Cécile McLorin Salvant didn't stick to jazz standards on her 2013 record 'WomanChild.' This snide misanthrope's anthem originally featured in the 1906 vaudeville act of Caribbean-American comedian Bert Williams. Nina Simone performed it in the 60s, in a lush rendition, and here Salvant somehow infuses the song with contemporary pertinence -- "have a beer" sounds like Pabst Blue Ribbon on your friend's porch, and "25 cents" sounds out of place -- while maintaining the droll, percussive comedy of its vaudeville beginnings. Maybe the economy today grants it relevance. Maybe it's that spiteful individualism that sounds so American, so current. Either way, Salvant's measured treatment, and her evocative phrasing, bring the song into a new era, telling a slightly different story than it once did. Bert Williams might've been playing the fool, but who can blame Salvant, rebuffed by her own friends, for disavowing the very graciousness she can't find?   2

iprefernotto 14 Sep 2014

Late addition to my best-of list of 2014. What a brilliant new talent.

annkpowers 7 Dec 2013