Flirting with Disaster

QUOTES ABOUT FLIRTING WITH DISASTER

  Lorraine Feather [is] jazz’s savviest self-chronicler …the songs on Flirting With Disaster quiver with vulnerability … Feather’s lyrics tell us this album is a “wild ride from bliss to despair.” We should be grateful to have been invited along.

Funny, sardonic, wise and occasionally wistful … dangerously thrilling … like love, a wildly unpredictable journey

Eerie … beautiful … The entire album feels like a one-woman play. It could be a Broadway musical soundtrack or the best night you’ve had at a jazz club ever.

A combination of Mystery Theaterand the female equivalent of O. Henry … endlessly entertaining, tight hairpin lyrical turns, and surprising emotional cliffhangers that leave listeners both devastated and rejuvenated.

She works sans net, fearless and supremely confident about what she’s offering, risks be damned.

The lyrics are sometimes wonderfully touching, but sometimes harshly realistic. Regardless of the melody or the lyrics, the star is Feather.

11 impressive songs, each with its own strength and beauty … the ballads on this recording are just stunning. Lorraine Feather continues to grow as a lyricist, vocalist, arranger, performer and human being.

A Tom Waits-Mort Sahl kind of jazzer …thoughtful, winsome and yet swinging … cerebral, yet also celebratory stuff.

Lorraine Feather, accomplished singer and songwriter, is to me one of those who are, in Duke’s phrase, ‘beyond category.’ Flirting with Disastercontinues her progression … a poetic universal … a golden voice of great character and musicality.

Her voice is flexible and nuanced; she can whisper, speak rhythmically, hit the high notes pure and clear … whatever is necessary to deliver the lyrics with the most fascinating effect. Lorraine Feather is my new Joni.

On Flirting With Disaster, her first album of entirely love songs, Feather hits it out of the park.

Zany observations … a conversational ease … suggests Dave Frishberg in double time, mixed with the antic playfulness of Jon Hendricks.

Miss Feather proves yet again that her sense of musical adventure and originality is without limit.

Stunning complexities … tricky inner rhymes, offbeat stories … astonishing vocal dexterity.

Great jazz lyricists are not easy to find … Feather can turn a phrase with the best of them. Her nimble style does justice to both melody and lyrics.

Her stuff glitters and gleams and makes you think of Dorothy Parker or Norah Ephron … Feather’s voice is intimate and agile … her words witty, nostalgic, critical, fanciful, bitchy and romantic by turns.

Energetic, enchanting, and exceptional … She’s utterly comfortable and confident … sings her meticulous, clever poetry in a silvery, light voice.

What can be said that hasn’t already been said of Lorraine Feather? A pop and fizz worthy of Annie Ross at the height of her vocalese powers … pure genius.

Intricate and intelligent … her delivery easy but never facile … Lorraine Feather’s voice, lyrics, and original point of view measure up to her roots.

Easily one of the most creative lyricists of her generation … Feather’s skills as an actress and her infectious, versatile voice add to her appeal.

A natural storyteller … delivering her clever verbal conceits with marvelous clarity.

To simply call her a singer, detracts from what truly sets her apart … her ability to put into words the small and profound incongruities of life.

She shares a remarkable skill with Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Ira Gershwin … but Feather goes a different direction with her talents … twisted humor … a nouveau bebop sound …

What a joy, what a delight … surprise-filled lyrics …[her songs] seem to shimmer between past and present …

Emotional, sardonic, hilariously poignant and piquant …The lyrics are evocative and deeply imbued with her edgy trademarks …

Lorraine Feather is that rare artist who can make time stand still … She could very well be the O. Henry of jazz.

Brooding, dark, mournful and fun … that Feather has hit her full musical maturity is beyond question; that she has hit her peak is still in doubt.

Very strange and marvelous … [her] vocal control is breathtaking …Feather passionately shows that what we conceal reveals more than what we display.

Paints imaginative word pictures that are rhythmically complex, yet as clear as her voice.

Fierce wit and literacy … probably the most unusual singer in America, [and] the most underrated musical figure around.

