Tierney Sutton Gets Intimate
She's accompanied only by pianist Tamir Hendelman at the Brubeck Room
Tierney Sutton is one of my favorite jazz singers, a nuanced interpreter of the Great American Songbook who inhabits songs and invests a great deal of emotional energy into capturing their essence. Every heart wrench is expressed on her mobile face.
Sutton is usually heard with her own band (featuring Christian Jacob, Trey Henry and Kevin Axt, plus special guests), but at the Wilton (Connecticut) Public Library February 14 she appeared in duo with Israel-born pianist Tamir Hendelman. That pared-down format really puts the onus on the singer, whose every flaw is heard, but it didn’t turn out to be a problem for this singer.
Sutton was planning on an all-Harold Arlen program for her upcoming tour, and she tried out a few numbers on us, reminding the packed audience that they’d gotten in cheap (free, with a suggested $10 donation), compared to the next night in Buffalo at the Kleinhans Music Hall, where Arlen is a native son.
We were treated to “Let’s Fall in Love” in fine uptempo form with Sutton’s very controlled vibrato on display. A quote from a concert review in the program described Hendelman as sounding like Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, which is kind of funny because you could not name three more disparate pianists. Peterson comes closest, though Hendelman is not as influenced by Art Tatum. He’s perfect for Sutton and never upstages her—the pair have a nice communion, expressed in head nods and glances.
Sutton’s new album with Hendelman is called Spring, and following that is Summer. We heard songs from the latter, including “The Summer Wind” and “Once Upon a Summertime” (both of which have Johnny Mercer lyrics). Oh and “My Funny Valentine” was a nice gift, considering it was Valentine’s Day, and it was complemented by first Spring single “L.O.V.E.”
Sutton is a master of scat, and has the smoothest re-entries into the lyrics I’ve heard. She also likes to perform the often-forgotten verses of songs. Sutton was a dear friend of songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman, both of whom have now passed. She was also their demo singer. She told me after the show that she’ll acutely miss being able to call Alan (who died just last July) to talk about song lyrics.
One of my favorite Rodgers and Hart songs is “Mountain Greenery,” which Sutton performed with great verve. She commented that the song references spring and the first of May, but the existing verse seemed summery, so she persuaded Alan Bergman to write a better one—which she performed. It’s late June in that song now.
I always thought the song’s lyric was “How we love sequestering/Where no pets are pestering,” which seemed appropriate—Fido stayed home. But no, Sutton told me it’s “pests”—apparently the bugs can’t live at the elevation of all that mountain greenery.
Near the end, we got an incredibly intense “I Knew I Loved You,” first recorded for Sutton’s Paris Sessions II. The song was originally an instrumental named “Deborah’s Theme” from Ennio Morricone’s 1984 Once Upon a Time in the West score. Upon seeing the movie, the Bergmans asked Morricone if they could write lyrics for that beautiful—the composer declined. But 12 years later Quincy Jones, who was recording a Morricone tribute album, approached the couple and asked for words to that very song.
They wouldn’t let me shoot video at the show, so here’s Tierney Sutton with prodigious pianist Emmet Cohen on “Autumn Leaves”:
The Wilton Library, if you weren’t aware, plays host to The Brubeck Collection, a digital archive of more than 22,000 items from the long-serving pianist and composer. Brubeck is often associated with California and the cool sound, but he was a longtime Wilton resident (from 1960 to his death in 2012), which is why—in my capacity as a reporter for the Wilton Bulletin in approximately 1979, I was able to interview and write up a feature on the affable artist.
One Archive photo shows Brubeck playing with Gerry Mulligan, who was his neighbor in the next town over, Westport. Baritone saxophonist Mulligan worked with Brubeck extensively between 1968 and the early 1970s.
Brubeck was extremely nice to me, even though I didn’t know his music all that well then. At the time. I was probably grooving to John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and fusion like the Mahavishnu Orchestra—anything with high energy. With age comes wisdom, at least some of the time, though I can still listen to The Inner Mounting Flame, and those other two guys didn’t get old either.
The next show in the Brubeck Room features Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play and takes place March 13. Reserve free tickets (with that suggested $10 donation) at the library.