Her ‘Music Is the Magic’: Kendra Shank Interprets Abbey Lincoln
Kendra Shank, A Spirit Free (2007, Challenge Records)

© 2007, Andrea Canter

"A triumph of homage and personality--a meeting of minds...” –Gary Giddens, liner notes for A Spirit Free

In 1999, vocalist Kendra Shank was voted Talent Deserving Wider Recognition in the Downbeat International Critics Poll. In 2007, the elastic improviser has accumulated a pile of accolades, with “an ear second to none for little-known and unknown tunes” (Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe); a “unique and immediately identifiable sound and style” (Don Heckman, LA Times), “a singer with a sound” (Abbey Lincoln) who “phrases inventively, whether crisp and sizzling or sensuously smoky” (Patricia Meyers, Jazz Times). And she is still a talent deserving wider recognition. Kendra’s new release, A Spirit Free: Abbey Lincoln Songbook (Challenge Records), should ensure her appropriate comparisons with the most innovative singers of modern jazz, from Abbey Lincoln herself to Betty Carter, Patricia Barber, and Kurt Elling.

Kendra Shank’s flair for vocal drama comes naturally as the daughter of a playwrite and actress. Growing up in southern California, she first acted at age five, was playing guitar by thirteen, and started her career as a folk/pop singer/guitarist in Seattle. During a period of busking in Paris, she fell under the spell of jazz, particularly the music of Billie Holiday. In Seattle she began studies with Jay Clayton, leading to a gig with the great Bob Dorough as vocalist/guitarist/percussionist for his West Coast tour. It was Shirley Horn who took notice and co-produced Shank's critically-acclaimed debut, Afterglow (Mapleshade, 1994), and invited the young singer to sit in at the Village Vanguard in New York. Relocating to New York in 1997, Kendra released two recordings for Jazz Focus—Wish (1998) and Reflections (2000), the latter with her long-standing ensemble of pianist Frank Kimbrough, bassist Dean Johnson, and drummer Tony Moreno, who together create "... a practically telepathic integration ... these four people appear to have emerged from the same womb" (Lawrence Brazier, Jazz Now).

Until Kendra, the music of Abbey Lincoln had not been the subject of a full recording. Shank was inspired to pursue this project after hearing Abbey’s series of concerts at Lincoln Center in 2002, although she had been a fan of Lincoln for nearly a decade. In tackling the Lincoln canon, Kendra encountered uniquely complex compositions where the music trumps all convention, creating unusual encounters with time and form. To her credit (and sanity), Kendra makes no effort to sound like Lincoln—and who could? The compositions, the lyrics belong to Abbey Lincoln, but these 11 songs are reinvented, reinterpreted, as personal extensions of Kendra Shank and her fellow musicians. It is perhaps the greatest tribute to Abbey Lincoln that Kendra Shank took the music and went her own way, a way clearly inspired by the personal expression of emotion but individually distinctive.

Currently on tour to promote A Spirit Free, Kendra’s live performances intersperse the Abbey Lincoln songbook with an eclectic list of other compositions, with only her quartet; the recording includes guest appearances from tenor/soprano saxophonist Billy Drewes, guitarist Ben Monder, and accordionist Gary Versace. On record, the additional instruments add layers of color to the core of the music, while in live performance, it is Kendra herself who creates the colors of horn and at times additional percussion. In both settings, Shank makes extensive use of a unique approach to vocalese that seems much like African chanting, the sounds mimicking words as of a language, with its own syntax and vocabulary. In fact, Kendra’s liner note indicates that she in fact has devised a “personal language that I improvise to express what can’t be expressed with words.”  Shank further adds to her interpretative power through her varying of dynamics and sliding tones as much as her personal approach to phrasing and rhythm.  At times Kendra evokes a warmer, less Spartan Patricia Barber, her phrases shaped more by what is added than what is left out. However, her approach is impossible to classify, and she can remind you of Tierney Sutton on one tune, Ann Murray on another, always clear and elegant regardless of the material. Not obvious on recording but clear in live performance, Kendra uses her microphone for more than amplification—waving it in front of her mouth, she creates a subtle, eerie vibrato, almost as a faint wind pass through a tunnel.

On Record, A Spirit Free

The eleven tracks on A Spirit Free cover a wide range of the Abbey Lincoln songbook, from ballad to blues, Shank’s interpretations sliding from relatively straight readings to extreme makeover. The recording opens with “The Music is the Magic,” one of two tunes containing the phrase of the CD title, “a spirit free.” Kendra accompanies her initial chant with kalimba; soon eerie tones from the piano strings and soprano sax interrupt the kalimba ostinato as Shank adds the lyric, still more chant than melody. Monder’s electronic effects and Kimbrough’s dampened piano strings give it an otherworldly vibe—after all, it is about magic. “I Got Thunder (And It Rings)” is initiated with double-time bass and angular piano, which Kendra matches vocally. Drewes chases her voice with some dissonant lines, and with Kimbrough seems to engage in a Monkish tirade. Moreno crashes and thrashes to keep the rhythmic pulse on track while Drewes dances through the full length of the tenor from top to bottom. Here Kendra effectively uses repetition of the lyric as well as breaking the time into chunks as she takes it out with a brassy edge to her vibrato.

