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ROSETTI @ PHOCUS
Melissa Morgan ; Elegant Diarist
Singer Melissa Morgan steps out of a silver
Porsche on the cover shot on her debut, Until I
Met You (Telarc). Her classy authenticity also
comes through her musical choices, like the title
track, a take on Count Basie’s “Corner Pocket.”
But Morgan’s catchy oblique voice and choice
of repertoire show that her vintage sensibility
hasn’t stood in the way of her originality.
Morgan does echo many legends—Peggy
Lee’s easy sigh, Nancy Wilson’s precision intonation
and bluesy twist, Anita O’Day’s airy
turnarounds, and a hushed acquiescence that
hints of Shirley Horn. But Morgan also mentions
male singers as inspirations, saying that
Bill Henderson in particular inspired her on
“The Lamp Is Low.”
Essentially, Morgan calls the disc a diary.
“I listen first for gripping lyrics that resonate
with me, then a moving, strong melody,”
Morgan said. “Some are brand new, but I
wanted to find rare standards that no one has
recorded for decades to make a real jazz record
for the real jazz fan. ‘Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t
My Baby’ is a tune that covers a lot of bases
for people.”
Morgan and co-producers Chris Dunn and
Christian Scott (who plays trumpet on four
tracks) winnowed through tunes for months,
varying layered instrumentation, guitar, trio and
small bands.
“We thought about pacing and
sequence from the beginning, so
people could feel the arc and
movement of the set,” Morgan
said. “We wanted to maintain the
traditional feel of the tunes to give
that refreshing feeling. A diary
should be honest and open. We left
in the flaws. On ‘Is You Is’ we
kept the first take. I’d planned on
ending a little earlier, but we go on
for a minute longer. It’s organic,
not too clean or modern.”
On the disc, sweet moments balance the tart,
particularly when she’s alone and vulnerable
with Gerald Clayton’s piano on “I Just Dropped
By To Say Hello.” She also shares a history with
his instrument.
Growing up in New York, Morgan studied
classical piano at 4 and played Schumann and
Ravel duets with her grandmother, a classical
singer. The shy teenager tried opera in high
school.
“People find it ironic that I’m a singer,” she
said. “I was so shy I preferred to play piano
alone. Today I still play, but I’m not comfortable
yet playing a full set.”
Now living in California, Morgan’s background
away from a microphone contributes a
lot to who she is today. “I grew up fast with my
ears and eyes open,” she said. “Maybe I did see
and hear a lot, and I sing the way I live—not
polished or technical.”
With her debut out, Morgan is looking ahead
to her future.
“You can’t throw everything you love on
your first record,” she said. “I want to record
Brazilian and bossa nova, maybe on my third
CD. And I’d love to work with pianists like
Harold Mabern and Cedar Walton.”
That upbeat confidence does include her
choice of cars—on her disc cover or when she’s
driving around Southern California.
“My dad taught me to hold a shift car in neutral
on a hill,” Morgan said. “I love my Mini
Cooper stick—it’s yellow, a happy color.”
—Fred Bouchard
Garrison Fewell ;
Delta–Silk Road
Journeys
These days, travelers searching for peaceful destinations
would hardly place Iran and
Afghanistan at the top of their lists. But in 1972,
with the Vietnam War raging and social unrest
in the headlines at home, 18-year-old guitarist
Garrison Fewell left Philadelphia for what was
then a much more placid Middle East. He spent
a year in the region, playing music with locals
and even working as a disc jockey in Kabul,
Afghanistan.
“I was on a path to discover the world and
see what other cultures were about,” Fewell said
from his office at Boston’s Berklee College of
Music. “Kabul was a beautiful town with treelined
boulevards and great musicians. If you
went to a tea house and just hung around, you
could jam with people playing tabla, rubab,
dutar, all kinds of instruments.”
Memories of those jam sessions reemerged
during the recording of The Lady Of Khartoum
(Creative Nation), Fewell’s duo recording with
Boston guitarist Eric Hofbauer. Although the
EARL GIBSON
26 DOWNBEAT June 2009