Ranee Lee | Lives Upstairs (Coming May 11th, 2010)

(What isn’t
quite as well known is that Ms. Lee is a native New Yorker – born and
raised in Brooklyn, as a matter of fact. “I think that everybody grew up
in Brooklyn,” she says. “Every time I meet someone from the states
they’ve either lived there or are still there – it’s like the center of
the universe or something!”)

Ms. Lee’s first album, Live At “Le Bijou” was taped at that
club in Old Montreal in 1983, but, unbelievably, she has not recorded a
live album since.
Lives Upstairs brings her back full circle and celebrates ten
albums and nearly 30 years. (Ms. Lee informs us that the album is
pronounced “Lives” in the sense of “Bird Lives” and not in the sense of
“Private Lives.”) Both the title and the album cover are a play on
Upstairs, the name of Canada’s most venerated jazz club, which is ironic
since the performance space is famously located in a basement in
Montreal.

The considerations of performing before a live audience
and that of making an album are not always consistent with each other;
however, Ms. Lee is more than sagacious enough to reconcile the two and
find their common ground. “Every recording I’ve made comes out of the
repertory that I enjoy singing most,” she says. “Most of it is
traditional, songs that I’ve learned, in some cases almost by osmosis.
Through the years I’ve developed a wider repertoire.” She notes that she
learned both Jimmy McHugh’s “I Just Found Out About Love” and Johnny
Mandel’s “A Time for Love” from Shirley Horn. The first is a fast-moving
show tune (from the unsuccessful Strip
For Action) that Horn actually learned from Nat King Cole and
which opens the proceedings here with a definite bang, and “A Time for
Love” is one of the most intensely romantic performances on the set.

In
between, Ms. Lee throws herself wholeheartedly into the first of two
songs by the great Jerome Kern, “In Love In Vain” (from Centennial
Summer). Ms. Lee’s arrangement starts as a jazz waltz that she swings
with remarkable energy and charisma. “Dearly Beloved,” also from the
latter part of Kern’s career (from You
Were Never Lovelier) is a fast-moving swing time treatment of a
song originally done as a ballad. Launched by the propulsive playing of
guitarist Richard Ring, Ranee just jumps right into it. Richard, who is
also Lee’s husband, rides like the wind in his own solo here.

Changing
the mood entirely, “A Crooked Road” is a melody by contemporary jazz
guitar master Pat Metheny, with an unusual and compelling beat all its
own. Apparently, Metheny has never recorded this song himself, which is a
mystery, since it boasts a lovely and intriguing tune. “When I decided I
wanted to do it, I had a hard time finding the music,” reports Lee,
“It’s not one of his best-known compositions.”

“Four,” based on
the 1950s bop anthem by Miles Davis, is the work of the brilliant Jon
Hendricks and the legendary trio of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. As
Ranee Lee shows better than anyone, the tune is a catchy sample of very
hip philosophy, in which she sings an extended meditation on the nature
of happiness set to the outline of the famous trumpet improvisation by
Miles Davis himself. It’s as “groovy as a ten-cent movie.”

Apart
from Jerome Kern, the other iconic composer represented is George
Gershwin, who is also heard in two classic songs, “I Love You Porgy” and
“Summertime.” They’re both from his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess and are appropriately presented together
in a long and lush medley. It’s a worthy juxtaposition of the romantic
and the maternal – the first sung sensually, as if to a lover, the
second rendered tenderly, as if to a child. “Who doesn’t know
‘Summertime?'” Ranee asks, “I sing it because I know the public
identifies with these tunes.”

From 1934 Victor Young’s “Beautiful
Love” was sung by several iconic jazz divas (like Anita O’ Day and
Shirley Horn), but is rarely heard in the 21st century. Originally
written as a waltz, Ranee makes it come to life anew as an explosive,
Brazilian-style samba. If Gershwin and Young are old masters, James
Taylor is a contemporary one. “I’ve always loved ‘Fire and Rain,'” she
says, “especially the way that [pianist] John Sadowy has re-harmonized
it, and almost given it a gospel feel.” 

The one composer
remaining is Lee herself, whose original songs are always a highlight of
her albums. “The Storm” is a down and dirty blues that gives both Lee
and the band (particularly Sadowy and Ring) a chance to simmer and
sizzle. The wonderful thing about Ranee Lee’s ongoing projects for
Justin Time is that you never know what she’s going to try next, but you
can be sure that she’ll consistently deliver the goods. Hearing her
sing serves to confirm what Jon Hendricks wrote in his lyrics to “Four,”
“So take a tip from me / the world is everything it ought to be.”