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Alegria

Just the way you look tonight

Exactly like you

For all we know - Treat your ears to a sample

Don't misunderstand

Aqui oh - Listen to Sunny in Portuguese

Old devil moon

Back in the the high life again

You don't know what love is

Easy living

Alegria

Easy evil

The age old question of the jazz community: What makes a jazz singer? Endless debates bring several theories and assumptions. Like picking a great pizza, not everyone will agree. I'd like to extend the argument by asking: What doesn't make a jazz singer? Certainly, number one, on my list, are the pop Mariah Carey vocal gymnasts reaching searing high notes slated for the canine community, but hardly worthy of any serious jazz music consideration. The Streisand method of belting out the song with the energy of an atomic bomb may be dynamic but that hardly constitutes the quality, feelings, and musicianship that goes into jazz singing.

Sadly, but true, there are many truly gifted and talented singers of jazz that go unnoticed in this good old U.S. of A. One of which, Sunny Wilkinson, has recently come to my attention. On her CD, produced by Jazz Crusader, Stix Hooper, Alegria (Joy or Happiness) recorded in October of 1989 on a Japanese label called HiBrite she displays the breadth, feelings and range of a gifted Jazz singer. In her voice is a mix of maturity, strength and naivetè. With some help from Ernie Watts on Sax and flute, Oscar Castro Neves guitar and John Patitucci, bass, Sunny offers a wide range of musical styles that are a joy to listen to.

Just the way you look tonight is taken at a brighter than usual tempo with Ms. Wilkinson playing in and around the beat and showing off her excellent chops as a jazz musician. There is a fine piano solo by Rich Ruttenberg to complete the tune.

For all we know is my favorite piece on the CD. It's here we find the feelings, mood and style that's incorporated into the sadness of this line. Her voice is the mixture of many influences funneled into her own creation that's personal and touches the listener. Her vibrato, never exaggerated, a part of the overall make up of her vocal persona not the overwhelming entirety, is that mechanical piece that extends into the structure of her jazz style. While she uses some of the popular contemporary accents in her technique that may find appeal to a wider audience, it's only one thing in a repertoire bag that blends into her whole offering.

She makes us feel the pain in You don't know what love is . Here she accents certain words in the lyric bringing across the point of the song, according to Sunny's interpretation. Jazz singing? I think so. This track includes a supportive acoustic bass solo by the fine John Patitucci.

On Aqui, oh , she puts the vibrato on hold and along with the sensual guitar compings of Oscar Castro Neves, I swear I'm hearing one of the wonderful singing stylist coming from Rio. Sunny sings the Portuguese naturally and flows into the Bossa rhythms with an uncanny ease and grace. This is wonderful stuff.

Easy Living brings her maturity and life experiences forward. Sunny tells a wonderful story while bending the lines and meanings to get the message across. This is pure Jazz Singing according to my ears. This is all followed by a bonus solo by the stimulating Ernie Watts, one of my all time favorite west coast musicians.

On the title track, Alegria we are back into the Brazilian idiom and her light bouncing beat seduces us into wanting to get up and dance along with her. Sunny Wilkinson, is an artist deserving wider recognition. I hope this will eventually happen. I feel fortunate having been exposed to her music. Humbly, I hope that through The Jazz Zine, we can bring more jazz fans into the mix and they will tell others about her and together we can get her up on the billboards where she certainly belongs.

High Wire

The Tunes

High wire

Gone with the wind

Love won't let me wait

Straight no chaser

Too long at the fair

Mile High

Exactly like you

Agua de beber

Like someone in love

I'm always drunk in San Francisco

 

The Review

 

There's a special breed of jazz singer. The singer that can become one of the horns in a big band setting. The word "vocalist" comes to mind. Mostly,the singer is usually only supported by the fifteen guys in back of her as it focuses on only one horn, her voice. Does that make any sense? Then - ah, we come to my point - there is the singer that is one of the guys in the big band. Her voice is another horn in the section. The music is mostly written to reflect that. Anita O'Day comes to mind as the princess of that form. Can we say that this special breed is a big band singer? Anyway, enough with labels. Sunny Wilkinson, a fine Lady Jazz Singer in her own right, both straight ahead and contemporary styles, shows us how she sings Big Band Jazz with her CD release, High Wire.

On High Wire, she shows us yet another side of her musical personality. She is one of the guys singing behind some swinging players in a big band setting. She seems to be right at home as the session comes off toe tapping easy and the CD truly swings.

The Evergreen, Gone with the wind is done at a relaxed tempo with some neat solos by Gary Foster on alto and Bill Yeager on trombone. Ms. Wilkinson exemplifies the vocalist personified. Dig the high notes at the ending. I love this arrangement.

Love won't let me wait opens with a lush saxophone section ushering in Sunny singing at her sensual best. This arrangement by hubby, Ron Newman, is delicate and fragile while Sunny weaves an intricate pattern around the reeds. Again, Ms. Wilkinson does not dominate but blends with the section.

Straight no chaser, showcases her adventurous abilities at vocalese. Here again, the arrangements are original, interesting and swinging.

Too long at the fair is done nostalgically and Ms. Wilkinson gives it a believable reading. On, Mile High, another intricate arrangement, she again displays her chops as a musician and becomes one with the band. Her high notes sound musical and unlike too many of her pop contemporaries, she isn't screaming.

Exactly like you is a fun and easy relaxed finger popper with a neat, Conte Candoli like, trumpet solo by Jim Linahon. Sunny takes it out with some neat scat in unison with the reeds.

As I mentioned on a previous CD by Ms. Wilkinson, she is very much in the house singing Brazilian. My definition of being able to sing Brazilian: Making the difficult seem all too easy. Jobim's Agua de beber is yet another example of this. Ron Newman is featured playing softly and respectfully embracing the Jobim lines.