Finds the sweet spot where Kurt Weil, jazz period Joni Mitchell and Dave Frishberg might have collaborated … simply a mind-blower.

A hip, happening, very unusual approach to jazz … wonderfully offbeat.

Much more than a mere jazz singer … one of the most exceptional lyric-writers of our day, a sort of hipper, post-modern Lorenz Hart.

Remarkable. The songs conform abstract thought into song … ingenious vocal acrobatics.

She’s one courageous writer. She executes this high-wire act without a net and lands on her feet every time.

The most skillful of the new crop of lyricists … her work blooms and stands out from the rest.

More than any other contemporary singer or songwriter, Lorraine Feather has captured the heart and soul of the contemporary “I”.

A Perfect Album from a Brilliant, Multi-Talented Artist
Musical Performance: 5-stars
Sound Quality: 5-stars
Overall Enjoyment: 5-stars

Lorraine Feather was born into music. Her father was Leonard Feather, a jazz pianist, composer, and producer who is best remembered for his journalism — writing reviews and album notes pertaining to jazz. Her mother was a singer in the big-band era and an ex-roommate of Peggy Lee. And her godmother was none other than Billie Holiday. Being blessed with genes and attention from the best offers no guarantee that one will come out ahead, but in Lorraine Feather’s case everything took, and she has become one of the most brilliant and multi-talented artists performing today.

Feather writes wonderful lyrics, and her first albums were often devoted to lyrics that she’d set to instrumental classics by such artists as Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. Lately she’s been collaborating with more contemporary composers, and Attachments is the pinnacle of this period. The album is absolutely impossible to fault. Not only are Feather’s lyrics vibrant and true, but her singing is that of a master interpreter completely in control of her instrument. She has perfect diction. Though all of the lyrics are printed in the booklet that accompanies the CD, you won’t need it to understand every word. Moreover, her voice is lovely and appealing. As both a writer and performer, she has it all.

The music collaborators on Attachments are well known to jazz followers, and Dave Grusin, Russell Ferrante, Eddie Arkin, and Shelly Berg all play on various cuts. Attachments is the title of both the album and its second song, and it indicates that Feather’s lyrics are about “the connections we have or form as we go along in life — to our families, friends, lovers, to animals, to places.”

The styles range from wistful ballad (‘I Hope I Never Leave This Place’) to saucy romp (‘I Love You Guys,’ a remembrance of jazz musicians that even tosses a line or two to her husband, drummer Tony Morales). The instrumentation varies as well. Most of the songs include piano, and there are some beautiful contributions from violinist Charlie Bisharat, as well as a very significant one from bass clarinetist Bob Mintzer.

Feather’s lyrics can be sharp as a tack, and they can say something in a way we’ve never heard before, but that seems absolutely right:

You called it love.
What moved you more
Was the quiet scratch
At your entry door,
Was the longtime friend
You thought you’d keep,
Who suddenly cut you
Canyon-deep.

The recorded sound is lush, with lots of presence and just the right amount of reverb. Balances are spot-on and vocal overdubs are skillfully done. Overall, the sound seems ideal for the arrangements. Given the performances and the sound, Attachments should be a given for a Grammy nomination.

Be sure to listen to: The final cut, ‘True,’ finds Feather putting lyrics to Dave Grusin’s arrangement from Bach’s third orchestral suite. The accompaniment is just Grusin on the piano and Bisharat on violin, and the results are ethereal and tremendously moving. I’ll be playing it a lot. 

4 1/2 stars
Lorraine Feather is easily one of the most creative lyricists of her generation, and since earning a Grammy nomination for her 2010 CD Ages, the vocalist has gained greater attention from writers who had previously overlooked her contributions. Every one of her CDs is a treat, full of surprising, often humorous song topics and devoid of predictable Moon/June assembly line lyrics, while Feather’s skills as an actress and her infectious, versatile voice add to her appeal.Tales of the Unusual is no exception, with stories that at times test one’s imagination and occasionally flirt with a creepy air. Most of the musicians appearing on Tales of the Unusual have worked with Feather on her earlier recordings, withRussell Ferrante and Shelly Berg alternating on piano. ‘Indiana Lana’ is her vocal setting of Duke Ellington’s ‘Jubilee Stomp,’ first recorded for her CD Dooji Wooji. 

