This year a young singer from New York is making her first UK visit, including concerts at the London Jazz Festival (November 20) and the Cambridge Jazz Festival (November 21). Stella Katherine Cole sold out all those engagements, well in advance.
Who is this vocalist? Her US fans have heard her at the New York cabaret venue 54 Below and in her widely viewed Youtube recordings. I bought her debut album ‘Stella Cole’ on Amazon, curious to see what all the fuzz was about.
Now I know. Some of her online fans compared her to Judy Garland, praise indeed, but listening now to her fresh cover of ‘Over the Rainbow’, I could believe blue birds really fly beyond the rainbow. Authenticity is a rare feature in well-worn standards, but there again, the arranger here is from the vey top drawer, Alan Broadbent. He modestly told Kathryn Shackleton in an interview in 2014: ” I’ve always wanted that swing feeling, interesting harmonies and beautiful melodies…”
The BBC’s Jazz Record Requests has just played ‘Blame it On My Youth’, an essentially bittersweet number, which Stella delivered with the gentleness and sincerity of the Girl who says I believed in Everything. Many of the songs covered come from wartime musicals such as the Wizard of Oz or Meet Me in St. Louis (staple fare for the 54 Below cabarets). Postwar fare includes ‘Walking in the Sunshine’ (probably best known for Sinatra’s 1952 recording?) but here given a rollicking rebirth alongside a swinging Hammond Organ. The most recent of the dozen songs is a version of Billie Eilish’s dreamlike ‘My Future’. Stella gives this a completely different, tentative and reflexive mood.
As a former New Yorker, there is one number of this album that exemplifies the transformation of another old show tune to a real jazz hit. I remember the Rex Harrison production of My Fair Lady on Broadway. Today I recall the character ‘Freddy’ singing ‘On the Street Where You Live’, in a way that an eight-year-old could tell that loser was never going to get the girl. But Stella’s interpretation makes me feel that overpowering feeling….
Ms. Cole has just released a new, Christmas, album, Snow, also produced by Matt Pierson with arrangements by Alan Broadbent. I suspect that will figure in my list for Santa Claus!
Tracklist:
The Boy Next Door
P.S. I Love You
(Love Is) The Tender Trap
My Foolish Heart
Over the Rainbow
Detour Ahead
Moon River
My Future
When the Sun Comes Out
Walking in the Sunshine
Blame it On My Youth
On the Street Where You Live
Produced by Matt Pierson
Band includes: Alan Broadbent (piano/arranger/conductor), Chico Pinheiro (guitar), Ben Paterson (piano & Hammond organ), Neal Milner (double bass), Keith Balla (drums), plus orchestra. Full listing at end of video above.
