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Backstage With …
By Eric Fine
Kendra
JACK VARTOOGIAN/FRONTROWPHOTOSShank
Singer Kendra Shank not only looks
beyond the Great American Songbook for
inspiration. She searches beyond the
songs’ lyrics. She will scat, sometimes suggesting
a muted trumpet or even a birdcall,
and her penchant for taking liberties with a
melody can suggest a horn player. Shank
spoke at New York’s 55 Bar on March 27,
where she performed before embarking on
a three-week tour in support of her quartet’s
new album, Mosaic (Challenge).
I assume your decision to credit Mosaic to
your quartet reflects the group’s chemistry.
Would you elaborate
That was deliberate. This group (pianist
Kimbrough, bassist Dean Johnson and
drummer Tony Moreno) has made three
records together, and it’s always been
under my name. But we’re a group. We’ve
been together 10 years, and the music is a
result of our collaborative approach. I wanted
to call it the Kendra Shank Quartet to
acknowledge that this isn’t just me. This is
an ensemble of musicians of which I am
only one member.
I don’t approach it as a typical singer
fronting a band, where I’m calling all the
shots, everything is set in stone and the
arrangement has to go this way in order for
me to be comfortable. The arrangements
are a collaborative effort.
How prominent is original and unconventional
material in your repertoire Is this a
growing trend among jazz vocalists
I was always looking for songs that were
off the beaten path. Maybe part of it has to
do with the fact that the standard songs
have been done by so many great
vocalists over the years. Maybe it‘s
that the generation I come from
didn’t grow up with the Great
American Songbook songs as
popular music.
I grew up with Joni Mitchell and
James Taylor. I look in all kinds of
places for those songs. I ask my
peers about their original tunes. I
sometimes look for old chestnuts
that come from Tin Pan Alley or the
Great American Songbook but
haven’t been recorded so much.
I’ve always looked into the ’70s
music that I grew up with. In addition,
there are more singer-songwriters
in jazz today than there
have been.
Of those songs from the ’70s, can
you name one or two that translate
well to jazz
Great jazz musicians have taken simple
folksongs and made beautiful music, like
“The Water Is Wide” that Sheila Jordan
did with Kenny Barron. And like Charlie
Haden doing “Goin’ Home” or John
Coltrane doing “My Favorite Things.” It’s
what you do with it. Some songs are
composed with rich harmony and a lot of
harmonic movement, and some aren’t.
Joni Mitchell’s material lends itself well to
jazz. She has a jazz influence in what she
does, anyway. But I took James Taylor’s
“That Lonesome Road,” which basically
is hymn-like. It’s simple, but Frank
Kimbrough and I reharmonized it.
Do you still perform the music from
your previous album, A Spirit Free:
Abbey Lincoln Songbook (2007)
I love those songs, they’re part of my book
now. Those songs are so powerful, and
that’s why I did that record. I met Abbey in
1994. I’d seen her perform at Jazz Alley in
Seattle, and she knocked me out. She was
so powerful. Her songwriting is full of
truth. The songs deal with subject matter
that is timely, philosophical and has social
importance.
I thanked her for her music, and we
became friends. She made me realize that I
shouldn’t abandon my folk music roots,
and I shouldn’t be embarrassed by them
while trying to be a jazz singer. She told me
I should be embracing all of myself, all my
musical influences and roots.
DB
June 2009 DOWNBEAT 17