This new version is a duet, with Feather’s lively vocal romp about the speedy female runner accompanied by Berg, who shows off his masterful stride chops. The mysterious ‘Out There’ keeps revealing hidden facets as Feather’s lyric unfolds, as does Berg’s captivating tune. 

Her haunting ‘I Took Your Hand’ (which adds a lyric to Italian jazz pianist Enrico Pieranunzi’s ‘Fellini’s Waltz’) is a magical ballad with a shimmering backdrop featuring violinist Charles Bisharat’s elegant playing. Ferrante begins ‘The Hole in the Map’ with an eerie flavor, though it quickly takes a comic turn as Feather shares her tale of exploring the Amazon. 

‘Get a Room’ is a hilarious swinger that would be a choice song for a romantic comedy. Her tale describes two lovers so taken with one another that everyone they encounter makes the obvious suggestion, while the solos by Berg, guitarist Mike Miller, and Bisharat add to its playfulness. Only Feather can pen a song about a street person writing a love letter on the sidewalk in chalk, as she does in ‘Sweet Miriam,’ while Eddie Arkin’s music is the perfect blend of jaunty nostalgia from the 1920s with Michael Valerio’s delicious arco bass underneath her mesmerizing vocal. Tales of the Unusual demonstrates that Lorraine Feather is not content to settle into a comfort zone; instead, she continues to grow as a lyricist and singer as she tackles new musical challenges with her collaborators.

4 1/2 stars
Lorraine Feather, unlike any jazz singer on the scene, is pushing her formidable abilities to their maximum, dining and dancing on a bed of life stories that modern men and women can relate to. Essentially sophisticated metropolitan tales, Feather expands her novel-length treatises far beyond mere chapter and verse of love and loss, into an arena so compelling and emotionally involved, one feels as if they were songs with every listener in mind. She’s also blessed with a keen ear for extraordinary accompanists who also co-write the music aside her lyric content, including pianists Russell Ferrante or Shelly Berg, guitarist Eddie Arkin, bassist Michael Valerio, and several fine guest soloists.

The thing about these songs that truly sets them apart is they are based on pure inspiration, far removed from being based on any preconception of any jazz standards — a true (if you’ll please excuse the pun) feather in her cap. She’s also using an exceptional range from high sailing to deepest low, but not obsidian levels, leaping octaves only when the mood fits, but not for simple pyrotechnical effect. As playful and lithe as she is clever, her voice suits the mood and intent of the humorous song ‘A Lot to Remember’ as she references things happening in threes and going from ‘zero to sixty’ in her long listings. The hip funk of ‘Old at 18/Dog Bowl’ also runs down a veritable database of reasons why, in a mosaic that displays her more legato voicings. There are three duets, including a waltz alongside Ferrante — ‘The Girl with the Lazy Eye,’ the story where the young person’s grades are mediocre, raising more questions than answers — while with pianist Dick Hyman, ‘Scrabble’ is a scrambling parlor scat, jumpy and quick, whipping through words. ‘Peculiar Universe’ is atypically melancholy for the upbeat Feather, as she operates in a Kurt Weill/Bertold Brecht world with Béla Fleck on banjo, as is Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Perugia,’ arranged by Ferrante, another waltz dripping with regret over lost love and soul.

But Feather ups the emotional quotient even higher during ‘How Did We End Up Here?,’ as she, Ferrante, and vibraphonist Bob Leatherbarrow work a samba to a tick-tock beat with drummer and percussionist Michael Shapiro. Starting off light, but delving into a heavy emotional introspection as a married couple enjoy a tropical get-away, Feather creates something so powerfully intimate, pondering life, fate, and circumstance — it’s her crowning achievement on this disc, and maybe of her entire career.