Personally, I would have enjoyed hearing Like someone in love done at a slower pace. I got the feeling someone was chasing Sunny to finish on time.

Tommy Wolf's line I'm always drunk in San Francisco has never been recorded enough. Here, Sunny is at her splendid best displaying the unique power she has as a singer and the control of exhibiting emotions through her wonderful jazz sense.

We need to spread the word more on the jazz qualities of Sunny Wilkinson. There are far too many singers, in today's artificial spotlight, basking in undeserved glory. Sunny has paid her dues and needs to be heard now!

 

The Jazz Zine chats with Sunny Wilkinson

The Jazz Zine

Twenty or thirty years ago, when a young jazz singer was asked: "Who was your first influence in getting to sing in the jazz tradition?" Inevitably, the answer would come back, Ella Fitzgerald. I hear many styles and influences flowing through your final individual offering. Would Ella Fitzgerald be one of the more important dominating factors that moved you toward jazz?

Sunny Wilkinson

In my Freshman year, before I knew anything about jazz, a roommate of mine turned me on to Nancy Wilson. I played her records so much that I literally wore out the grooves. I had her every phrase memorized. Later on that year, I joined a "Blood Sweat and Tears" type of band, where I sang and played trombone It was a great amalgamation of styles of players; the organist was a blues player, the guitarist a rock player and the horn players were jazzers. At that point I hadn't even heard of jazz. Little by little the horn players broadened my horizons, playing cuts for me and turning me on to various musicians. I remember distinctly when I came around to a jazz point of view (fell in love with it if you will) I was sitting in the Arizona State University music Library listening to the Charles Lloyd album "Forest Flower" (Of course the jazz players in the band had told me to listen to the record). It was Keith Jarrett's solo on the title cut "Forest Flower" that captivated me. I played the solo over and over again in wonderment at how someone could play something so stirring and fresh. That was it, I was hooked. From there, I went to every garage sale I could and bought up old, scratchy Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Ella Fitzgerald records. I was a poor college student and couldn't afford to buy them new. I listened to those old records which were almost worn out when I bought them. They certainly were by the time I was finished with them.

The Jazz Zine

If the opportunity ever came around for you to be able to choose one singer to do a duet with, who would that be?

Sunny Wilkinson

Wow, that's a tough question, a great one, but a tough one. Ok...I get to pick two, one living and one dead. We'll do dead first. Sarah Vaughan...for many reasons. Early in my singing career, I patterned myself after her, her phrasing, her warmth of sound. I loved her. Now, I love her even more. She was such a great musician . What great ears. I also love the fact that she didn't set herself apart from the players. She was "one of the guys," which means to me that she didn't have any falsity about her. She just loved the music. There used to be a great jazz club in LA called Carmellos. Everyone hung out there. One night when I was playing there, Sarah came in and was having a drink at the bar. I wanted to speak to her, ask her if I could apprentice with her, but I was too young and fearful, I missed the opportunity. So...I would love, in retrospect, to have the chance to record with Sassy.

Living...that's tough too...narrow it down to one...sorry, I can't. How about one male and one female? Male. Kurt Elling. I think he will be a modern day legend. He has all the component parts, vocal agility, inventive musical ideas, Charisma, great intensity, improvisitory prowess, and the ability to communicate fragility and sensitivity of a lyric. He is unique. I would love to record with him.

Female...Definitely Nancy King. I think she is an undersung heroine of jazz singing. She is the purest most unadulterated jazz singer around today. She is very distinctive in her sound and improvisation, as well as being absolutely one-of-a-kind as a human being. Fresh, free, unencumbered. I absolutely love listening to her, and I know she would be an inspiration to sing with.

The Jazz Zine

Antonio Carlos Jobim once said of Joao Gilberto: (I paraphrase)"Don't think that Joao's style is simple because of the pretty lines that blend together and create such an easy and pleasant melody. What he does is quite complex and there's a lot of overlapping and technique in his style. He only makes it seem easy."

Sunny, on some of the Brazilian pieces that you've done, like Estate, you seem to have grasped the naturalness and sensuality of the Brazilian genre. Was this a quality you had to learn and practice repeatedly, or did this come to you naturally?

Sunny Wilkinson

I have to practice it repeatedly. I have such respect for the Brazilian music that I do my very best to sound authentic. I know that's impossible, because I have never sung with a Brazilian band, let alone lived in Brazil. But I do love the music and study a tune diligently before I take it out in public. Whenever I learn a Brazilian piece, I study several artist's renditions thoroughly (Brazilian Artists, of course) I make sure that I am coached on the Portuguese by someone who is fluent. I try to make it as authentic as a girl from Michigan can.

My closest friend when I lived in Los Angeles was Kevyn Lettau, who sang with Sergio Mendez for a number of years before she went on to her own recording career. One year for my birthday, she gave me a several tapes full of Brazilian music; Elis Regina, Lene Andrage, Edu Lobo, Hermeto Pascal, Djavan, Ivan Lins, among others. I played these tapes over and over again, and began to buy Brazilian CDs where ever I could find them. The rhythms were thrilling to me. The phrasing..pushed, then released, pulled back and released again. It's interesting that you should mention the Jobim quote about Joao Gilberto's style. His recording of "Zingaro" "Photograph in Black and White" is anything but simplistic. He phrases so far ahead that its difficult to follow, let alone duplicate it. One of my favorite memories of LA is going to hear Dori Caymmi at Le Cafe. It was a small, intimate club and the music was soaring and beautiful. It moved me and moves me like no other music. I have all of his CD's and never tire of them.

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