Sometimes
(taking liberties withThus Spake Yogi Berra) it takes
half a career to find ninety percent of your identity in the music
you love and love to play, or, in the case of Quebec-born Terez
Montcalm, the music you love to sing.
I’m
not sure where this slim and vivacious mid-career vocalist has
been (for sure to the dark side of the moon and back) other than
to a tattoo parlour. For her ear-opening 2011 Montreal
International Jazz Festival
concert, she wore a leggy, black, sleeveless dress which threw
into ink-dark relief a tattoo that overwhelmed the entire left
side of her shoulder and upper arm, leaving some of us to wonder
whether it was a recent acquisition or a relic from her chick
years. But it didn’t take long for the distraction to pass
and the audience to settle into and revel in -- what was probably
for many -- a new discovery, as this talented singer poured the
distillate of her life experience into a project dedicated to
the music of Shirley Horn. By concert’s end, Terez Montcalm
had announced in no uncertain terms that she is a jazz singer
to be reckoned with, and that her long day’s journey has
borne fruit -- despite a rather unexceptional first set.
Right
from the get-go Montcalm's disarming stage presence revealed her
earthiness and hard won priorities. Outrightly rejecting the glossy,
self-conscious culture of diva choreography, she surrendered to
the tug and pull of the moment and moved as the music moved her.
Her mission was to introduce audiences to the style and song of
Shirley Horn (1934-2005) and make us appreciate why Horn, who
was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award
in 2005 (the highest honor the United States bestows upon jazz
musicians), ranks as one of the great musicians of her time.
Montcalm
has a powerful, winsome, velvet-raspy voice that is equally at
home in the soul and jazz genres. It’s made up of equal
parts of battery acid and cat purr that can riptide the heart
and soul out of almost anything she puts her mind to. That said,
for the first few songs at her Club
Soda concert, there were moments of imperfect control
when backing away from full throttle. She accompanied herself
on guitar and played well enough in the jazz idiom but her playing
was near note-for-note the same as the group’s guitarist,
Jean-Sébastien William. Given the redundancy, there’s
no good reason for Montcalm to show that she knows her passing
chords, which would facilitate giving her all to the music. I’ve
always maintained that if consequent to playing an instrument
the singer ends up sacrificing a mere two percent of the vocals,
that small percentage is of critical importance, especially when
taking on the American Songbook that has been done thousands of
times by the very best.
Most
aspiring jazz singers expose their shortcomings or lack of maturity
when singing the ballads -- the acid test for any singer worth
his or her brick in the wall. Half way through what would turn
out to be an astounding second set, Terez Montcalm set aside her
guitar and soared to the occasion of performing at the highest
level one ballad after another, including “Here’s
To Life,” “A Time for Love,” “You Won’t
Forget Me” and the beautiful “One At a Time”
by Michel Legrand, which concluded the concert. You can’t
ask a singer to do more than autograph a standard such that when
you go to hear it again, you want that particular version. We
lean into the Terez Montcalm voice for its candour, depth and
toughness that can turn soft like a sunrise, and for the way it
wraps itself around words borne away on melodies stretched and
floated or made to hesitate and falter. Terez Montcalm provided
compelling reasons why we not only want to get to know Here’s
To You - Songs For Shirley Horn more intimately, but the
singer herself who shaped the music that properly belongs to her
as much as her inspiration.
Terez
Montcalm, the jazz singer, is a fait accompli, which
situates her at the beginning of what should be a very fruitful
second career that will take her to places she hasn’t yet
been and to audiences that will gladly travel with her, in no
small part because her bandmates include the empathetic Gil Goldstein
on piano and the steady, understated presence of Steve Williams,
who kept the beat for Shirley Horn for the better part of 27 years.
Terez
Montcalm reprises her homage to Shirley Horn Oct. 22 at l’Astral
(Montreal).
