near a radio at 8:30 CST on Friday mornings? Tune to KBEM to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about these events and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web. 

Friday: Parker Paisley at the Aster Café

Park Evans

Located on Main Street on the Mississippi riverfront (the oldest street in Minneapolis), the Aster Café is a happening live music venue. The intriguing musical mix (pop, rock, indie, folk, Jim Walsh’s Mad Ripple Hootenanny) includes the occasional jazz show. James Buckley, Food Team Trio, Axis Mundi, Todd Clouser, Firebell, East Side, Maud Hixson, Rhonda Laurie, and Zacc Harris have all played there; Patty and the Buttons do the Sunday brunches.

Tonight it’s a new group, Parker Paisley, featuring Park Evans on guitar, Brandon Wozniak on tenor sax, Pete Hennig on drums, and Adam Wozniak on upright bass. They promise “daring, new, and original music” and will soon hit the studio to record their first CD. Since their Facebook invite includes a photo of actress Parker Posey (Best of Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman), I’m guessing she inspired the name. And I’d take a chance on any group led by Park Evans.

9 p.m., Aster Café ($5).

Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology vs. Putumayo Presents Jazz

It wouldn’t be a fair fight. Put in the same ring, the 10,000-pound gorilla JAZZ: The Smithsonian Anthology (let’s call it JTSA) would pummel little Putumayo Presents Jazz (PPJ). 

Each, briefly:

• JTSA: 6 CDs, 111 tracks spanning the years 1899–2003, 200-page booklet. Compiled by an executive committee of five jazz scholars including John Edward Hasse and Dan Morgenstern, aided by an advisory panel of 42. A “jazz appreciation course in a box.” SRP $107.98.

• PPJ: 1 CD, 12 tracks, most recorded in the 1950s, liner notes by WWOZ (New Orleans) DJ Joel Dinerstein. The press release cites label founder Dan Storper’s “increased exposure to jazz since moving to New Orleans.” Apparently Storper listens to Dinerstein’s show a lot. It reminded him of “how much I still loved the songs of my parents’ generation.” SRP $14.98.

Putumayo World Music has always seemed like a personal label to me, led by the interests of its founder. Since Storper’s relocation to NOLA in 2003, the label has produced several jazz collections including New Orleans, Jazz Around the World, Latin Jazz, Women of Jazz, and the most recent, Jazz, due out May 3.

New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff does not much like JTSA. In his review published March 17, he asks, “How could such a righteous cultural product, full of so many sublime parts, feel so cumulatively limp?” Then: “What’s missing is its desire to be any more than a list, rather than an argument or a thesis.” And: “The new Smithsonian anthology is fair minded, which is to say strangely anonymous. Though the essays are signed, one can’t be sure whether the signers chose the tracks, and you won’t find out how the anthologizers, individually or as a body, really feel about anything in particular.”

I’ll probably buy JTSA anyway, sooner or later, and stack it on top of my copy of The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz (1987 edition), about which Ratliff has far kinder things to say. JTSA seems like the sort of reference that belongs in a music library, the equivalent of a music dictionary or encyclopedia.

I doubt that Ratliff will review the Putumayo collection, which I’ve been listening to for the past few days and like very much. Although Putumayo World Music is a success in a time when labels are becoming anachronisms, it’s not taken seriously by most music critics.

New U.S. jazz stamp due out March 26

It's cool. It's colorful. It has a retro feel and a "Forever" designation, meaning it will still be usable if (make that when) postage increases. We'll be at the PO on Saturday, buying a bunch.

Artist Paul Rogers tells the story of how he came to design a jazz stamp for the U.S. Postal Service and who his influences were. "The only requirements [U.S. Postal Service art director] Howard [Paine] gave me was that the letters J-A-Z-Z- appear in the design and that no recognizable performer be depicted," Rogers writes. He shares some early sketches and the three designs he submitted to the USPS.

The official release ceremony will be held in New Orleans.

Here's a brief history of jazz-themed stamps, courtesy of JazzTimes.

This week's jazz picks for Minneapolis-St. Paul

Are you in your car or near a radio at 8:30 CST on Friday mornings? Tune to KBEM to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about these events and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web. 

Friday: Ginger and Bobby Commodore Birthday Party at the Dakota

March 11 was Ginger's birthday, and Bobby's was March 4. Celebrate with Ginger's powerful vocals, Bobby's peerless drums, and their potent mix of jazz, soul, and R&B. I heard Ginger just last week, singing with Moore by Four. When she lets loose, hold on to the cutlery. With Lee Blaske on piano, Mark Weisberg on bass.

8 p.m. Friday, March 18, Dakota ($10).