Photographs by Mary Foster Conklin
Photographs is Mary's fourth album - a memory piece with a collection of lesser known tunes by Oscar Brown, Jr., Benny Carter, Lennon and McCartney, Johnny Mandel, Fran Landesman and Joni Mitchell.
"Fronting a stellar septet anchored by pianist-arranger John di Martino, Conklin carves a wide musical path. She wraps her smoky mezzo-soprano around works by Joni Mitchell (“Night and the City”), Oscar Brown Jr. (“Long as You’re Living”), Benny Carter (“Key Largo”) and Lennon and McCartney (a noirish “For No One,” featuring Houston Person on tenor saxophone). Johnny Mandel’s sultry “Cinnamon and Clove,” an obscure show tune (the shimmering “Night Song,” from Golden Boy) and two sturdy standards, “Moonglow” and “Autumn Serenade,” also figure into the eclectic mix.
But the album’s cornerstone is hipster poet-lyricist Fran Landesman, about whom Conklin recently shaped the tribute show Life is a Bitch. Alongside the familiar “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” she includes the wistful Landesman-Alec Wilder title track and a trio of gems written with Bob Dorough: the exultant “Nothing Like You,” desirous “The Winds of Heaven” and wonderfully sly “Small Day Tomorrow.”
Christopher Louden, JAZZTIMES
"If you ever find my house on fire, leave the silver / Save the photographs"
Fran Landesman (1927-2011)
Tracklist
| 1. | Night In the City | 3:54 |
| 2. | Key Largo | 3:26 |
| 3. | Autumn Serenade | 3:45 |
| 4. | Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most | 6:08 |
| 5. | Cinnamon and Clove | 5:04 |
| 6. | Small Day Tomorrow | 5:19 |
| 7. | For No One | 3:23 |
| 8. | Photographs | 4:04 |
| 9. | The Winds Of Heaven | 3:52 |
| 10. | Moonglow | 3:27 |
| 11. | Night Song | 4:44 |
| 12. | Nothing Like You | 3:25 |
| 13. | Long As You're Living | 3:56 |
Credits
Mary Foster Conklin - vocals
John DiMartino - piano
Ed Howard - bass
Shinnosuke Takahashi - drums
Paul Meyers - guitar
Warren Vache - cornet
Nany Assis - percussion
Houston Person - tenor sax (For No One)
License
All rights reserved.Recommendations
Praised as “a sensitive artist (but not frail) with a wide-ranging boldly colored voice and an open
ear for off-beat material” (Washington Post), Mary Foster Conklin is a master storyteller with a talent for uncovering obscure songs deserving attention. She hosts a weekly radio show called “A Broad Spectrum – the Ladies of Jazz” celebrating women writers on WFDU.FM on the HD2 channel.