Live (Mack Avenue)
Cyrille Aimée
Released June 22, 2018
2018 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll Vocal Album
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kgogPf1VlmYBKRQxxpAwiRvwvrj3alFWs
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About:
The end of one chapter means the beginning of another. Like all the best cliffhangers, Cyrille Aimée Live leaves the audience wanting more…but also eager to discover what comes next. Recorded at a typically lively and engaging performance at New York City’s (Le) Poisson Rouge in August 2017, the album finds the acclaimed vocalist bidding a fond adieu to her long-standing band and looking forward to a brand-new phase in her life and career. The August performance marked the band’s final show together, saying goodbye to this configuration of Aimée’s band while welcoming a new chapter of creative output.
As anyone who has followed her work over the last decade can hear, Aimée thrives on living in the moment. Nowhere is that more evident than on stage; throughout Cyrille Aimée Live (available now via Mack Avenue Records) she holds the audience in the palm of her hand. Rapt during quiet moments, raucous as the spirited band swings into high gear, roaring with laughter at Aimée’s charming and quirky banter, or singing along with a Michael Jackson medley, the crowd is an essential part of the buoyant show.
The concert captured here marks the end of an era, but the tone is celebratory, not bittersweet. Aimée’s tight-knit band — guitarists Adrien Moignard and Michael Valeanu, bassist Dylan Shamat, and drummer Dani Danor — share as warm and playful an energy as ever. This group of musicians is so close that they once missed a flight as they sat at the gate, so engaged in catching up after a mere two weeks apart that all five remained completely oblivious to the boarding process and departure!
But Aimée, restlessly creative and an inveterate improviser — in her life as in her music — is anxiously looking forward to new opportunities, new sounds, and even a new home. Born in France and long based in Brooklyn, the free-spirited singer recently relocated again, this time to New Orleans, an intriguing prospect not only for her all-embracing approach to music but for its cultural resonance with her French-Dominican heritage.
“I want to find new inspirations and a new energy,” Aimée says. “I feel like you always have to search further, and that’s what I constantly try to do.”
That questing spirit has already led Aimée on a staggering variety of adventures in her life, promising countless surprises to come. She’s ventured from singing on street corners in Europe to dazzling audiences at the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals; from sneaking out to sing in gypsy encampments in her native France to acting on Broadway; from singing Sondheim alongside Bernadette Peters to sharing her story in a TEDx talk; from braving the notoriously tough audiences at New York’s Apollo Theatre to being called a “rising star in the galaxy of jazz singers” by The New York Times.
Given the myriad of directions and styles the singer has embraced, her spirit of freedom, adventure, and exploration, it’s safe to say that anyone within earshot will be thrilled to follow wherever she leads.
Track Listing:
1. It’s a Good Day (Live) 4:31
2. Nuit Blanche (Live) 5:56
3. Si Tu Vois Ma Mère (Live) 6:12
4. Live Alone and Like It (Live) 8:09
5. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Live) 4:52
6. Off the Wall (Live) 5:11
7. Day by Day (Live) 3:57
8. It’s Over Now (Well, You Needn’t) [Live] 7:50
9. Three Little Words (Live) 4:13
10. Each Day (Live) 6:57
Personnel:
Cyrille Aimée: vocals, Boss RC-505 Loop Station
Adrien Moignard: acoustic guitar
Michael Valeanu: electric guitar
Dylan Shamat: acoustic bass
Dani Danor: drums
Recorded August 16, 2017, at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, by Ferran Huijsmans
Producer: Cyrille Aimée
Mixing: Ferran Huijsmans and Todd Whitelock
Mastering: Trevor Fedele
Cover Photo: Didier Jallais
Design: Raj Naik
Production Manager: Will Wakefield
Creative Services Coordinator: Jodi Tack
Executive Producer: Gretchen Valade
Review:
This hour-long session captured at Greenwich Village’s Le Poisson Rouge in August 2017 isn’t a first for vocalist Cyrille Aimée—she’s previously released live albums from Smalls and Birdland—but it is a last, her final date with long-time bandmates Dylan Shamat (bass), Dani Danor (drums) and dual guitarists Michael Valeanu and Adrien Moignard. As always, Aimeé’s buoyant blend of Gallic charm, irrepressible joie de vivre and Gypsy-inspired verve is in full evidence, as are her impressive scat skills.
The 10-track playlist draws heavily on her two most recent studio recordings, including Sondheim’s sage ode to singlehood, “Live Alone and Like It,” Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall” and effervescent readings of “Three Little Words” and “It’s a Good Day.” Aimée adds Sidney Bechet’s tender “Si Tu Vois Ma Mère”; a frolicsome rendering of Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston and Sammy Cahn’s “Day by Day”; and another Jackson hit, the sinuous “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” Most potent: a superbly multi-shaded, eight-minute “Well, You Needn’t” that proves a rousing showcase for all five musicians (its repetitive “it’s over now” is duly felicitous).
Throughout, the bravura, often interlaced guitar work of Valeanu and Moignard remains as compelling, and as vital, as Aimeé’s vocals. She closes with her and Valeanu’s “Each Day,” which contains the apt sentiment that “each day brings someone new that lights up your way.” It’s tantalizing to anticipate where her future days will lead. Still, we’ll miss those blazing guitars.
Christopher Loudon (JazzTimes)
