september songs

The Music of Wilder, Weill and Warren

HighNote Records 2003
HCD 7114

 

1. september song
2. speak low
3. i only have eyes for you/ jeepers creepers
4. a child is born
5. lovers and losers
6. i know why and so do you
7. i had the craziest dream
8. it never was you
9. september in the rain
10. my ship
11. i wish i knew
12. lost in the stars
13. here i'll stay
14. moon and sand
15. while we are young

wesla whitfield: vocals
mike greensill: piano / arranger
Tommy Flanagan: Piano
john wiitala: bass
Peter Washington: bass
Michael moore: bass
vince lateano: drums
Tootie heath: Drums
gary foster: reeds / Woodwinds
Kronos Quartet: Strings

orrin keepnews: producer

JAZZ TIMES Artist: Whitfield, Wesla Title of CD: September Songs Record Label: HighNote The indefatigable Wesla Whitfield is at it again, breaking new ground on her umpteenth album, September Songs (HighNote), by uniting with various combinations of sidemen to concurrently explore the songbooks of Alec Wilder, Kurt Weill and Harry Warren. Backed by husband Mike Greensill's elegantly subdued trio (the comfortable Whitfield setting we're most accustomed to) and the Gary Foster Horns, she opens with a "September Song" that's more bitter than sweet, then shifts gears, augmenting the trio with the lilting strings of the Kronos Quartet for a dreamy "Speak Low" and a splendidly clever medley of "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Jeepers Creepers." Next, she swaps out Greensill's trio for Tommy Flanagan's for a lively spin through Wilder's wittily upbeat "Lovers and Losers." The Foster Horns then return to lend a touch of big band vivacity to "I Had the Craziest Dream." Finally, Whitfield downsizes to the comparative sparseness of her husband's duo (Greensill on piano and Michael Moore on bass) for one of the most lushly reflective versions of "September in the Rain" I've ever heard, a radiant "A Child Is Born" and, in the album's only real disappointment, a reading of "Lost in the Stars" that's disconcertingly robust. Typical of Whitfield outings, she also unearths an underappreciated treasure or two. This time around they're Warren's feathery "I Know Why and So Do You" and Wilder's unsettlingly inky "Moon and Sand," both welcome additions to the massive Whitfield canon Reviewed by Christopher Loudon in the Vox section of the Jazz Times, September 2003

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE These 'September Songs' are wonderful Whitfield Steven Winn Sunday, July 27, 2003 WESLA WHITFIELD September Songs: The Music of Wilder, Weill and Warren High Note; $17.99 Local treasure Wesla Whitfield ranges far afield in her splendid new CD, with a meander through the disparate show tunes and ballads of Alec Wilder, Kurt Weill and Harry Warren. Some new instrumental collaborators, including the Kronos Quartet, come along for this beguiling tour. As ever, in a Whitfield recording (or live performance), impeccable musicianship, liquid phrasing and acute sensitivity to the lyrics prevail. Who else could sashay by with a chestnut medley of Warren's "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Jeepers Creepers" and give it both a jaunty lightness and surprising weight? Or find all the slow-building deep heat Whitfield does in Wilder's "Moon and Sand?" Whitfield spins out such a gorgeous pearly tone that the slightest roughness of grain -- a perfectly placed sibilant "s" in Weill's "September Song," a penetrating edge in his "It Never Was You" -- stands out in telling relief. When her voice takes on that wonderful, slurry daze of hers, in Wilder's radiant "A Child Is Born" or Warren's confiding "I Know Why and So Do You," her hold on the lyrics only seems to tighten. Whitfield always knows just what a song's speaker is feeling at any instant, and it's often more than the listener suspected was there. With Whitfield's peerless arranger/pianist (and husband) Mike Greensill on board, "September Songs" has the reliable polish, tact and wit of these longtime partners. There's also a greater amplitude of instrumental sound here. The Kronos adds swift, melting little riffs to "Speak Low" and a shimmery undercurrent for "My Ship," both by Weill. Warren's "I Wish I Knew" gets a jaunty, big band flourish from the combined forces of Greensill's trio and Gary Foster on horns. The album's bassists have nifty back-to-back moments in "A Child Is Born" (a sweet yearning turn by Michael Moore) and Wilder's "Lovers and Losers" (solo by Peter Washington). Some listeners might long for a bit more punch and drama now and then. But for anyone who values the kind of nuanced emotion that Whitfield's musical refinement captures, these "September Songs" will endure for many seasons to come.

