Attachments (Jazzed Media)

Lorraine Feather

Released August 13, 2013

Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2014

YouTube:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nzuPyuikQYpBVAl4CAoKcXRGVIWm_1Q9w

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/4mwRkwZj4bPE3KsF4Fe9lJ?si=dIZMpCQaRiGaReoDxXzvQQ&dl_branch=1

About:

Attachments is about the connections we have or form as we go along in life—to our families, friends, lovers, to animals, to places. A couple of the lyrics are almost entirely about a real event. Most are a combination of the past and present, my take on what other people might be thinking or feeling; books, films, and just imagination, all “bubbling up from the swamp.”

“A Little Like This”

Russell Ferrante came up with some beautiful music right off the bat when I brought the lyrics for “A Little Like This” to his house. He then did a second version that was just as lovely but in a minor key, and we decided that it was more in keeping with the mood of the song. At this point I didn’t have a title for the project, but described the concept to Russ. He closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, opened them, and said, “Attachments.”

“Attachments”

This was conceived as a “list song,” detailing the singer’s various romantic entanglements. I had many scraps of ideas written, and for the middle part, Eddie Arkin chose some lines that veered off the main subject to describe the person’s nonromantic emotional ties. Eddie wrote an evocative, impressionistic accompaniment for this section. We then went back to a verse, continuing the “list” theme. The song ends with two people having a drink together and one of them making a confession.

“I Thought You Did”

Last year, Dave Grusin called me to write some lyrics for a vocal album he was working on. In the course of this, one day I mentioned to Dave how I loved his “Memphis Stomp” theme from the all-solo-piano score of The Firm. Dave suggested I write lyrics to it. The original music has such an infectious feel, and I didn’t want to crowd it; I tried making the words somewhat sparse, offsetting the phrases in an asymmetrical way. I was excited to be able to work on this gem, and to have Dave himself on the track.

“Anna Lee”

One day, Russell played me some unrecorded compositions of his, including one piece simply entitled “In G.” I had recently come across a note that a dear and late friend of mine had written me on my twentieth birthday. The lyrics are about her, with a few details changed, including her name. The poem I quote is Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Prayer to Persephone.” Violinist Charlie Bisharat has many standout moments on Attachments; one of my favorites is the descending line he plays before the last verse of “Anna Lee.”

“159”

My husband Tony helped me greatly with the up-tempo songs, by recording grooves I could listen to while writing the lyrics. The tempo of this one was 159. It features Grant Geissman’s super-cool guitar soloing; Eddie wrote the music and plays rhythm guitar. The lyrics describe a family having dinner in the kitchen. The drummer son is laying down the groove to the Motown hit “The Clapping Song,” his metronome set to 159. On the intro, Michael Valerio scats along to his bass a la Slam Stewart, and drummer Michael Shapiro—who told me that he likes to introduce something he hasn’t used before to each project of mine—plays a frame drum.

“We Have the Stars”

Pianist Joey Calderazzo wrote “La Valse Kendall” for an album he did with Branford Marsalis, Songs of Mirth and Melancholy. I had been thinking of doing a lyric called “We Have the Stars,” based on the last line of the Bette Davis melodrama Now, Voyager. I asked Shelly Berg if he thought “La Valse Kendall” would be a good choice for something I could lyricize and that we could record as a duo. Shelly loved the music, and thankfully, Joey was happy with the words I wrote to it.

“I Love You Guys”

I’ve been around musicians since I was a tot. I knew I wanted to write a song about them with Shelly, and it was a great opportunity for him, drummer Gregg Field and Michael Valerio to show off their chops (check out Mike’s solo at 1:25). The lyrics contain references to conversations I’ve had with musicians, jokes about chick singers, etc. The seven-stroke roll I refer to at the end, demonstrated by Gregg, is a drum pattern that starts out with three alternating double strokes and ends with a single stroke. If you’re right-handed, it would be abbreviated as RRLLRRL.

“I Hope I Never Leave This Place”

This is about someone living by herself in a cabin near the water. The weather is often fierce and she’s far from civilization, but she can’t imagine living anywhere else. It was, as always, fascinating to go through the writing process with my friend Eddie as he discovered the perfect melody, chords and dreamy accompaniment for these lyrics. Attachments has more ballads on it (five) than any project I’ve done so far, and “I Hope I Never Leave This Place” is the most joyful overall.

“Hearing Things”

This is another Eddie collaboration. To me, “A Little Like This,” “We Have the Stars” and “Hearing Things” feel like parts of the same story, in which the singer is always alone—reflecting on a love that is intense but elusive. Somewhere along the way, we decided that there should be a choir at the end, with me overdubbing the harmonies. We were intending that it should fade out, but the chemistry between the guys led to a real ending, after a monstrous piano solo by Russ.

