CARLA COOK IS HAPPENING ON HER LATEST RELEASE " DEM BONES!"
Carla Cook's new release on the Maxjazz label DEM BONES follows her critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut, IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE. The Grammy-nominated artist for Best Jazz Vocalist has once again tapped into her wide and far-reaching R&B, European Classical, even Country musical influences to create an experience that is as fresh and original as her voice itself. Ms. Cook studied years of voice, piano and string bass disciplines she pursued after making her decision to become a jazz vocalist in the 8th grade! After earning a degree in speech communication at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, the dynamic singer/songwriter began performing with such great jazz luminaries as Lionel Hampton, Roy Ayers, Greg Osby, Don Byron, Will Downing, violinist Regina Carter and bassist Lonnie Plaxico. The world-class vocalist has performed at many venues and festivals in Switzerland, Germany, Australia and Senegal, Africa to sell-out crowds and now that. Carla Cook has paid her dues; she finally has the welcome spotlight shining ever so personally on her great jazz vocals. DEM BONES marks the seventh release in her record label's acclaimed Vocal Series and ladies and gentlemen, Carla Cook is Happening! We caught up with Carla as she prepared to launch a tour of the USA!
Sounds of Timeless Jazz.com: Hi Carla, your new release DEM BONES is great. This is a very interesting concept: the use of your voice as a fourth bone. Let's talk about the inspiration for the title track. Did the idea come up when you were working on IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE with trombonists, Fred Wesley, Craig Harris and Tyrone Jefferson, or was this something that had been in "hibernation" so to speak...just waiting for a Spring release?
Carla Cook: It had not really been in hibernation. However I've been here in New York for ten years and for five of those years, I worked with Tyrone Jefferson's group and sometimes worked as a "bone," if you will. Or just as a horn singing horn lines, and sometimes the lyrics. The last five years, I've done the same thing with Craig Harris. And then last year, I was able to meet the great Fred Wesley through Tyrone, where we did Fred's number, "For The Elders" at a concert there. I thought, "Oh, I had so much fun doing that." So it sort of brought itself to me... the idea sort of brought itself to me, Id say.
SOTJ: Well this release showcases your vocal talents well and it's right on time. "For The Elders" really illustrates your voice as a bone and unless one listens very closely, a person can't really tell where the real bones start or end. Your voices really meld and blend on this song extremely well. What vocal exercises do you have to do to achieve this pitch...the one so similar to a trombone?
CC: Well I think the human voice and the trombone voice are very much alike anyway in that they both bend and you know, have a good range depending on who's playing it. I dont do any vocal exercises to achieve this pitch but what I do, is in the same way as if I'm singing with other vocalists; I just simply listen and try to get a good blend with the other instruments. So that's really where that comes from. Besides, I've been doing this with this instrument for a while trying to blend with the trombone for years so to speak.
SOTJ: You sound fantastic on that song really blowing on it!
CC: Yeah, that's Fred Wesley's tune. I had to find a way to actually justify putting that on a vocal record. So I just sort of added for the elders line vocally in there lyrically. It's a great song to do.
SOTJ: Cyrus Chestnut joins you once more along with James Genus on bass, Billy Kilson on drums and Jeffrey Haynes on percussion. This seems to be the ultimate working band for you since your debut with them garnered you a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, a nomination for Best Recording Debut by the Jazz Journalists Association and the AFIM Indie Award for Best Jazz Vocal. What's it like working with such a great group of guys like them?
CC: It's great working with them! With the exception of James Genus, I've worked with Cyrus, Billy and Jeff for 10-17 years.
SOTJ: WOW!
CC: But this is not my working band. This is the band that has been recording with me and most of us had recorded together before back in 1993 on a demo that I'd done. So years before I moved to New York, I'd been working with Billy and Cyrus. So it's a new band in one sense but it's not in another. We've all worked together in various groups, with other people, and as all freelance musicians it's really a small world. A lot of us tend to come together and it's a great marriage. I like working with them and I like recording with them because they're all great musicians. But I have a working band that tours with me who are equally great musicians.
SOTJ: Who is in the working band?
CC: Pianist Andy Milne, Jeff Haynes is starting to travel with me now. Rashan Johnson on bass. Currently working with new drummers because mine is on an extended gig in Japan. So I'm blessed to have two great bands.
