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Red Sky In
Brooklyn has received its first radio play from DJ Ray Funk,
host of the show Roots Funk on KUAC
89.9 FM, the NPR affiliate in Fairbanks, Alaska.
from the North Brooklyn Community
News, October 2005
Review by Budd Kopman in Allaboutjazz.com
Red Sky In Brooklyn is one of the most
enjoyable releases I have listened to in a long while. Combining
superb musicianship with the ability to communicate directly
to the listener, Kate Bell and company manage to simultaneously
entertain and enlighten.
The Poma-Swank band was created by
vocalist Kate Bell and guitarist Ethan Hein, and its by-word
is “sassy jazz from Brooklyn.” Bell oozes sass and
does not hide her personality behind their voice—her instrument
is not only her voice, but her total self, which she transparently
presents via her singing. Every song, then, becomes somewhat
of an autobiographical statement to some degree, and the person
who is singing is someone you'd most definitely want to meet.
While singers naturally lead a band,
or at least command attention via words, the rest of this band
is far from a mere supporting cast. As presented on the record,
Poma-Swank is a group whose members share the same musical aesthetic
of having fun, swinging and telling a story, while locking into
an irresistibly inviting vibe.
The rhythm section of Hein, bassist
Chris Luard and drummer Jeremy Portwood is very tight and nimble
as it lays down the different grooves found here. The brass
section is comprised of trombonist Elizabeth Dotson-Westphalen
(known only as Elizabeth! on the record) and trumpeter Jesse
Selengut, who also contributes two originals (”Easy Song”
and ”Glass House Blues”). Clarinetist Adrian Mira
and saxophonist Catherine Sikora hold down the reeds. Together,
through the arrangements, they fill out the sound, making the
band seem bigger than it is.
Everyone, when given solo room, makes a statement. Dotson-Westphalen
(who also contributes terrific backing vocals) shows she is
in total control of the trombone on “Orlando's Bossa,”
on which Selengut and Mira also show their stuff. Sikora, who
absolutely burns on “My Favorite Things,” deserves
special mention—not only for her work on that tune, where
she gets inside of Coltrane's style, but anywhere she plays.
The most interesting and attractive
thing about the members of Poma-Swank, though, is their attitude.
The standards, “Sometimes I'm Happy” and “My
Favorite Things,” sound new without losing touch with
their pedigree, while the band's originals, including four by
Bell (”Orlando's Bossa,” “In My Arms,”
“Red Sky In Brooklyn” and “Never Seen Me Before”)
have a familiarity about them that makes them feel like standards.
They make you think you have heard them before, immediately
drawing you in, only to reveal that they are finely crafted
originals. Of the two covers, Björk's “Possibly Maybe”
is the standout, maintaining full intensity for five minutes.
Poma-Swank Paints Brooklyn Red
By Mark Kirby
As an employee of one of the premiere
jazz bars in Greenwich Village of NYC, I get the opportunity
to see many different singers - primarily of jazz, but also
blues and funky soul. They are very talented and knowledgeable
in whatever style they’re working. But for the most part
they miss one ingredient: sass. Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter,
Nancy Wilson and Sinatra, to name a few, all had it. So do the
Poma-Swank and their singer Kate Bell.
Whether the song is a swinging original
about a bogus ex-boyfriend or doing imaginative versions of
unlikely cover songs, her delivery and the playing of the 7-piece
band oozes sass, that bouncy, smart ass reaction to life’s
bothersome situations and, especially, people. There are elements
of pop in the vocals and there is plenty of funk. But make no
mistake, this is a jazz record.
Poma-Swank presents various styles
of the music, but maintain a unified sound. Easy Song, written
by trumpeter Jesse Selengut (cofounder of the Williamsburg Jazz
Festival), starts things off and serves as an introduction to
the band and the album. After setting up an easy swing featuring
the bass and trumpet, Bell kicks in with some scat singing followed
by vocals that proclaims “the blues will take your pain
away.” The lyrics on this, and other songs on the record,
mixes wise observations and heart-on-the-sleeve emotions with
sly humor. The first solo goes to Selengut who plays smooth,
tuneful lines over the rhythm section’s bouncy swing.
Bassist Chris Luard takes a solo using his bow, playing some
deft, hornlike runs.
Orlando’s Bossa is an old world
bossa nova with Bell singing the story of Orlando Guzman, one
of those characters one comes across in New York City, someone
who “used to be somebody” if only in their own mind.
It features a clarinet solo by Adrian Mira and one by guitarist
Ethan Hein, who is the glue in the rhythm section throughout
the album, combining sinewy comping and sharp chordal interplay,
with the crisp drumming of Jeremy Portwood. The cut Sometimes
I’m Happy brings on the funk and extra sass, in the form
of Kate’s brassy, vocals and a swinging bridge that would
bring a chuckle from the jazz police.
The film noir-ish title track and the
swinging, ultra-sassy Never Seen Me Before are standouts. The
latter is one of the best songs the writer has heard about running
into ex-lovers seemingly every place (an all too common occurrence
in the city).
Though the CD shows their arranging
and playing proficiency in various styles, it is in their lush
ballads and moody, introspective numbers that are built around
Bell’s singing and lyrics that are the high points of
the CD. Possibly Maybe is delicate, surreal when sung by Icelandic
diva Björk. Poma-Swank plays a meatier rendition of the
song, with Bell slowly building in emotional intensity and melodic
invention over a relentless horn-laced, jazz funk groove.
The lovely In My Arms has a lilting,
yet angular, melody where Bell, Selengut, Mira, Elizabeth, and
saxophonist Catherine Sikora stretch the harmonic palette beyond
the ordinary with sweet and sour lines that musically captures
going to “sleep now safe in my arms.”
Red Sky in Brooklyn could have done
without the final song, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. The
song itself is too maudlin and overwrought and this version
doesn’t rise above those limitations, despite Bell’s
soulful and sincere vocals and a gospel-infused trombone solo
by Elizabeth. The melancholy exotica of the excellent “Glass
House Blues” is much more evocative and satisfying. This
CD is one of the best offerings from the New York jazz underground.
from kyndmusic.com,
8/22/06
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