Touched

LINER NOTES:

Laird Jackson—Touched

Where have you been, Laird Jackson?

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It's a reasonable question, given that it's been eight years since her recording premiiere, the 1993 Big Apple Voices all-star date with several other New york-based vocalists and the Cyrus Chestnut Trio, and seven years since her highly regarded 1994 debut solo album, Quiet Flame, also featuring Chestnut on piano. 

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Why so long a hiatus before recording the followup, her must-hear Touched? "Actually, a lot has happened," Jackson replies.  "There's been a maturation, a deepening of self-awareness. I've become more interested in writing my own songs, and..." she paused to underscore what comes next-" I want to record tunes that I really liked." As if this doesn't register, she repeats the sentiment: " I mean, really like."

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That statement alone is testament to Jackson's artistic commitment, The proof is in Touched's music- an alluring mix of remarkable originals and uncommon covers brought to life by her honey-and-smoke , glowing-embers voice. You see, it becomes obvious on first spin that Laird does not sing to entertain. Now, that's certainly a by-production of her creative sensibility. But she sings because she has something to say, to feel to express. There's mystery in her music: soul-baring sadness, quiet romance wistful beauty. 

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And there's ardor in her repertoire decisions: finsing new song journeys in lieu of treading well-worn paths. So, on Touched, don't look for Gershwin or Jobim, Porter or Ellington. Instead you get Joni Mitchell (a lush, dark and melancholy take on "Tin Angel"), Stevie Wonder (a reflective rendering of "Visions"), Bill Withers (a buoyant and romantic jaunt through "I Want to Spend the Night") and Donovan (a stunning, deeply personal interpreation of "Catch the Wind" that closes the album with a sigh)- all rendered with the jazz essence of creating somethign new and meaningful by fully embracing a song as one's own. 

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"Jazz is about freedom and self-expression and experimentation," says Jackson. "We all learn from and emulate the masters, but we need to find our won reality and create from that with all the risk that entails. I wish there was more of that happening now. The old songs have been recorded so many times it sounds like plagiarism. It's not very creative to learn songs from a record and just sing them back. That's not art."

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Laird stresses that it's important for her to draw on personal experience when choosing material written by other songwriters. "It's 2001 and we've had different encounters with music than the great jazz singers of the '30s, '40s and '50s. They went to the pop songs of their day for inspiration. Why shouldn't we? Look at Cassandra Wilson. She did the Monkees and Robert Johnson and Van Morrison, and it's great. There's an amazing body of music in the world, some yet to be written. What's important for me is that I need to be truly moved by a song, to identify with it personally as if I'd lived it." 

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There is an exception to Laird collecting so-called new standards. On Touched, she covers the obscure gem "lonely House- a collaboration of poet Langston Hughes and melodist Kurt Weill originally written for a Broadway show called Street Scenes and recorded by Abby Lincoln on one of her earlier albums, Abbey is Blue, Jackson says it's the closest she comes to singing a classic.  "It's not a standard but it should be," she notes. "It's rarely performed." "Lonely House" is a striking piece - a haunting ballad with eerie instrumental textures (pianist Bruce Barth damping the strings, alto flutist Steve Wilson fluttering on the pads). "It speaks of the intense loneliness that can exist in a huge, bustling metropolis like New York City," remarks Laird, who draws the listener into the nighttime desolation with her sensuous, note-lingering delivery.

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Speaking of Lincoln, Jackson follows in the footsteps of the pre-eminent songwriter of the jazz vocal world by penning half the songs on Touched. Wile singers have been crafting their own compositions with increasing frequency, Jackson exhibits the strongest material on disc in recent years from a member of the younger class. The title track of the CD is a ruminative gem "Touched".  It's a duo with guitarist Marvin Sewell that Laird counts as one of her favorites on the album. "It's very personal. It's a bittersweet reflection. It's a simple song melodically, but Marvin used a special tuning that adds such depth."

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Jackson also offers the soulful, yearning "You Are Near" with a slight funky feel and superb muted trumpet support from Cecil Bridgewater; the a cappella prayer "Yet Still" that serves as a sublime pause in the proceedings; and the sultry, hopeful "Towards the Sun," which begins quietly then opens into a cooking groove with a great scat over the percolating percussion at the end. The Latin-tinged "Consuela Mi (Console me)" is another beauty. "It reminds me of one of those old-fashioned cCuban romantic songs." Lairds says. "The melody came to me on a rainy New York autumn day. I was walking along Broadway and the tempo and the style forced itself on me"

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One of the most upbeat, swinging tunes of the pack is Jackson's "Take a Walk with Me," a skipping , sunny number that recommends "saying bye-bye to gloomy."  "It may be the album's most sunshiny tune, but the subject matter is probably the darkest," Laird explains. "It's written for a friend who was facing a serious drug addiction. I 'm always being healed by nature. So I was hoping the same could be true for him by going out for a walk to see God's beauty."

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Touched was recorded in two sessions with two producers (James Browne and Aaron Graves) and features stellar contributions from several noteworthies, including baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, alto saxophonist Joe Ford, trumpeter Scott Wendholt, Steve Wilson on alto and soprano saxes as well as flute , bassists Jon Benitez and Nat Reeves, drummers Damon Duewhite and Clarence Penn, and percussionists Daniel Moreno and Jeff Haynes. The arrangements are either by Aaron Graves or Bruce Barth. 

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But the revelation is Laird Jackson, who, though relatively unknown, patiently took her time to make an album that she would be proud of, one that was simultaneously meaningful and creative, "Sure, it's a drag that I don't have major label support behind me, but it's cool." she says. " I have total control. A lot of singers give that up in exchange for compromising their music. I couldn't do that."

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As Laird sings in "Towards the Sun," "Never let your dreams fade." She didn't. Hers are shown in full technicolor on Touched. Here's hoping that Jackson's next outing will germinate quicker because she is one of a handful of young vocalists who promise to make a big jazz difference.

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                   By Dan Ouellette, contributing writer for Down Beat, Stereophile and the San Francisco Chronicle

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