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"What
a special group of songs – and you have always been special. I am
honored to have my songs sung by you and included in this album...I have to
tell you that your performance of “A Little White Ship” is, for me, one of
the most interesting and beautiful readings I’ve ever heard. I love
it." – Mike Stoller
THESE
PRECIOUS DAYS is
the latest album by New York-based jazz vocalist and radio host MARY
FOSTER CONKLIN. The project features mostly women writers in a savory
mix of lesser-known jazz and pop tunes, all beautifully rendered by
Conklin’s distinctive contralto voice and affective delivery.
THESE
PRECIOUS DAYS
is her fifth album
and follows Crazy Eyes (1998), You’d Be Paradise (2001), Blues
for Breakfast (2006), and Photographs (2016). Cadence
Magazine said, “As someone who values freshness over music that appears
regularly in everyone’s repertoire, Conklin brings to life seldom heard or
forgotten songs with meaningful lyrics…Conklin’s versatility, not to
mention her eclectic choices, proves she’s her own person, her possible
influences being but a component of her totality.”
Conklin
has been playing music that celebrates women composers and lyricists on her
radio show, called “A Broad Spectrum – the Ladies of Jazz,” since 2016. The
program streams online every Sunday on WFDU.FM’s HD2 channel at http://www.wfdu.fm,
which is broadcast from Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. She
has long been interested in championing women artists, so when the
opportunity arose to host her own radio show after the release of Photographs,
she jumped at the chance.
The
album features top New York musicians, including pianist JOHN DI MARTINO,
who wrote all the arrangements, violinist SARA CASWELL, bassist ED
HOWARD, drummer VINCE CHERICO, guitarist GUILHERME MONTEIRO,
and percussionist SAMUEL TORRES. Like her radio program, THESE
PRECIOUS DAYS focuses mostly on women composers and lyricists, but
also includes several choice songs by writers whose lyrics reflect the
disruption and loss of the past few years.
The seed
for THESE PRECIOUS DAYS was planted on a gig she did at
Pangea, an intimate East Village club in March 2020. The show featured
Conklin on vocals, Di Martino on piano, and, along with her rhythm section,
Caswell on violin. The music was centered around neo-cabaret "art
songs" written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, whose legendary rock
and roll hits overshadowed a unique catalogue of material first recorded by
Peggy Lee on the 1975 cult classic Mirrors.
Unfortunately,
that show was their last live performance before the Covid lockdown, but it
did give Conklin the time to collect new material while in isolation. In
January 2021 she was invited to submit a video performance of “Some Cats
Know” as part of the Peggy Lee centennial for the Mabel Mercer Foundation
with Di Martino and Caswell, and later that year the trio presented a full
set at the Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn. When Conklin, Di Martino and
Caswell went into the studio the following January, they added additional
instrumentation for some extra seasoning, and so were joined by her regular
rhythm section of Ed Howard and Vince Cherico.
The
album opens with “Summertime,” but not the more famous Gershwin song of the
same name. This tune was written by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson, a frequent writing
collaborator with Cohen. The song’s restless lyrics, like “And I want to
drive forever / Wanna roll my windows down / Get the breeze back on my body
/ Get my feet back on the ground” particularly resonated with Conklin after
being sequestered in her Manhattan apartment for many months due to the
shutdown.
“Some Cats
Know” is a smart, sexy song by Leiber and Stoller from Mirrors which
Conklin first performed at Pangea. The Brill Building songwriting team of
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote “Just a Little Lovin,” which appealed to
Conklin for its message about the importance of the simple things in life.
“Come in From the Rain” is by Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager,
two of the most successful female writers on the pop scene.
Conklin
has a special affinity for Beat poet Fran Landesman, having recorded
several of her songs on her previous album. “Scars” was composed by Simon
Wallace, and Conklin prefaces the song with a Landesman poem The Past Is
A Foreign Country. “Just for Now,” was written by Dory Previn and
her then-husband, André Previn, set to a samba tempo. “A Little White Ship”
is another Leiber/Stoller song from Mirrors which was inspired by
Tennessee Williams’ most dreamlike play, Camino Real.
The songs
of loss include “Heart's Desire” by Alan Broadbent and the late Dave
Frishberg, whom Conklin knew personally. “Rainbow” is an obscure number by
Melba Liston and Abbey Lincoln, which Conklin was drawn to by its simple
promise of hope. Conklin closes the album with Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Until
It's Time for You to Go” and “September Song” by Kurt Weill and Maxwell
Anderson, in memory of her father who died in 2018.
About
Mary Foster Conklin
Conklin
is a New Jersey native who came to New York to pursue theatre. Her transformation
from actor to jazz singer began when she joined Art Lillard’s 15-piece
Heavenly Band in 1994 and has appeared on two of his recordings. Praised as
“a sensitive artist (but not frail) with a wide-ranging boldly colored
voice and an open ear for off-beat material” (Washington Post), she
is a master storyteller with a talent for uncovering obscure songs
deserving attention. Her performances are a mix of contemporary material
and standards, with an emphasis on women writers. She has performed at most
of the major jazz venues in New York and on the West Coast. Her debut CD, Crazy
Eyes, was listed as one of the ten best CDs of 1998 by In Theatre
Magazine. Her second recording, You’d Be Paradise, was released
in September 2001 to critical acclaim and worldwide airplay. Blues For
Breakfast - Remembering Matt Dennis (Rhombus Records) became an award
winning third CD, hailed by the press as “an overdue reminder of the
honored place of Matt Dennis in American music” (Jazz Society of Oregon).
Her fourth CD, Photographs, released in 2016, was a memory piece
with tunes by Oscar Brown, Jr., Benny Carter, Lennon and McCartney, Johnny
Mandel and Joni Mitchell, with five tunes by Beat poet Fran Landesman.
# # #
THESE
PRECIOUS DAYS will
be released on February 24, 2023 on Mock Turtle Music and will be available
everywhere.
Online:
Maryfosterconklin.com
Facebook.com/maryfosterconklinmusic
@mfconklin
(IG)
@A_BroadSpectrum (Twitter)
"A
Broad Spectrum” on WFDU: www.wfdu.fm
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