To say Lorraine Feather has created a triptych of experiences from adolescence to adulthood on this overview of the human condition through various ages is simplistic. What she has done is dig deep into the psyche of all of us through herself, creating a stunning recording that once again trumps the other excellent albums she has made. Asking ‘How did we end up here?,’ the listener has to pose this question in retort — ‘Is the sky the limit?,’ and ‘How high is that sky?’

Lorraine is the equal of not just her esteemed papa but also of such top-drawer wordsmiths as Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg. Like such masters, she is particularly skilled at observational humor derived from the mundane aspects of everyday life. But Feather’s whip-smart skills aren’t limited to sophisticated witticisms, as here evidenced by a sweet, delicate homage to Billy Strayhorn (‘In Flower’) and a rosy rendering of yuletide Manhattan (‘I Love New York at Christmas’) that is actually a heart-wrenching snapshot of a crumbling relationship.

In this age of press releases and e-mails, not to mention iPods and iTunes, it’s amazing how many compact disks promoting artists new and old still find their way into our mailboxes. Sometimes these arrivals include a true gem. NPR’s special correspondent Susan Stamberg got such a musical delivery the other day …it’s called Language.

‘We’ve struggled offensively,’ I never thought I’d hear that in a song, but of course it has a perfect right to be there in a compendium of sports clichés … [as well as] ‘regrettable away-game incident.’ Wonderfully smart renditions. They do repay study. We’re still enjoying discovering some of the neat words on Lorraine’s earlier releases!

Mellifluous phraseology … chicly utilized clichés … one of Feather’s best attributes is allowing the listener to feel as if they’re having an intimate conversation with her … [her] musicality truly speaks on a visceral level.

Her talent as a lyricist of wit, sarcasm, and keen observations of the American human condition is her true strength…This may very well be Lorraine Feather’s best effort. Bravo, Lorraine.”

A chip off the old block, Feather is the daughter of critic/producer Leonard Feather. She’s at ease within her musical skin, singing her deceptively light, fresh lyrics to swing era chestnuts with delicacy, fluency and sly fun. Tongue-in-cheek? You betcha, but deliciously savvy. Listen to Feather tell charming, hilarious tales as tiny tots in pink tutus tiptoe at ballet school (“Remembering to Breathe”). She also brags about her subway skills, or recalls in tango a fleeting seaside romance. Meticulous charts and Feather’s pinpoint execution nudge these gems beyond novelty, urging later listenings.

Ever since the 2001 release of her Fats Waller-themed New York City Drag, Lorraine Feather has remained the traffic cop at the intersection of uninhibited inspiration and joyous musical fun. Indeed, after last year’s brilliant sojourn through Ellingtonia with the dazzling Such Sweet Thunder, it’s hard to imagine Feather outdoing the creative voodoo she’s summoned thus far. Hard, that is, until you wade into Dooji Wooji (Sanctuary) and hear her conjure a dozen new magical flights of fancy…How can you not love the comically rhythmic roadmap that is her ‘I Know the Way to Brooklyn’ or be enchanted by the faux sophistication of her ‘On the Esplanade’ or luxuriate in the warm rays of her brilliance as she tucks every known Hawaiian musical cliche into her cheek as she transforms the Ellington title tune into ‘Sweet Honolulu?’ As Feather proves for the fourth time, she is the one-woman jazz equivalent of Extreme Makeover—a lyrical Ty Pennington tricked out in Dorothy Parker drag.

What can be said that hasn’t already been said in praise of Lorraine Feather? Three years ago, with her disc New York City Drag, she proved herself the sort of vocalist who would’ve earned five-star reviews from the legendary critic who was her dad. The following year she dazzled us as both a singer and lyricist with Cafe Society, featuring her words fitted to famous jazz compositions, Ellington’s ‘Creole Love Call’ and ‘Rockin’ in Rhythm’ among them. Now, with Such Sweet Thunder (Sanctuary) she rises to new heights by taking a full-length dive into Ellingtonia.