SOTJ: DEM BONES continues to showcase your eclecticism by featuring wide arrays of songs from various genres re-cast in the jazz tradition. There's "Ode To Billy Joe," definitely from the Country genre and the Gospel hymn, "Come Ye Disconsolate" and the great song, "For The Elders." Your voice really does resemble so many aspects of the trombone on each song. How did these particular songs play a part in your musical development, autobiographically speaking?
CC: Well on "Ode to Billy Joe," I was a really little kid and I remember that was one of my mom's favorites but it was also one of my favorites. I can still remember playing it over and over and over! I guess I was barely old enough to use a record player! (smiles) I just liked the song. I tend to reach into my memory and record those songs that just make me feel good. Songs that are just there. "Come Ye Disconsolate," is a song that I sang as a little kid in the choir. That's a hymn from church. With respect to "For The Elders," as I said, I became familiar with it last year.
SOTJ: So they were just along your musical path anyway and evolved as you did?
CC: Exactly.
SOTJ: Did your autobiographical approach of song selection for DEM BONES differ radically from the song selection process used for IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE? In other words, did you choose the songs for your debut recording or did your record label select the songs since you were a new artist?
CC: I've been blessed enough to select all of the songs that I was to record and that's one of the things I like about MAXJAZZ. They let the artist be the artist. I must say, it was a bit more of a challenge selecting music for DEM BONES than for IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE. I had a lifetime to think about what to put on it!
SOTJ: And you really came up with a great way to put it! The trombone has often been an overlooked instrument with respect to its similarities to the human voice but recently, it has come into voice as an instrument capable of expressing itself out front of a jazz ensemble. Do you have a favorite trombone player? I mean did you listen to many when you were developing your bone voice?
CC: I don't and did not probably until I moved here. (New York) I just happened to come in contact with a lot of bones. I also work in two Big Bands.
SOTJ: Ahhh, which ones?
CC: I worked with Lionel Hampton's Big Band and also George Gee and His Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra. I just dig the "bones." I mean I love working with Big Bands period. There are a lot of trombone player jokes out there and there are a lot of singer jokes out there, so I suppose for six months we can all have a laugh at someone else's expense.
SOTJ: There have been some great trombonists on the jazz scene and unfortunately one of the most recent deaths has been J.J. Johnson's.
CC: Yes J.J. Johnson and just last year, I was fortunate enough to hear Al Grey just before he passed away. As a matter of fact, I had done a recording some years ago that wasnt released here, (in America) where I was paired up with Slide Hampton. Again, it was just coincidental. I just have this thing with trombones.
SOTJ: They just sort of find you and you find them!
CC: They found me.
SOTJ: You're in the vibe...the aura!
CC: Yes.
SOTJ: Well, you're really very expressive and I've enjoyed "Just A Sittin and A Rockin'". The jazz world really loves you Carla. Who would you say has had the most influence on your jazz vocals' style?
CC: I'm asked that a lot. I have been influenced by so musicians: singers and instrumentalists alike. I guess it comes down to three people. I must say, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and Eddie Jefferson.
SOTJ: I can tell. Your voice is so pure, so fresh. Such great inventive scats, improvisations.
CC: Thank you.
SOTJ: Do you have a favorite song on DEM BONES?
CC: Well, I like "Just A Sittin and A Rockin'." I like the simplicity of it. It's a great song...I mean Duke Ellington wrote it so it has to be great.
SOTJ: What's happening with you on the concert scene? Where can your fans see you?
CC: I'll be in the MaxJazz Revue at the Cinegrill the week of April 17th through the 21st, 2001; this is located on the Lobby Level within the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood, CA. Then Ill be appearing at the Plush Room in San Francisco from April 24th through the 29th 200l; Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis on May 5th; the Vicenza Jazz Festival in Vicenza, Italy on May 21st. SOTJ: WOW, we cant wait to see you in concert. We can always listen to some great jazz! Thank you so much for this interview and heres wishing you a lot of success with your new CD DEM BONES!
CC: Thank you Paula.
SOTJ: Carla Cook is a great jazz singer in the tradition of Sarah Vaughan, instrumentalists Miles Davis and Eddie Jefferson. Her award-winning debut IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE and her sophomore release DEM BONES are both available at http://www.maxjazz.com Visit her soon.