“Not to Worry” is recreated as a waltz (in 6 according to Gary Giddens’ liner notes), with a relatively simple vocal line and a swinging rhythm section. Kendra slows it down, holding onto the final note before adding a playful “don’t worry--be happy.”  Describing “Down Here Below” as “Abbey’s alltime masterpiece,” Kendra initiates her rendition as a duet with Dean Johnson, soon joined by Drewes on bass clarinet and Versace on accordion. Shank’s clear voice sails above the dark and slightly buzzy instrumentation that fashions a countermelody, a simplicity of lines and delicate harmonies. The final verse is marked by the “distant thunder” of Drewes, a choppy wind from Tony Moreno and some ominous fluttering from Versace. “A Circle of Love” is a relatively straight-ahead track, Shank taking it at a slow ballad tempo of the first verse. Things shift into a gentle swing, the tempo stretching like taffy, Kendra putting long accents on key vowels. Drewes adds a little edge with a a buzzy vibrato on tenor, while Monder’s guitar chords keep the mood light.

Another Lincoln classic, “Throw it Away” is given a solo chant introduction (Kendra’s original “Incantation”), bells and light percussion joining Kendra before she launches into the lyric. Bass and drum, and dampened piano strings, provide the major accompaniment with an overall focus on percussion in varied forms and sounds, the only melodic element coming from Kendra’s voice. Even the instrumental interlude continues the percussive emphasis, Kimbrough creating a pizzicato sensation. “Bird Alone” was written for Miles Davis, performed here as a voice and bass duet. The two musicians follow their own melodic paths, Johnson providing a deft solo with tasteful use of glissando with Kendra’s understated vocalization in the background. The lyric “gliding, soaring on the wing” aptly describes her effort, while the tune in general evokes an odd affinity for “Bye Bye Blackbird.”

Three successive tracks evoke Kendra’s folk roots. “The World is Falling Down” is taken at a very slow tempo, sax and guitar adding to the feel of a southern country blues hinting of gospel, Kendra here evoking a bit of an Ann Murray-esque majestic backwater hymn. This tone is further enhance by the twanging tenor and guitar interlude. Although composed a decade before 9/11, Kendra notes that “the disbelief and horror of that day brought this song’s refrain to mind.” Kendra’s vocalese intro to “Wholly Earth” blends into a similar shaped lyric, Moreno’s percussion shifting to a quicker pace with a samba flavor. Drewes’s acrobatic solo alternates long lines and quickly turning phrases, a pattern extended by Kimbrough’s piano. Shank brings this one to a close with a twisty scatted verse. A duet with Gary Versace on accordion, “Natas (aka Playmate)” has the feel of a traditional folksong, the second verse a scat/accordion counterpoint, the finale a return to the lyric with Versace adding a short cadenza.

“Being Me” is a sweet ballad, Kendra’s straight-ahead reading recalling the clarity of Tierney Sutton. The elegance is enhanced by the gentle sax and bass accents, subtle percussion and piano accompaniment. Kendra sings with the confidence of a musician comfortable “being me,”

giving the listener the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the quality of the voice that, on this closing track, leaves its imprint through nuanced variation of dynamics and phrasing, the pure projection of emotion.

And Live A Spirit Free was recorded in early 2006; nearly 18 months later, one expects some evolution in the music, and in live performance, such as at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis in early June, Kendra Shank demonstrates the never-ending explorations that epitomize improvised music. Traveling with her core quartet, some variations were inevitable—without horn or accordion, the eerie effects of “Music is the Magic” were generated solely by piano strings and Moreno’s hand percussion. Where guitar added dark urgency on record, it was left to Dean Johnson to carry that feel on bass. And while the centerpieces of her live shows these days are the Abbey Lincoln tunes, Kendra delivers a wider repertoire. In Minneapolis, her vocalese resembled an alto flute, her phrasing evoked Patricia Barber as she reinvented the classic “Blue Skies” as a haunting, chanting ballad. With a hollow ring to her vibrato it seemed that she paired her voice to Tony Moreno’s mallets. “Black Is the Color” was transformed to a call—to worship or to celebrate, her scat trading with Moreno one of the evening’s highlights. Her take on former employer Bob Dorough’s “Devil May Care” started out as a duet with Dean Johnson, then countermelodies flying from piano and bass while Moreno held it all together. Throughout, Shank varied her vibrato, providing multiple voices. A spoken introduction evolved into “Beautiful Love,” Kendra turning the melody inside out, the rhythm section rising to the occasion with thickly layered improvisation from Kimbrough, a popping solo from Johnson and unpredictable patterns from Moreno.

Kendra Shank, photo © Andrea Canter

The Dakota audience was uncharacteristically silent, mesmerized by the voice, the chants, the vocalese, the telepathic interplay among the musicians. Whether listening to Kendra Shank on record or on the live stage, it’s clear that we are hearing a singular voice who will leave her personal mark on the music—whatever the music, be it the haunting songs of Abbey Lincoln or tunes from the American Songbook. Make that the Kendra Shank Songbook.

Full itinerary and additional information about Kendra Shank available at www.kendrashank.com. This review originally posted on at www.jazzpolice.com