PLAYBILL Kronos Quartet Sweetens Wesla Whitfield's New Weill, Wilder, Warren CD In Stores Now By Kenneth Jones 22 Jun 2003 Wesla Whitfield, the San Francisco chanteuse who collaborates with her pianist-arranger husband, Mike Greensill, has a new CD of show tunes on the High Note label The 2003 release, "September Songs," includes songs by Kurt Weill, Alec Wilder and Harry Warren, with the Mike Greensill Trio, Gary Foster, The Kronos Quartet and Michael Moore. The 2003 disc, coming a year after the vocalist's Irving Berlin disc, "The Best Thing for You Would Be Me" includes, "September Song," "Speak Low," "I Only Have Eyes for You," "Jeepers Creepers," "A Child Is Born," "Lovers and Losers," "I Know Why and So Do You," "I Had the Craziest Dream," "It Never Was You," "September in the Rain," "My Ship," "I Wish I Knew," "Lost in the Stars," "Here I'll Stay," "Moon and Sand," "While We're Young." Whitfield, who shows she can be mellow and smooth as well as swinging, has played choice cabarets around the country and even sang in her own Off-Broadway cabaret show, Life Upon the Wicked Stage, in 1998. She got wide exposure more than 10 years ago when she opened for Michael Feinstein in concert. New for the singer in 1998 was the spelling of her first name, which used to be spelled "Weslia" and was always supposed to be pronounced "Wesla," as it is among family and friends. But after years of people calling her Wes-lee-uh (because of the obvious spelling) she finally changed it to avoid confusion. Most of her dozen or so recordings bear the name Weslia Whitfield. As early as 1990, Whitfield was opening for Michael Feinstein concerts, singing a hip, optimistic version of "The Trolley Song." Her early independent recordings are harder to come by, but such discs as "Lucky to Be Me" and "High Standards" are common in record stores' cabaret or vocal sections, particularly on the coasts. Whitfield's Off-Broadway debut, Life Upon the Wicked Stage, played Oct. 13-Nov. 1, 1998. Her following in New York is rooted in her 1993 debut at (and subsequent returns to) the Algonquin Hotel. Among her tales in her Off Broadway show was the rarely discussed, 1977 random shooting that left her unable to walk. In Wicked Stage , Whitfield again worked with longtime pianist arranger Mike Greensill. Whitfield rose from being a singing waitress, to singing for San Francisco Opera and then to cabarets and boites around the country. Orrin Keepnews and Judith Sherman produced the new disc.

San Jose Mercury News Wesla Whitfield Steps Out Wesla Whitfield has carved out a distinctive niche on the jazz/cabaret scene with her gift for transforming familiar standards into startlingly fresh narratives. So perhaps it's not surprising that the San Francisco singer's latest act of reinvention is herself. After two years in limbo, her breathtaking new album "September Songs" (HighNote) has finally been released, and it sounds nothing like her previous recordings. Exploring the music of three disparate composers -- the urbane Alec Wilder, musical theater genius Kurt Weill and Tin Pan Alley giant Harry Warren -- Whitfield collaborates with a host of musical stars, including the Kronos Quartet, reed master Gary Foster and the late jazz pianist Tommy Flanagan, in one of his last recordings before his death. With elegantly elaborate arrangements by pianist Mike Greensill, Whitfield's longtime creative and connubial partner, she stretches like never before, offering some of her most jazzy singing, while also delving deeply and convincingly into art song territory. "Normally we're minimalists, which is fine for what Wesla does," Greensill says. "But it's always lovely to have more instruments. With Kronos, the big challenge is that so many people write string arrangements as if the quartet was an orchestra. I'm really pleased that it sounds lush while retaining the quartet's integrity, using counterpoint and each player as an individual voice." Overseen by veteran jazz producer Orrin Keepnews, the album was originally recorded for E-Music, but when the company went under it took more than a year to buy back the masters and make a deal with HighNote, the label that has released Whitfield's last six CDs. For Whitfield, the biggest challenge wasn't working with Kronos, who were joining her on her own turf, it was recording three Wilder tunes with Flanagan, one of jazz's greatest accompanists. "It really was scary," Whitfield says. "Here's Tommy Flanagan, an absolute legend who worked with Ella Fitzgerald for all those years. I just tried to stay out of the way." Whitfield will be performing material from "September Songs" as well as other standards from her vast repertoire tonight and Saturday at Theatre on San Pablo Square. While she's worked in the area with the San Jose Symphony several times over the past decade, Whitfield hasn't performed her own jazz/cabaret show in San Jose in more than a dozen years. She has been a regular presence as a teacher, though, conducting master classes with the American Music Theater of San Jose, where she and Greensill will be on faculty from July 21 to 23. Over the past few years, with the uncertain economy making gigs increasingly scarce, Whitfield has turned her occasional master class stints into a regular program. ``I've been reinventing myself as a teacher,'' she says. "I find that I learn far more from them than they do from me.'' Since April, she's been offering her own month long master class program at the York Hotel's Plush Room, where she has held forth annually as a performer for some two decades. The application process involves a questionnaire and sending in an audition tape. With no more than six students for each class, she concentrates on how to interpret lyrics, rather than on technique. "Teaching someone technique takes months and years, "Whitfield says. "And you can mess someone up pretty badly if you just try to give them some little tips when you don't even know them. I get people to look at the lyrics as the most important part of the song. I give my students songs I know well and encourage them to interpret them in their own way and some of the things that come back are astonishing." Andrew Gilbert Special to the Mercury News Published: Friday, July 11, 2003