Feather opens with ‘Rhythm Go ‘Way’ (based on ‘’Such Sweet Thunder” from Ellington’s Shakespearean Suite, commissioned in 1956 by Canada’s esteemed Stratford Shakespearean Festival), the steamy tale of a timid suburbanite (‘I’m just a poor helpless hausfrau / Tangled in your snare’) seduced by the Ellington beat. ‘Can I Call You Sugar?’ is taken from Ellington’s ‘Sugar Rum Cherry’ (his sublime twist on ‘The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’). ‘Suburban Beauty’ becomes the swingin’ ‘Backwater Town.’ ‘Rexatious’ is, as ‘Tenacity,’ transformed into something straight out of Gold Diggers of 1933. Ellington and Strayhorn’s “Dancers in Love” is reimagined as “Imaginary Guy,” about a woman and her ideal, if invisible, mate (‘Got a sense of style / Yet he doesn’t preen / Sports a drop-dead smile / Keeps the kitchen clean’). There are others, equally sensational. Throughout, Feather demonstrates a pep and fizz worthy of Annie Ross at the height of her vocalese powers. Genius. Pure genius.

What sets Feather apart is the use of her imagination to stimulate your own and to draw you into the heart of an emotion, whether joy or melancholy. In short, it’s like listening to a story on the radio. With a Feather lyric, you don’t just hear, you somehow see! … I just can’t wait till her next release.

QUOTES ABOUT LORRAINE

Zany observations … a conversational ease … suggests Dave Frishberg in double time, mixed with the antic playfulness of Jon Hendricks.

Stunning complexities … tricky inner rhymes, offbeat stories … astonishing vocal dexterity.

Great jazz lyricists are not easy to find … Feather can turn a phrase with the best of them. Her nimble style does justice to both melody and lyrics.

Her stuff glitters and gleams and makes you think of Dorothy Parker or Norah Ephron … Feather’s voice is intimate and agile … her words witty, nostalgic, critical, fanciful, bitchy and romantic by turns.

Energetic, enchanting, and exceptional … She’s utterly comfortable and confident … sings her meticulous, clever poetry in a silvery, light voice.

What can be said that hasn’t already been said of Lorraine Feather? A pop and fizz worthy of Annie Ross at the height of her vocalese powers … pure genius.

Intricate and intelligent … her delivery easy but never facile … Lorraine Feather’s voice, lyrics, and original point of view measure up to her roots.

Easily one of the most creative lyricists of her generation … Feather’s skills as an actress and her infectious, versatile voice add to her appeal.

A natural storyteller … delivering her clever verbal conceits with marvelous clarity.

To simply call her a singer, detracts from what truly sets her apart … her ability to put into words the small and profound incongruities of life.

She shares a remarkable skill with Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Ira Gershwin … but Feather goes a different direction with her talents … twisted humor … a nouveau bebop sound …

What a joy, what a delight … surprise-filled lyrics …[her songs] seem to shimmer between past and present …

͞Emotional, sardonic, hilariously poignant and piquant …The lyrics are evocative and deeply imbued with her edgy trademarks …

Lorraine Feather is that rare artist who can make time stand still … She could very well be the O. Henry of jazz.

Brooding, dark, mournful and fun … that Feather has hit her full musical maturity is beyond question; that she has hit her peak is still in doubt.

Very strange and marvelous … [her] vocal control is breathtaking …Feather passionately shows that what we conceal reveals more than what we display.

Paints imaginative word pictures that are rhythmically complex, yet as clear as her voice.

Fierce wit and literacy … probably the most unusual singer in America, [and] the most underrated musical figure around.

Finds the sweet spot where Kurt Weil, jazz period Joni Mitchell and Dave Frishberg might have collaborated … simply a mind-blower.

A hip, happening, very unusual approach to jazz … wonderfully offbeat.

Much more than a mere jazz singer … one of the most exceptional lyric-writers of our day, a sort of hipper, post-modern Lorenz Hart.

Remarkable. The songs conform abstract thought into song … ingenious vocal acrobatics.

She’s one courageous writer. She executes this high-wire act without a net and lands on her feet every time.

The most skillful of the new crop of lyricists … her work blooms and stands out from the rest.

More than any other contemporary singer or songwriter, Lorraine Feather has captured the heart and soul of the contemporary “I”.