"The Music Is the Magic,"
New CD by Vocalist Lainie Cooke,
To Be Released March 17
By Ralph Peterson's Onyx Music Label
Cooke's 3rd CD, Produced by Peterson,
Features Backing by Tedd Firth, Piano;
Luques Curtis, Bass; Myron Walden, Saxophones;
& Ralph Peterson, Drums & Trumpet
CD Release Shows at Vitello's, Los Angeles, March 31,
& The Zinc Bar, NYC, April 8
February 6, 2015
"The wisdom, clarity,
and nuances possessed by Lainie throughout the recording are most
refreshing," comments Peterson in his notes to the CD. "At 73 years
young, she has remained relevant as a songstress in the purest sense. I
am proud to have produced what I believe is her best work to date."
Peterson, who plays
drums and trumpet on the CD and served as its producer and arranger,
surrounded Cooke with a superb cast including pianist/arranger Tedd Firth, her accompanist of the last dozen years; soprano and tenor saxophonist Myron Walden; and bassist Luques Curtis. (Tabari Lake substitutes for Curtis on "Mañana.")
Cooke first met
Peterson, long one of the most in-demand drummers in jazz, in 1990, but
they didn't begin making music together until relatively recently.
"Ralph has the ability to lift you to a place musically and rhythmically
that you didn't know you knew how to do," she says. "He's always
demonstrating something that makes you want to do better." Cooke is the
first singer Peterson has produced for his Onyx Music Label.
The tunes on The Music Is the Magic spoke to the singer: "If the music is beautiful, wonderful, soars, and has feeling, I'm attracted to it," she says simply. "How I Wish" (aka "Ask Me Now") and "I Have the Feeling I've Been Here Before"
("one of the most beautiful songs in the world," according to Cooke)
were inspired by Carmen McRae, a favorite vocalist of hers. The title
tune and "Live for Life" both stem from Abbey Lincoln recordings.
Also included are Dave Frishberg's "Our Love Rolls On," Harold Arlen's "Out of This World," and a rollicking calypso treatment of Peggy Lee's "Mañana,"
long a staple of her in-person repertoire. "By the end of it, the whole
audience is singing," she says. "It becomes a joyful experience."
Lainie Cooke
broke into show business at age 6 by entering a Minneapolis radio
talent contest for young people and won with her rendition of the
then-popular tune "Cruising Down the River." At 11, she began appearing
two or three times a week as a hostess on a local television game show.
Then, at age 12, she won a talent contest and was awarded a trip to New
York City. She felt instantly at home.
Cooke has been a
resident of the city since she was 20, save for relatively brief periods
in Jamaica and California. "I went to New York to find out what I could
actually do with all of the stuff that was inside me," she reflects. "I
wasn't sure what I wanted to be -- a musical theater performer or a
nightclub singer."
After working an
office job for a period, she got fingerprinted for a cabaret card and
played a few New York clubs, but upon doing her first out-of-town gig in
Hartford, Connecticut, she developed an instant distaste for being on
the road. Voice-over work, which allowed her to stay home in New York
City, became her calling and kept her steadily employed for most of the
next 40 years.
Cooke moved to Los
Angeles in 1979 and began singing in clubs with such top jazz men as
pianist Dick Shreve and bassist Bob Maize but moved back to New York in
1983 and resumed doing voice-overs. She returned briefly to L.A. to
record half of her first CD, Here's to Life!(2002,
Harlemwood), with Shreve, Maize, and others. New York musicians,
including Firth, bassist Cameron Brown, and drummer Matt Wilson,
completed the album. Her second CD, It's Always You (2008, Harlemwood), also featured Firth, Brown, and Wilson, as well as saxophonist Joel Frahm.
For her CD release shows, Cooke has scheduled engagements in New York and Los Angeles: 3/31 at the E Spot Lounge Upstairs at Vitello's in Studio City, with pianist Karen Hammack and her trio; and 4/10 at the Zinc Bar in Greenwich Village, with the same musicians as the CD.
"Words alone cannot do justice to the way I feel about
making music with Tedd, Luques, Myron, and Ralph, or how proud I am of
this project," says Cooke. "The dictionary defines magic as producing
mysterious or extraordinary results. I hope The Music Is the Magic will inspire the same kind of feelings in listeners."
Photography: Janis Wilkins (top), Adger W. Cowans (bottom)
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| "Lainie Cooke: The Journey So Far" |
Web Site: lainiecooke.com
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