Disappointing Jazz Vocals from Sally Terrell

courtesy of Play MPE

A few weeks ago jazz vocalist Sally Terrell released her second (apparently self-produced) album entitled Feel Alive. The album features arrangements by keyboardist John Di Martino, balancing a selection of standards with new songs. The advance material addresses that latter category as follows:

Combining themes both personal and public, this album channels the range of emotions so many of us have felt the past two years, ultimately calling us all to look ahead with genuine, if cautious, optimism.

The content of those selections is described as “stories ripped from the headlines along with intimate reflections of longing, love, division and change.”

These descriptions seem to raise a red flag, warning that the pandemic blues are best addressed through navel-gazing. From a personal point of view, this runs counter to my own philosophy, which is that we commit ourselves to quit moping about it all in favor of taking a more upbeat rhetorical stance. For that matter, the navel-gazing rhetoric of the originals on this new album tend to spill over into the standards. This is most evident in the final track, Leonard Bernstein’s “Some Other Time,” which runs the risk of mushiness even in its original setting in On the Town. On this new release it bogs down even further in the combination of Di Martino’s arrangement and Terrell’s delivery.

Those interested in Di Martino’s talents as an arranger would be better off checking out the album he released about two years ago: Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn, which is all music without any agenda.