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    Presenting Ms. Rita Edmond - The Contemporary Face of True Jazz Royalty

    Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

    Presenting Ms. Rita Edmond - The Contemporary Face of True Jazz Royalty
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    If you’re a jazz lover and want to look upon the contemporary face of jazz royalty, take a moment to go check out Ms. Rita Edmond on Youtube. She's the jazz world's best kept secret.  She's currently working on her third CD, but even on her first CD, she made it abundantly clear to this writer that she hit the ground fully seasoned as one of the greatest jazz singers alive today. I know, that's a mighty lofty claim to heap onto the shoulders of a relatively new artist, but I'm not given to hyperbole, so I fully intend to back up my assertion with the contents and attachments to this piece.
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    Ms. Edmond moves between sultry sophistication, hard driving swing, and childlike innocence without any effort at all. There are many great singers out there , but from the very first bar of anything Rita does, she clearly distinguishes herself as one of those rare individuals who was born to do exactly what she’s doing, and nothing else. She swings with the effortless grace of a Sliver Shadow cruisin' down Pacific Coast Highway, and her ballads are lush with sultry passion, personal depth, and individuality.
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    You can't "learn" to sing like Rita Edmond. You either have it, or you don't, and there's only one or two lucky few in a generation who do - but Rita, like Ella and Sarah, is one of those lucky few. But don’t just take my word for it, go check her out for yourself and I’m sure you’ll agree with me that she’s a once in a generation talent, and clearly the heir apparent to some of the greatest divas that jazz has ever known.
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    Along with this piece I'm attaching three links to make my point - ‘Here’s to Life,’ ‘Embraceable You' (Live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) , and ‘It Might As Well Be Spring’ - and each tune shows a different side of her tremendous, and still growing, musical personality.
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    ‘Here’s to Life’ is a beautiful ballad that’s been done by some of the greatest singers who’s ever lived, yet Ms. Edmond’s version is as good or better than any version of this tune that’s ever been recorded. The soaring passion that she brings to this tune makes it almost impossible for anyone who’s ever had to struggle through life’s adversities and then managed to survive to continue to fight the good fight, to listen to with a dry eye.
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    'Embraceable You,' (featuring Harold Land, Jr. on piano) demonstrates the ease in which she can establish the mood of a song and captivate an audience. It also shows an artist who is so comfortable in serenading an audience that it seems like she was born on stage. And after the piano solo, notice the effortless spontaneity in which she throws in a lick that's so exquisite that it sounds like it should have been written into the tune. You won't be able to miss it, because the audience places an exclamation point of approval immediately afterward, as she casually, and routinely, moves on to the next phrase, as though it's all in a night's work. 
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    Finally, she does ‘It Might As Well Be Spring,’ a tried and true jazz standard. Not everyone can do this tune well, because it’s such a jazz staple that it’s hard for a singer to put their personal stamp on it, and whenever they try, they either over sing or under sing the tune.  But Rita swings through it effortlessly and makes it her own. King Pleasure himself would smile at her rendition.
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    I also wanted to add Ms. Edmond's rendition of ‘This Can’t Be Love’ as an attachment, but unfortunately, it's not available on Youtube. Nevertheless, it deserves a mention. On that tune Ms. Edmond displays yet another part of her musical vocabulary - her growing chops as a scatter and her ability to swing with the best of them. In this case, she scats in unison with yet another powerhouse, tenor sax player Ricky Woodard, and they’re pushed forward by the hard driving rhythms of Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath of the illustrious Heath Brothers on drums - and when it comes to the aristocracy of jazz, they don’t come any more blue-blooded than Tootie.  She's also regularly accompanied by Nancy Wilson's keyboard player, Llew Matthews, who has also played with legendary jazz giants such as Jackie McLean and Woody Shaw.  So Rita is regularly being tested by fire, and she literally dances through the flames with blissful abandon.
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    So in spite of Ms. Edmond’s unassuming manner, whenever she picks up a mic, her tremendous confidence, individualism and flawless delivery seems to say, “There’s a new diva in town” - and I say, it’s about time! 
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    Eric L. Wattree
    wattree.blogspot.com
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    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

    Comments

    She's wonderful, Eric, and lucky to have you in her corner. You shared some of her music in an earlier post, so thank you for another taste of her lovely voice.