“The Veil”

I was having lunch last summer with a friend of mine, and telling her about the album’s theme. She pointed out that I’d never written about my mother. I said that I didn’t think I could, and started explaining why, but she encouraged me to try; I’m glad that I did. I have been working with Shelly for many years now, and his writing and playing on this track may be my favorite ever. By the way, for those who might not understand the Nick and Nora Charles reference, they were the lead characters (played by William Powell and Myrna Loy) in the old Thin Man films—elegant, urbane, and hard-drinking.

“Smitten With You”

There had a to be a dog song on the CD, and as Russ and his wife Gerry are also dog-lovers, I knew he’d be the perfect co-writer. The music he wrote is so charming and quirky, I can’t help but smile every time it starts. It continually modulates and goes around in a kind of circle. Russ’s Yellowjackets band-mate, the great Bob Mintzer, guests on bass clarinet. I snuck a little PSA in there at the end, about not leaving your dog in the car on a hot day (seriously, even with the windows down!)

“True”

The day before Dave Grusin and I recorded “I Thought You Did,” we were just wrapping up our rehearsal of the song when Dave started playing a classical piece, Bach’s “Air on the G String,” and asked what I thought about the possibility of writing words to it. That evening I came up with about half the lyrics, then sang it for Dave the next day. At the last session for Attachments, we recorded the elegant arrangement he wrote, with Charlie on violin.

Lorraine Feather

Track Listing:

1. A Little Like This (Lorraine Feather / Russell Ferrante) 6:06

2. Attachments (Eddie Arkin / Lorraine Feather) 6:58

3. I Thought You Did (Lorraine Feather / Dave Grusin) 3:35

4. Anna Lee (Lorraine Feather / Russell Ferrante) 6:17

5. 159 (Eddie Arkin / Lorraine Feather) 3:46

6. We Have the Stars (Joey Calderazzo / Lorraine Feather) 5:06

7. I Love You Guys (Shelly Berg / Lorraine Feather) 3:28

8. I Hope I Never Leave This Place (Eddie Arkin / Lorraine Feather) 4:53

9. Hearing Things (Eddie Arkin / Lorraine Feather) 5:55

10. The Veil (Shelly Berg / Lorraine Feather) 8:24

11. Smitten With You (Lorraine Feather / Russell Ferrante) 4:02

12. True (Lorraine Feather) 5:38

Personnel:

Lorraine Feather: vocals

Russell Ferrante: piano (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11)

Shelly Berg: piano (6, 7, 10)

Dave Grusin: piano (3, 12)

Michael Valerio: bass (1, 2, 4, 5, 7-9, 11), vocals: (5)

Grant Geissman: guitar (1, 5, 9)

Eddie Arkin: guitar (2, 5)

Michael Shapiro: drums and percussion (1, 2, 5, 9, 11)

Tony Morales: percussion (1)

Gregg Field: drums (7)

Charles Bisharat: violin (1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12)

Bob Mintzer: bass clarinet (11)

Recorded April, 2012 – March, 2013, at Entourage Studios, North Hollywood, CA and Visual Rhythm, Alhambra, CA

Produced by Lorraine Feather, Carlos Del Rosario, Geoff Gillette, and Eddie Arkin

Review:

First, there is “who exactly is Billie Jane Lee Lorraine Feather?” Well, she is the daughter of jazz writer and impresario Leonard Feather (1914-1994) and Jane Feather, a former big-band singer and ex-roommate of Peggy Lee (ergo “Lee”). The Billie in Feather’s name is her godmother, Billie Holiday, and the Jane, well that is obvious. The Lorraine part is from the Cliff Burwell (music) and Mitchell Parish (lyrics) 1928 standard, “Sweet Lorraine.” That is quite a pedigree by any estimation. Bigger than this is the fact that Feather is a noted singer and lyricist who has released eight solo jazz recordings featuring only her music. That is, eight recordings since 2000. Feather is one busy woman. 
Most recently, Feather has released Tales of the Unusual (Jazzed Media, 2012) and her collaboration with pianist Stephanie Trick as Nouveau Stride on Fourteen By Nouveau Stride(Relarion, 2013), both to positive attention. Feather now moves into closer and more intimate confines on Attachments. 

With the opening of “A Little Like This,” it is apparent that this will be a different kind of Lorraine Feather recording. Introduced with Charles Bishrat’s earthy and genuine violin, “A Little Like This” proceeds as an edgy: “Like the softest note ever played I try to grab it in the air but all in vain— Gone, like an earring down the drain, gone. Sometimes there’s a kiss with no longing. Sometimes there’s a longing but no kiss. nce in a blue moon, It can be a little like this…” 
Clever lyrics of the past give way to densely personal ones in the present. Feather works again with her regular collaborators, Russell Ferrante, Shelly Berg and Eddie Arkin. She adds the wares of Dave Grusin, with whom she composed the jaunty, “I Thought You Did.” The song was based on Grusin’s “Memphis Stomp,” that was originally part of the soundtrack to The Firm(Paramount, 1993).

Feather opines: “As you can see, I’m glad you’ve got that goin’ about me. I think of you, I get all Rhapsody in Blue…” 
Well, the lyrics are still clever, as well as densely personal.

C. Michael Bailey (All About Jazz)