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Rating: Excellent |
While listening to my suggested playlist "Discover Weekly" on Spotify, I came across Macy Gray performing a song from the album "Stripped." I already know her as a Neo Soul singer but had never heard her on a jazz album. The search began, and I discovered that Gray is certainly no stranger to jazz, having collaborated with saxophonist David Murray on a number of projects and considering herself a jazz singer.
Recorded for Chesky as part of the label's Binaural+ series, this session, Macy Gray's ninth studio album, was captured through a single microphone in a Brooklyn church. Backed by a quartet featuring trumpeter Wallace Roney, drummer Ari Hoenig, bassist Daryl Johns, and guitarist Russell Malone, it's a natural direction for Gray, as she started out in jazz bands, putting her own spin on classics, and has cited jazz vocalists as influences throughout her career.
Besides two originals and just as many covers, Gray revisits her own work. “I Try” and “Slowly” are transformed into gentle rumbles, while “Sweet Baby” gets a Bo Diddley beat makeover. She even revisits Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” led by Johns’ bass, which alternately stutters and struts. Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” which Gray has been performing since Hurricane Katrina (if not before), is delivered solemnly, like a lullaby. The closing track, the only song Gray and the band wrote together, is a sweet ballad that showcases Roney and, well, the singer’s suggestive wordplay.
All of this is best heard in a late-night setting. Gray's raspy voice rarely rises above the level of intimate conversation—sometimes it sounds a bit distant—and the group plays as if trying not to disturb a dozing parishioner. Despite all the emphasis on the past, Stripped sounds like a step forward.
= Full Album Play List =
= Track List =
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