Tenor Thomas Young is on a roll these days. He’s been featured
in the past year on not one, but two new releases for upstart label
Ocean. He had a big part in a Chicago production of “Amistad,”
which was out before Steven Spielberg’s movie.
There’s no doubting that Young has a fine set of pipes; there’s
also no doubting that he is comfortable in and capable of singing
tunes in both a classic French style and modern jazz styles. But on
Clair De Lune & Sister Moon, one questions if the two
styles should have been combined.
For the French numbers (all songs by Gabriel Faure), Young is
accompanied only by pianist Susan Caldwell Nelson. The sparse
arrangements seem to fit the style of the songs very well, with
“Mandoline” and “Clair De Lune” standing out head and shoulders
above the others. (I also did like “En Sourdine,” the album’s
opener.) For those of us who didn’t take French in high school,
translations of the songs are provided in the liner notes.
And when Young tackes some of the modern classics, both light
jazz and otherwise, he continues to shine. Stephen Sondheim
(“Pretty Women”), Rodgers & Hammerstein (“I Have Dreamed”),
Billy Strayhorn (“Lush Life”)… even Sting (“Sister Moon”) get the
tenor treatment on this disc. When Young comes close to singing a
little scat or be-bop as he does on “Sister Moon,” he shows his
true colors; I wouldn’t mind seeing an album just in this style
appear from Young.
A few of the more contemporary numbers, however, show one or two
weaknesses. For one, when Young stretches to hit the higher notes,
his voice sounds very uncomfortable, even strained as witnessed on
“I Have Dreamed”. I don’t know how this should have been resolved –
can’t even say for sure if it could have been – but the effect in
his voice is quite noticeable. And a few of the numbers, like “Lush
Life” and his cover of Ervin Drake’s “It Was A Very Good Year” tend
to drag a bit, though I do like the more jazzy arrangements
featuring bassist Jay Leonhart, pianist Mike Renzi and drummer
Grady Tate.
Perhaps the biggest question I have about
Clair De Lune & Sister Moon is why the two styles were
combined in the first place. Admittedly, Young wanted to show not
only the musical relationship of the two styles, but also subtle
relationships between the songs themselves (for more details, check
out the liner notes – I won’t re-type them here). But somehow, I
think the album would have worked a little better had Young stuck
with one style. I wouldn’t have even minded if this had been a
two-disc set, one disc for each genre. But to my ears, constantly
jumping from sparse to dense arrangements, French to English, gets
a bit tiring.
Don’t get me wrong,
Clair De Lune & Sister Moon is by no means a bad album;
I think everyone should check it out if only to open their minds up
to the two competing forms of music. But had the focus been
shifted, and had Young tried to stay in a range more comfortable
with some of his vocals, I think this disc could have been that
much better.
