For those of us tuned into Edmonton's artistic community it can come as a surprise how often great local talent can go unheard and unseen. I've never been sure what makes Edmonton such a treasure of artists of all kinds. Perhaps the months spent indoors while the snow and cold leaves the city's inhabitants with only two options. Option one: stay inside, keep your head down and your TV's on. Or option two: make art. Generalizations aside, there is most definitely a group of like-minded yet wholly unique people in Edmonton using their months of forced and chilled introspection to build something. Mallory Chipman is one of those people and her creation is as close to a must have experience as I've ever heard.
From the first a cappella moment on 'Angular Symphony' to the final strains of the jazz standard, 'Make Someone Happy' at its conclusion, Mallory Chipman's 2017 jazz, folk album Nocturnalize will more than warm the hearts of all those who shared those cold months of our forced northern hibernation.
Many of Chipman's renditions will sound familiar to begin. The albums standards are handled by the singer and her band in musical strokes of new invention that still manage to honour the original material. Producer Paul Johnston flirts with a sound that invokes a sense of improvisation yet never misses a step. Guitarist Brett Hanson, bassist Murray Wood, pianist Chris Andrew and drummer Jamie Cooper bring with them a plethora of talent that more than ably help Chipman's vintage jazz vocals crisply pop to the foreground of sound. As Chipman floats above the silver lined and shimmering billows of rhythm produced by the band, one feels as if they've travelled high above their cares and daily tasks. "I'm just a small girl from the north but I'm mighty" opines Chipman on 'Sister to Sister' and then moves on to her signature scatting just to prove the point. Chipman could hold her own with both Ella Fitzgerald and Jeff Buckley if they were still around to scat along. Her smooth transitions from lyric to scale and arpeggio riffing are nearly seamless and entirely delightful to the ear.
By the time the listener arrives at Nocturnalize's unparalleled and wildly unconventional version of 'My Funny Valentine, they'll already have fallen in love with the bands approach. Again, these are the standards you know and cherish, you've just never heard them played like this. As the album continues, we're gifted with the less than subtle expertise and nuance of John Sweeney's sax and Bob Tildesly on trumpet. Sweeney's musings on 'My Funny Valentine' are especially worth noting. And it may be fair to say this song is the album's stand out.
"We could be heroes, you said" is quite a groovy tip of the hat to the late, great David Bowie. On 'Starstruck' Chipman and the band not only play homage to their heroes but manage to emulate them in a way that edges Nocturnalize away from simple categorization of a jazz album. Like Bowie's final album and its utilizing jazz musicians at play, Chipman and company are meandering towards the stratosphere here. 'Lost in the Stars' might have been a good follow up to Starstruck's dizzying heights.
While Nocturnalize couldn't possibly garner Mallory Chipman the kind of fame Bowie reached, it's a very good start. The only question is, who will write the homage to Mallory Chipman and her band 50 years from now?
-- Val Christopher
Listen Now
On Capital City Records!