Female Jazz and Pop Music Singers Rule the Recording Industry ...

Judi Silvano

By Danny R. Johnson

LOS ANGELES ? As Team USA marched through London?s Olympic Stadium during the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics on August 12, most of the American athletes with medals were women. U.S. women earned 56 percent of the country?s medals, and 66 percent of its golds. The same can be said about the unprecedented number of women jazz and pop music vocalists who have CD debuts and recurring contracts with independent music labels.

Lately, my post office box has been filled with CDs of women jazz and pop music vocalists who have debut and recurring albums with major independent music labels such as Justin Time, Jazzed Media, Random Act Records, just to name a few.

The four CDs selected for review are exceptional artists whose age and experience in the music industry varies, so too is there great stylistic diversity among these female singers. There are innovative singers who include vocal gymnast Judi Silvano, uncompromising Halie Loren, the sensual Carol Welsman, and abstractionist and experimenter Bria Skonberg.

Bria Skonberg

Trumpeter and vocalist Bria Skonberg?s debut on Random Act Records titled So Is The Day, is a nine-tracks diversity of materials from classic songbooks to originals in which she ably utilize an amalgam of standards, scat, vocalese and original material. Skonberg is a musician who plays the trumpet with dazzling virtuosity that tells you she knows her instrument. However, she needs only to play a simple phrase to melt every heart who listens ? if she has the talent to choose the right phrase. Bria Skonberg has that talent.

Halie Loren ?

Justin Time recording artist Halie Loren is no stranger to the music world. She has released six albums since 2008, and the one CD that captured my attention was her Heart First CD released earlier this year. Whatever the source of inspiration, where other contemporary singers might present a song, Halie Loren creates one. Her rendition of the jazz standards, Taking A Chance on Love, C?est Si Bon, and My One and Only Love, is a perfect example of the singers? art. Halie sings in an easy mid-tempo. Using slightly dragged-out phrasing, she provokes a delightful, if conventional, typically sunny performance, building finally to a rousing ride out chorus.

Vocalist and composer Judi Silvano?s tenth album titled Indigo Moods on the Jazzed Media label, is a striking contrast to Halie Loren?s elegant examination of the lyric content of songs, Silvano pursued instead the harmonic variations of the song as well as exploring its audacious rhythmic experiments. A 20-year veteran of the music industry, Silvano?s conception of singing emerges from a crystal-clear awareness of the essence of a singing style couched in a musical?language that is very much her own. Judi has the innate ability through her Indigo Moods CD to teach us that impressing one?s own identity onto material is part of the development of a personal style, something that all jazz singers strive to achieve.

Carol Welsman

Vocalist Carol Welsman?s 14-track CD, Journey, on the Justin Time label, is her tenth album and the experience of singing various musical idioms is beautifully demonstrated. Welsman is a singer who uses her instrument in a disciplined and intelligent manner to sing songs in a setting that communicates not only a commitment to and love for the music to the audience, but, also, at times improvises within the framework of the music to create a CD that demonstrates her premeditated spontaneity. Carol has the ability to swing, the ability to phrase spontaneously, the ability to change the rhythmic patterns of a song and improvise and change a song and not be disrupted by the musicians behind doing something unexpected.

In an uncertain world, one thing is certain; women artists will continue to enter the tough and demanding profession of the jazz singer. Recognized or not, encouraged or not, popular or not, famous or not, rich or not, they will eagerly spend their days and nights doing something that they love ? singing jazz.

Danny R. Johnson is San Diego County News? Jazz and Pop Music Critic.?

Source: http://www.sandiegocountynews.com/2012/08/16/female-jazz-and-pop-music-singers-rule-the-recording-industry-while-male-singers-are-hard-to-find/

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