Nice Work if you Can Get it

“If great jazz singers are rare, great jazz songs are rarer still. To break out of the prison of old standards, Karen Young, a great jazz singer, has put together eight new pieces for her brilliant new album.” —Patrick Gauthier, Journal de Montréal

“... As far as I know, no jazz singer in the world is doing what she offered us...” —Alain Brunet, La Presse

“The spirit of Jon Hendricks lives. ” —Irwin Block, The Gazette

“...you don’t get much better than that when it comes to jazz vocalese... It is surprising to hear jazz-style tunes with lyrics full of social comment —and extremely well-written and clever. ” —Harry Currie, The Record

Description

After the celebration of other peoples' songs, around the world and throughout history that culminated with Good News on the Crumbling Walls, I knew it was time to write my own songs based on all that I had learned. I decided to begin with jazz, which I had been singing for about 20 years. I knew my taste and had some experience in jazz harmony. The problem with jazz was that I had been too dependant on the musicians.

I decided, with the help of my new music program, to be responsible for every note on the album; every bass line and drum riff, even though in the end I wrote the usual chord chart for the rhythm section. But the horns were the bulk of my arrangements and I handed out my very chaotic charts for them to decipher. They were very understanding and worked very hard and I was thrilled with the results. It was a big step for me, as before I had only written vocal arrangements and simple guitar or piano songs.

I can safely say that Nice Work was the beginning of my new musical life as composer-arranger. I had just quit teaching at the university so I was a little obsessed with work, fulfillment, job stress, and the other subjects of the lyrics. It turned into a concept album, and most of my albums since have been conceptual in some way.

Intro (George Gershwin)
Look ma no hands (Karen Young / Karen Young)
Stolen moments (Karen Young / Oliver Nelson)
Danger (Karen Young / Karen Young, T. Jackson)
Interlude (George Mitchell)
Falling thru (Karen Young / Karen Young)
Hi sunshine (Karen Young / Karen Young)
Hard in the street (Karen Young / Karen Young)
Voices in the dark (Karen Young / Karen Young, Norman Lachapelle)
T'seul (R. Morin / R. Morin)
Jean's song (Karen Young / Karen Young)
Epilogue (Marc Villemure)
Bebop macedoine (Trad.)

Production — Karen Young
Arrangement — Karen Young, except (3): Oliver Nelson

MUSICIANS
Martin Auguste — drums
Kelsey Grant — trombone
Norman Lachapelle — for (9): electrical bass, synthesizer
Bill Mahar — trumpet
George Mitchel — acoustic bass
Charles Papasoff — bass clarinet, flute, soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax
Marc Villemure — electrical, acoustic and synth guitar

SOUND
Recorded at Studio Divan Vert
Engineer — Jean-Jacques Bourdeau
Mix — Jean-Jacques Bourdeau, Karen Young
Mastering — Bill Kipper, Les Disques SNB

COVER
Photos — André Roussil
Design — Martine Thériault (1st ed.), Susan Valyi (2e ed.)

Critics

Karen Young, Nice Work if you can get it
Irwin Block, The Gazette

Karen Young has always been taken for granted in her own home town, yet over 20 years has carved out a unique place for herself as vocal interpreter covering a broad range of styles. On this CD, we meet Young the composer and lyricist on the wry, wise-observer side of the genre.

Her Hard in the Street is written and performed in the tradition of Kurt Weill and Bertold Bretch. Young the poet shines on her stunning version of Stolen Moments, the signature piece from Oliver Nelson's classic Blues and the Abstract Truth.

With her horn-like voicings, she hits just the right level of dreamy reflection. Charles Papasoff on baritone sax sets off the clarity and brightness of her vocals. Most of the tunes and lyrics are Young originals, and they sparkle with sensitivity and honesty. The spirit of Jon Hendricks lives.

****
Karen Young, Nice Work if you can get it
Dean Cottrill, The Hour

Karen Young and a pianoless sextet of Montreal's finest bridge decades in a synthesis of retrospective/progressive portraits ranging from the Weill-spring of Hard in the Street to a languid and accessible Stolen Moments (new lyrics by Young). With a tip of the hat to Ira Gershwin's title, the group's cohesive maturity affords them a free and firey Jon Hendricks-inspired Look Ma No Hands.

Young's breadth of talent as poet, arranger and singer is given full range with the supporting heorics of this Papasoff-anchored troupe. It seems Ms Young is an artist who just gets better and better, managing (social) comment without chaos, leadership without control. Among the various contrasting treatments, Voices in the Dark recalls the desolate (stolen?) moments of adolescence, and minstrel Young closes with a bit of gypsy in Bebop Macedoine.

Karen Young excels in exuberance and good humour
Patrick Gauthier, The Journal of Montreal

Even if she had performed with bassist Michel Donato many times, Karen Young captivated us in the first set at the Spectrum. Placed under the sign of good humour, sometimes downright fun, this little concert was excellent, a magnificient introduction for what was to come. Let us mention the conclusion of this set, a Bebop Bulgare, in 13/8, truly a feat of vocalise.

What awaited us in the second set was the album, Nice work if you can get it, delivered with the Charles Papasoff group. A superb protest jazz, as I wrote yesterday, which took brilliant form on the stage. After the intro by George Gershwin and an instrumental (Bebop Macedoine) Karen Young and her musicians dove into Hi Sunshine.

