| By Terry Perkins
In the continuation of an
interview with
Lorraine Feather, the lyricist/vocalist
discusses her various recording projects.
(If you missed Part 1 of the interview,
click
here.)
With the encouragement of noted jazz
musicians Don Grusin and Dick Hyman,
Feather decided to go forward with
New York City Drag,
a full album’s worth of compositions
pairing her lyrics with Fats Waller
tunes.
“It’s very time-consuming
making new lyrics work with existing standards,”
she explains. “It takes weeks to make one
of these combinations fit. You don’t want
to be disrespectful to the original, but
there are certain melodic lines that are
just too pianistic for a singer to sing--or
they might be too rangy to make them work.
So you do have to take some liberties with
the arrangements. The musicians bring so
much to the table in terms of making these
combinations work. It becomes a multi-layered
collaboration that involves existing music,
new lyrics, and creative musicianship to
really make it come alive.”
Feather’s work on the Waller
recording was complicated by her mother’s
death from a sudden stroke, plus the stress
of dealing with tax problems associated
with her parents’ estate. But she continued
to focus on finishing the record.
“It was a very stressful time,”
she recalls, “but I decided to keep on with
the Fats Waller album. I had started getting
tapes and CDs from Dick, and I was getting
carried away by the music. I managed to
finish it and found out about a little label
called Rhombus Records, sent it to them
and they agreed to put it out. It turned
out to be the first thing I had ever done
on my own that got played on the radio,
and I also got some nice press coverage.
So that began my addiction of recording
my own albums.”
Feather’s successful career
as a lyricist in the Hollywood film and
television industry allowed her to pursue
projects such as the Waller recording. Feather’s
resumé includes credits on films such as
The Jungle Book II and The Princess
Diaries II as well as TV shows such
as Dinosaurs and Beverly Hills
90120. Writing lyrics for film and TV
clients can be demanding, but Feather has
managed to balance her Hollywood lyricist
career with her efforts as a jazz lyricist
and vocalist.
“I’ve been writing lyrics for TV and
films since Full Swing broke up, so I don’t
mind direction and rewriting,” she states.
“But it’s also nice to be able to do what
I want–go left in the middle of a lyric,
for example. I still love doing both, but
writing lyrics for myself is certainly more
entertaining, knowing I can do whatever
I want because I’m not writing for a client.”
Feather followed up
New York City Drag with the recording Café Society
in 2003 in which she mixes vocalese numbers,
rearranged from her days with Full Swing
(Ellington’s “Rockin’ In Rhythm” and “Creole
Love Call”), with originals written in collaboration
with Grusin, Johnny Mandel, David Benoit,
Eddie Arkin and others.
 But once again Feather found herself
drawn to the concept of crafting new lyrics
to classic jazz instrumentals. She soon
began work on a tribute to the music of
Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, crafting
original lyrics to many of their instrumentals
for her next recording, Such Sweet Thunder,
“I have a fascination with music from
the ‘30s,” she explains. “It really speaks
to me. I find it mysterious and dreamlike.
Also, the groove of that music is more attractive
for me to write lyrics and sing to--compared
to bebop, for example. And I have a family
relationship with the Ellingtons through
my parents who knew them quite well. I’ve
always felt a bond and, beyond that, was
just really drawn to Duke’s music. I had
already written some lyrics to Ellington
and Strayhorn tunes during my years with
Full Swing, so I thought it would be interesting
to do a whole Ellington album to follow
up the approach I took with the Waller record.”
Feather started the project by writing
lyrics to well-known compositions such as
“Harlem Air Shaft” and “Jubilee Stomp.”
Unfortunately, problems in obtaining publishing
rights to many of the compositions she was
working on proved to be a formidable obstacle
to finishing the project.
“I didn’t know at the time what a bucket
of blood it is to try and get the publisher’s
approval,” she explains. “So I just took
the plunge and wrote the first few songs
then took it to one of the main publishers
of Ellington and Strayhorn music and got
their blessing. They said they would speak
to the other two publishers that essentially
handle almost all the Ellington music and
take care of everything. To my surprise,
it turned out that after the writing was
finished and the last sessions were
scheduled, one of those publishers
refused to give me the rights. So I had
to essentially throw out everything I had
written and recorded in terms of ‘30s era
Ellington.”
Luckily, Feather had several friends
who were Ellington experts, and they directed
her to later Ellington compositions–especially
his many suites that were not controlled
by that particular publishing house.
“That’s how I found tunes like “Suburbanite,”
“Suburban Beauty,” “Ricitic” and others,”
says Feather. “If I hadn’t had to change
direction, I never would have discovered
any of those later Ellington tunes. So
in a way, it was a real process of discovery,
and I’m very happy with the way the project
turned out.”
The lesser-known Ellington tunes gave
Feather the necessary material to finish
Such Sweet Thunder, and it was released
to considerable critical acclaim in 2004.
But once again, Feather decided that for
her next recording project, she needed to
refocus her efforts on working with contemporary
songwriters.
She turned once again to writers such
as Eddie Arkin and Russell Ferrante whom
she had worked with successfully in the
past. But as she continued work on her new
recording, Feather kept thinking of the
Ellington lyrics she had written that were
in limbo and decided to try once again to
seek publishing rights for those earlier
efforts.
“With the latest recording project, I
was doing another ‘30s-based effort but
with lots of original material done with
contemporary songwriters in that style,”
she explains. “I was also using a small
big band sound, and those earlier Ellington
pieces just fit perfectly into the mix,
so I thought I’d ask that publisher one
more time. By then, someone else was on
the scene and within a day I got a call
saying everything was fine.”
As a result Feather was able to include
“Calistoga Bay” (her version of
 “Harlem
Air Shaft”) and three other Ellington compositions
on
Dooji
Wooji. The recording made
quite a few top 10 lists for 2005 and strikes
a nice balance between Feather’s vocalese
efforts and her work with contemporary songwriters.
But according to Feather, it’s now time
to focus completely on original songs rather
than creating lyrics for classic jazz instrumentals,
an effort that is paying off.
Feather hadn’t planned on releasing a
new recording until 2007, but work on the
project has proceeded so rapidly that’s
she’s considering a late summer/early fall
release. In addition, Feather is working
on an opera project as well–an adaptation
of Tom Wolfe’s novel Bonfire of the Vanities.
The project is still in its early stages,
but Feather is already writing lyrics for
some of the characters.
Although she has moved away from vocalese
for the time being, Feather still sees merit
in the approach, citing several contemporary
artists for their work. And she also notes
that several of today’s songwriters are
writing songs in the same vein as some of
the classic tunes of yesteryear that have
become accepted standards.
“Of course, Jon Hendricks is the gold
standard when it comes to vocalese,” she
states. “Kurt Elling has done some nice
work as well, and I have to say I love Bob
Dorough’s work,
both his vocalese and his
originals. And in terms of
contemporary
songwriters writing quality material, there
are certainly a lot of them out there. One
who comes to mind immediately is Susan Werner,
who came out of a more folk background but
whose last album, I Can’t Be New,
is really modeled on classic standards.”
You can visit Lorraine Feather's website
at:
www.lorrainefeather.com
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