By Sammy Stein
Maggie Nicols has long expressed her ambition to record an album of jazz
standards, despite her success in various musical areas. As a leading
improvisational vocalist, she has captivated audiences for many years.
Active since the 1960s, she has been at the forefront of the international
free music scene, collaborating with groups such as the Spontaneous Music
Ensemble, Feminist Improvising Groups, and Noisy Women, as well as with
renowned artists like Irene Schweizer and Julie Tippetts. In the 1960s,
Maggie began singing jazz standards alongside the late, great bebop
pioneer, pianist Dennis Rose. This aspect of her musical repertoire may not
be widely recognized, but her desire to record an album of standards hinges
on finding a pianist capable of interpreting her free, improvisational
style while also respecting the musicality of the original compositions.
Such a pianist was found in the form of Geoff Eales.
Eales is a pianist with a diverse career. In 1981, he was awarded a PhD in
classical music at Cardiff University. He is an ex-member of the BBC Big
Band and, as a session musician, has worked with many of the world’s most
prominent artists, including Henry Mancini, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, and
Dame Shirley Bassey. As a leader, he has 15 critically acclaimed jazz
albums to his name.
On Beautiful Love, Maggie and Geoff have teamed with bassist Ashley John
Long and drummer Sophie Alloway. Long is an award-winning virtuoso double
bass player and composer active in a diverse range of styles including
jazz, free improvisation, early and contemporary chamber music, and as a
soloist. Long has performed and recorded internationally with many of the
UK’s leading musicians and has premiered numerous works for solo double
bass.
Alloway is a sought-after drummer who has performed with artists including
Jason Rebello, Mornington Lockett, Yazz Ahmed, Laurence Cottle, and Roots
Manuva. She is a member of the fusion band Lydian Collective and the Geoff
Eales Trio and recently played drums for the finalists at the BBC Young Jazz
Musicians Awards at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which was broadcast on BBC TV.
For Nicols, finding the right people to accompany her standards was
paramount, but on Beautiful Love she proves the wait was worth it.
The album is released on 33 Jazz records, and producer Paul Jolly says, “I
have known Maggie since the late 1960s and have long understood her desire
to record an album of ‘standard’ material. Since launching ‘33’ in the
1980s, it’s also been an ambition of mine to help fulfil this wish.”
From the outset, the album is a contrast of sounds, from Eales’s beautiful
opening on ‘All Blues’ and Nicol’s equally beautiful overarching vocals
that enter after the 18 th bar, accompanied by a change into
blues pattern phrasing and emphasis. This ensemble turns the number into a
version they interpret and own. There is a stonking bass solo, and Nicol’s
vocals interpret this number in a way only she can, with dives into chest
voice, rises into mezzo, and a clarity in the lyrics that conveys her
message.
Arlen’s ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ is given a twist (don’t expect a Don
Costa arrangement for Sinatra like in the 1960s). Here, the song is given
its true power in a heart-wrenching, emotive outpouring where Nicols’ voice
flies as free as an eagle, settling with the lyrics when necessary but
emphasizing feeling, which Eales picks up and adds to with flourishes and
delicate phrasing of his own in perfect counterbalance.
On ‘How My Heart Sings,’ there is a flow to the number, with Eales’s
intricate phrases adding texture, and an alluring bass solo adding depth to
the middle section. Nicols uses Zindars’s composition much the way Evans
did, adding her intuitive take to the phrasing and making it her own, while
never losing respect for the original. The vocal lines in the third phase
are an absolute delight.
On ‘Peace Piece/Some Other Time’, the ensemble adds a touch of magic.
Bernstein would have approved – and perhaps Mr Evans too, as Nicols
interprets the vocals and Eales the music in a meld of classical-influenced
stylisation and improvised vocals. The song might be familiar as one of the
musical numbers from the Betty Comden/Leonard Berstein/Adolph Green ‘On The
Town,’ first produced on Broadway in 1944 and later made famous by Bill
Evans in his 1968 recording, and Evans’s composition ‘Peace/Piece’ is also
arranged in this release. The two are entwined and interspersed with lyrics
from ‘If I Must Die’ by the late Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer and ‘Let
There Be Peace’ by Eales.
It begins with, dynamic piano from Eales before Nicols enters with
improvised vocals across the top. The delivery is emotive, with Nicol’s
clear diction of the meaningful poetry lines, and her switch from spoken
word, improvised vocal lines, and a warm standard rendition of ‘Some Other
Time.’ Eales’s piano rises and falls with just the right nuances to
underpin the vocal improvisation.
‘Turn Out The Stars’ begins as a gorgeous, bonkers rendition of the number,
as Nicols ventures into the profound nature of the song and lyrics and
descends from screams into gentle, soft wonderings. As she sings the lyrics
‘Turn out the stars, Turn out the stars, Let eternal darkness hide me, If I
can’t have you beside me, Put out their fires….Stop the ocean’s roar, Don’t
let the rivers run, Let me hear no more, The wondrous music of a skylark in
the sun, Let it be done, the sense of despair is clear.
Kern’s ‘Yesterdays’ features Nicols’ instrumental use of her voice, with
spiritual overtones as she speaks softly in other tongues, as if inviting
spirits alongside before an improvised, melodic tumbling kaleidoscope of
visionary ideas. Eales’s gorgeously phrased lines contrast perfectly with
Nicols’ vocals that veer between harmonious and ethereal.
‘Funny Valentine’ is stunning here, as is Wood’s ‘My One and Only Love’,
which is delivered with the tenderness of a lover’s caress.
‘Beautiful Love’ which ends the album, is a happy, upbeat number with
lyrics as clear as daylight. A gentle way to finish a superb album.
On ‘Beautiful Love’, Maggie Nicols shows the world her talents on so many
levels. When an artist waits for the right time, and the right people to be
in the right place, they know when everything has come together, and on this
album, Nicols, with Eales, Long, and Alloway, has found the right time,
place, and people. The album is beautiful. Sometimes, a reviewer has to be
honest and say there are no words to adequately describe the meaning,
nuances, and beauty in music, and this is one of those occasions.
Nicols never once loses her identity, with improvisation often in full
flow, or simmering below the surface, to erupt in the sweetest of forms. The
numbers are well-chosen because their arrangements allow plenty of room for
pure or improvised delivery, and whatever Nicols does, the musicians are
more than able to react and support.
What is striking is the homage this musician, known for improvisation, pays
to the original numbers and the respect shown for their composition.
Yet, Nicols manages to insert her powerful, dexterous, emotive delivery when
she chooses, proving that good music interpreted by musicians of this caliber can always produce more than what is written.
Nicols waited a long time to create this album, and with her collaborators,
she has achieved something well worth the wait. She says of the record,
“I’m singing my life, past present, and unknown future, through song,
storytelling, and moments of free spontaneity. Inspired by the wonderful
musicians on this recording. Geoff’s piano playing, in particular, is
sublime. He feels every note with skill, fluency, and soulful heart.”
Eales comments, “If you like your music to be full of joy, sadness,
passion, adventure, and surprise, then this album is definitely for you.”
The album brings together the best of jazz music, from traditional homage
to standard, known melodies, to improvised, sprinkles of innovation and
originality that are intrinsic to the artists involved.
A great recording and one that should be in everyone’s collection.
Out on 33 Jazz Records with a launch at London’s Café Oto on June 25
th