Cécile McLorin Salvant. WOMAN CHILD. JustinTime.
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What a voice! Range goes low and dusky to high, thin and sweet, all without effort and always trailing a tender vibrato. Her timbre goes from clear glass through whisper and down to brass, from mean street to dream with never a seam, and her French is good as her English. Her “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” makes you remember and forget Peggy Lee. Cécile’s “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” goes saucy to and past Didi Bridgewater, and her “John Henry” is a hip arrangement, but she gets in the snarl of Odetta. The ease of Ella, the savvy of Sarah and the bruised blossom of Billie come through as flavours on this album, but the phrasing is all Cécile’s own quirky moves, creative to the point of mischief. Every one of her sidemen adds his own distinctive music to the mix:Aaron Diehl on piano ‘broiders around her tolling and trilling; Rodney Whittaker’s highly educated bass is standup and outstanding making rococco frames around her; and Herlin Riley adds perk with his percussion without getting in the way. Keeping close to the melody, Cécile and her crew manage to make jazz free to beat Ornette, while singing crazier than Cassandra ever did. Woman Child is an album that you might listen to once only if you’re the kind who can eat just one chip from the bag.