The jazz performed by Karen Young was at the same time free, because it burst through conventional boundaries, and fusion, because it incorporated rhythmes, colours and textures borrowed from all musical styles. Hard in the Street, for example, one of the best pieces on both the album and the concert, brought to jazz the elements of Klezmer music. It evoqued Europe of another epoque and yet remained wholly contemporary.

A delicious blend [...] and excellent concert. With this concert in two parts, Karen Young showed us a little bit of her immense talent. A talent we all know, and have once again greatly appreciated. One can only hope there were some people with pull who discovered the talent of Karen Young.

Karen Young, Nice Work if you can get it
Claude Côté, Voir

Karen Young has passed from her duo effort of Second Time Around to a group effort on Nice Work... All the group of Charles Papasoff is there: Kelsey Grant on trombone, Bill Mahar, the trumpetist of Altsey's, Norman Lachapelle, Marc Villemure, etc. Young seems so happy to be surrounded with such musicians that we find her in full control of her voice. Confident, she lets her fantasies take form. The use of horns is the element of surprise on this album, at once audacious and original: Klezmer (Hard in the Street), introspective (Look Ma No Hands), interpretation (Stolen Moments by Oliver Nelson), jazz-soul (Danger), etc. This album takes the biggest risk and is the most successful of Karen Young.

The remarkable alchemy of Karen Young
Alain Brunet, La Presse

It took some time for Karen Young to channel her creativity. She went from standard jazz to a multitude of influences. With Michel Donato she had succeeded in creating an inimitable duo in the 80's till she needed a change. A little premature, in my opinion, but so be it. Next, she did a stylisitic explosion: la chanson, folk, worldbeat and other influences which, for a while didn't come together. The years passed and then things started to move again.

Karen Young renewed the duo with Michel Donato, and then she created the most beautiful project of her artistic carreer: launched only a few weeks ago, Nice work if you can get it, is definitely her best album. That's what we got yesterday at the Spectrum. For starters, she gave a short and very sweet set with Donato, finishing with Bebop Bulgar, one of the best pieces of the duo—very complex rhythmically—, this composition shows her Balkan influences. After the break, the Montreal singer started with Bebop Macedoine, supported by one of the strongest of bands.

To the hippest trio in town (Charles Papasoff on saxes, Martin Auguste on drums and George Mitchell on accoustic bass) were added the guitarist Marc Villemure, trombonist Kelsley Grant and trompetist Bill Mahar. What a recital, my friends! The Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Mississippi Delta, la chanson Québecoise (both in English and in French), Bebop from Harlem, refined jazz of Oliver Nelson as well as a sophisticated fanfare à la Kurt Weill became the metals of this remarkable alloy, inimitable. That of Karen Young.

As far as I know, no other singer in the world of jazz is doing what she offered us last night. All we can do is hope that some foreign journalists, festival and record producers were there. And that they spread the good news. Of course last night's show wasn't perfect, this new machine is very challenging for a soundman, and a few adjustments on the arrangements are in order (very audacious, by the way), but it opens a door on an unsuspected universe. And if Karen Young became the next Cassandra Wilson of the jazz world? We can dream, can't we?

Musicians jazz it up in Guelph
Harry Currie, The Record

The evening’s second group, the Karen Young Sextet from Montreal, provided the highlight of the day’s jazz. Not only is Young a superb vocalist, the band was brilliant and tight, and the arrangements - all by Young -were both imaginative and musical.

Young sounds like a young Annie Ross, and you don’t get much better than that when it comes to jazz vocalese. She also wrote most of the songs. It is surprising to hear jazz-style tunes with lyrics full of social comment - and extremely well-written and clever. Using her voice as one of the instruments, Young’s blend and intonation are perfect, allowing her to phrase like a horn.

Equally at home in a wide variety of styles, one piece had an Eastem Mediterranean flavor with Young vocalising duets in the upper register with a soprano sax. Outstanding among the superb musicians was the woodwind player Charles Papasoff, rotating with frightening ease through the saxes, bass clarinet and flute. Most of the tunes came from Young' s new CD, Nice Work If You Can Get It (Les Disques URSH), and you can get it, if you try!

Drawing a dividing line on jazz fest offerings
Steven Pedersen, The Chronicle-Herald

Karen Young's set in the HMV Tent Friday night at the duMaurier Atlantic Jazz Festival, demonstrated the real dividing line in the jazz offerings at this festival […] Young's kind invites our admiration of set-pieces by individual players, exciting in its way, but the necessity of coming back to the arranged vocal section nips in the bud any chance of taking off.

Young is a vital performer, slim and delicate on the stage, but a powerhouse in the mike. Even though her show is more concert than jam session, you don’t want it to stop.

She scat-sings dooby syllables just as easily with drums, guitar and acoustic bass guitar as she does with sax, trombone and trumpet. Her phrasing, rhythmic articulation, drive and intonation are superb, and she is amazingly free and flexible.

When she duets with Papasoff on soprano sax, you have to shake your head to decide whether there are two voices at work or two horns. It’s a trademark trick Young has developed over years of doing it. No-one does it better.