As with a book, you can’t judge a jazz album by its cover. But when the artwork is as lovely as that adorning Sandra-Mae Lux’s Seasons In Jazz, you can’t help feeling we’re already halfway home…
Sandra-Mae Lux is one of a small but distinctly talented cluster of Canadian jazz musicians who are now resident in London (see also Dominic Ashworth and Lauren Bush) and generally raising the tone of the place. Very much a songwriter as well as singer and multi-instrumentalist, Ms Lux studied at Capilano University in Vancouver and has performed at the Ottawa Jazz Festival with luminaries such as Robert Glasper and Herbie Hancock. She has also — just mentioning this in passing — reached number 3 in the UK soul charts with her single You Me and Tomorrow.
“I love songs that tell a story,” says Sandra-Mae, “And can become eternal… The Great American Songbook did all that and more.” So on her new album she is paying homage to this songbook — but with a very different twist. Because all the songs here are originals, written by Sandra-Mae herself, with Alan Marriott, drawing inspiration from the “golden era of songwriting.”
This is an unusual project, but the album turns out to be such a sweetly judged and successful act of homage that when I first dipped into it I thought I was indeed listening to numbers from the great songbook. Just ones I wasn’t familiar with… and, come to think of it, you might say that’s exactly what was happening.
While only time will tell if any of these songs become classics, there’s no doubt that all of them are smartly crafted contenders. There’s even a contemplative Christmas song — This December Love.
I asked Sandra-Mae how she got into the zone for this project. She said she didn’t have to. “Of course I studied the form at school. But I grew up listening to these songs. My parent’s friends had great taste in music — Ella or Frank or Basie. Getz-Gilberto. This has all just been jangling around in my head. And my writing partner is into this stuff.”
And in a clever echo of the way the great songs have over the years become transformed into jazz instrumentals, one of the tracks here — the perfectly titled When Autumn Calls — is also presented in a saxophone version, as if time has been fast-forwarded. And what a thrill it was to discover that the tenor soloist is Sandra-Mae herself.
“I started on piano 6 or 7. Then at age 11, I started on sax and haven’t really stopped. About age 13 I picked up the guitar and that hasn’t really stopped either.” Given the range of her instrumental skills, why the sax in particular on this album? “I just play this thing, I thought I’d play it on a couple of tracks.”
A couple of tracks indeed. She also provides the supple, satin tenor solo on Love Me Tonight which I found so striking on first listening, with the lines sinuously intertwining with her own lithe vocal.
And as a singer, Sandra-Mae has a voice of arresting purity and warmth, ideally suited to express the wit of these lyrics: “It may not be in style to sigh or blush or smile… It may not be the time for rings or roses or wine” are among the throwaway gems on offer here, from That Old Fashioned Thing Called Love.
The lyrics on the album are courtesy of Alan Marriott. “He’s words and I’m music, ninety percent of the time. He’s like the Bernie Taupin. When inspiration strikes, it usually starts from a feeling. Sometimes I’ll come up with a hook — as with Everyone Else Knew — and then he’ll do his automatic writing and we’ll go through and pick out the gems. Sometimes the song almost writes itself, like with Perfect Weather the lyrics came out exactly as it is and then I picked up my guitar and the bossa fell out. I mostly use the piano in songwriting but I knew this was going in the bossa direction, so I used guitar.”
The range and diversity of the songs here is particularly impressive. From the aforementioned bossa nova to the wistful yuletide ballad This December Love but also spanning Are We Having Fun which has the jaunty roll of a classic Cy Coleman number, and the sophisticated diffidence of I Don’t Need You which is a semi-detached romantic anthem for modern lovers.
And if the songs are of a remarkably high standard, so are the players. Calum Gourlay’s double bass on That Old Fashioned Thing Called Love accompanies Sandra-Mae like a hip chaperone who is going to look the other way when things get hot. There is also some notably fine piano here from Rob Barron.
The album actually consists of sessions by two different bands, one with Barron on piano, Gourlay on bass and Sebastiaan de Krom on drums. It also features Tristan Paxton (another Canadian) on guitar. “We were in all the honour bands together at school. He recorded a demo that was so good we used it. Everyone had him in their headphones and played along to him to make the track happen.”
The other unit features Christian Vaughan on piano with Dave Jones on bass and Tristan Maillot on drums.
It all adds up to a fabulous album which lives up to the cover art, and that’s saying something. I was delighted to confirm that it’s also going to be released as an LP. “Yes, it really does lend itself to vinyl,” said Sandra-Mae.
I asked her about gigs to launch the album.
“I’m at the 606 the day before the album comes out. How wild is that? It was available, and I said ‘I’ll take it, baby!’ And the day after I’m on In Tune on Radio 3. Again, it just fell into place.”
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer — or a more talented — musician.
The album launch concert for Seasons in Jazz is at the 606 Club on 29 May (BOOKINGS) with release the following day –