    Thank you, Barefooted.
    .
    Yes, that's my baby, so I never get tired of putting her forward.  But one of the reasons I'm doing it now is because she has a very ambitious CD coming out soon.  What's holding it up is I just wrote some lyrics to Phil Woods' solo in Quincy Jones' 1961 masterpiece, "Quintessence" as a tribute to Quincy. The solo is very complex, so she's got to become comfortable with both the lyrics, and the complexity of the tune.
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    ECHOES OF AN ERA: THE FABULOUS QUINCY JONES

    *
    Quincy Jones is one of the last truly GREAT composers and arrangers to come out of jazz, or any other form of music, in quite some time. NOBODY is greater, and no one ever has been. He stands among Ellington, Basie, Mancini, and Gershwin in complete comfort, so we shouldn’t take him for granted, because Quincy is easily among the greatest men who have ever lived, and that's not meant as hyperbole. 
    .
    Yes, we already recognize him as a celebrity, but he’s much more than just that.  Due to our contemporary philosophy of "de-education" - or the dumbing-down of society - we fail to recognize Quincy’s true statue as an artist, or what he represents to the history of music as a whole. Quincy Jones is not just famous, he's an icon of the arts of an historic stature, and we should all recognize and honor such greatness within our midst, because there is nothing of more value to humanity than those who have achieved Quincy’s level of excellence, greatness, and accomplishment. 
    .
    People such as Quincy enhance all of humanity. They serve as living testaments to what man is capable of at his best. Their contributions represent the ultimate political, spiritual, and moral statement of mankind as a whole. They also stand as a constant reminder of what man can, and should be, and of the kind of excellence that we should all strive for.
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    Thus, this is my tribute to a GREAT man, and a great artist, who has managed to achieve the ultimate in our human endeavor - immortality.
    (The lyrics were written to be sang by a woman)
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    QUINTESSENCE
    (The Fabulous Quincy Jones - Dec. 22, 1961)
    *

    *
    I____ love the sound____ of maestro\Quincy Jones____.
    His music____ is so____ divine______.
    When I sing____his songs____ I know I can’t____go wrong,
    because I’m filled____with the soul____of Quincy Jones______.
    *
    Q’s____serenades_____ are always so refined________
     The mel-o-dies linger____ on_____.
    They sing of love for you____from a guy_______ known
    as "Q"_____,
    A name____that will always_______ sing for
    you______.
    .

    DUKE ELLINGTON
    *
     
    And then when Phil____ begins to play,
    Quin-tes-sence\in his\own____and special way____
    he seems to know\ . . . . exactly what the Q had to say.
    They sung about jazz and love\ and of \ling___er___ing
    Sunsets__________,
    and______ blessed the dawn________with this song__________.
    .
    *
    They sung of love\ and when your heart is full,
    trem-bl-ing lips\ beneath a mistletoe____
    they made my heart____ stand still_______.
    So as I sing____ this song____ I know I\Just\ can’t____ go wrong______,
    because it flowed____ from the pen ____ of 
    
    Maestro, Quincy Jones______.
    .
    COUNT BASIE
    *
    I____ love the sound____ of maestro\Quincy Jones____.
    His music____ is so____ divine______.
    When I sing____his songs____ I know I can’t____go wrong,
    because I’m filled____with the soul____of Quincy Jones______. 
    *
    FRANK SINATRA
    *
    And then when Phil began to play\ Q just let him have____ his own way_____,
     and Phil said, \"Maestro\ . . . I just love the sound of this 
    mel-o-dy."  
    Then picked up his horn\ and started to
    soar________like an angel__________,
    
    and joined____ the immortals____ in fame_____.
    .
     
     
    *
    Genius like this\ you never see no more____, \kissed
     by the Gods\ as they walk through the door; 
    \A genius where time____stands still___________.
    So as I sing___ his song______I know I____
     
     can’t________ go wrong_________, 
     
    because I am wrapped\ in the soul_____ of Maestro____ Quincy Jones______.
    .
    
    MICHAEL JACKSON 
    *
    
    Beauty is Q's genre, and 
    he uses our heartstrings as his ax. 
    *

    THE FABULOUS, QUINCY JONES!

    ©2014 Eric L. Wattree
    
     

    Thanks for posting, wonderful listening in snowy N.Texas, housebound.

    She keeps it all right on the edge, great tension in that. Loved Spring with a sweet style and then the scat flourish at the end, showing you she's intentionally holding things back a bit.

    Eric, what was going on there in "embraceable"? sounded as if a key change was coming a couple of times but didn't. Maybe part of her style. Liked the piano interlude in that song, very easy for him to have upstaged her, but again, control.

    Great artist. Thanks.


    Thank you, Oxy,

    I'm not sure where you're talking about, but Rita does like to play with modulations.  I wrote an entire tune based on one flourish she does after the piano solo.  By the way, the piano player is Harold Land Jr.  His father, Harold Land, was the legendary tenor saxophone player who was featured in the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet.  But Rita generally records with Llew Matthews, Nancy Wilson's piano player. They are both great players.


    Thank you for introducing me to her music

    You're very welcome, RM.

     


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