Now available at CDBaby and iTunes

Montreal jazz vocalist Jeannette Lambert’s 9th recording as a leader, Born to be Blue features her longtime collaborators, her brother guitarist Reg Schwager, her husband drummer Michel Lambert and bassist Neil Swainson. The recording features a return to the jazz standards Jeannette and Reg began performing when they were teenagers, with many of the selections recorded now for the first time.

Drawing on her background singing and writing poetry, it is fitting that Jeannette selected songs with timeless and evocative lyrics. The title track, Born to Be Blue, is a nod to the classic version with Helen Merrill and Clifford Brown, one of the musicians she heard most around the house while growing up. Ne Me Quitte Pas is one of her favourite songs by Jacques Brel, and the English lyrics were chosen from the newest translation of this classic. Once Upon A Summertime is a sweeping, cinematic song written by Michel Legrand, titled La Valse Des Lilas in French and performed in the past by both Chet Baker and Blossom Dearie. You Go To My Head, performed here by Jeannette for the first time, was a request from Jeannette and Reg’s father Walter, who’s astute talent for repertoire has him poised to produce their next album.

Born to Dutch-Indonesian parents, and raised in Northern Ontario, Canada, Ms. Lambert began singing professionally in coffee shops at the age of 12, accompanied by her teenaged brother Reg on guitar. Mentored by veterans of the Montreal jazz scene, including trumpeter Herbie Spanier, and influenced by the diverse vocal traditions of flamenco, fado, and Indonesian jaipong music, she grew up singing in jam sessions with visiting artists such as vocalist Jon Hendricks. She further refined her musical style studying with vocalist Jay Clayton, the legendary Cecil Taylor and others at the Banff Jazz Workshop. Geoff Chapman of the Toronto Star wrote that “unadorned elegance is the keynote of Jeannette Lambert’s singing” and she is included as one of the best jazz vocalists of all time by author Scott Yanow in his book, The Jazz Singers: the Ultimate Guide. Her previous recordings include Sand Underfoot with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Barre Phillips and Michel Lambert, which was described as “top-notch session” in the All-Music Guide, and Lone Jack Pine, described as « art at a very high level » in Cadence Magazine. She has performed around the world, written lyrics for music recorded by a number of other jazz vocalists, and recently returned from Bali where the group performed a series of concerts and workshops.

The recording is the first mp3 album release by the Jazz from Rant label, signalling a move to more streamlined distribution channels.

Available at CDbaby and iTunes

Reviews

All About Jazz

Free Jazz

News: The Maïkotron Unit wins the PRIX FRANÇOIS MARCAURELLE  at L’Off Jazz Festival.

Recorded after a snowstorm in holiday season, this recording includes jazz versions of Greensleeves, Auld Lang Syne and We Three Kings, plus a handful of originals with winter themes.

Available at CDbaby and iTunes

Reviews

”Sand Underfoot is a top notch session … The undisputable stand-out track is “Sand Underfoot,” … It sums up all of this album’s delicateness, creativity and telepathic interaction … Sand Underfoot remains firmly anchored in jazz, if only by Jeannette’s deep understanding of jazz singing and Michel’s flexible free swing, so there is no need to be afraid.”
François Couture, All Music Guide

Pick of the Week: “Amidst a crowded room of experimental female jazz vocalists, Jeannette Lambert comes across as a refreshing alternative to the usual sound manipulators. Her style is more reminiscent of avant-psych-folk from the 1960s than any jazz vocalist; think of her as a cross between ESP-Disk folk, Fairport Convention, and Patty Waters. Her voice has a sing-song quality that buoys up even the compellingly dark musical atmospheres created here by Phillips, Bley, and Michel Lambert … This fascinating disc is also further proof of the vitality of Quebec’s jazz scene.”
Justin Glick, WNUR

Best Music of 2006: one of the top ten choices of music for 2006 by producer/host BoBBy HiLL, WPFW.

“Jeannette Lambert’s singing rarely recalls conventional jazz vocalists or for that matter free-improv singers: it’s more like conversation gently shaped into a sort of freeform folksong. There seems to be little compositional scaffolding on Sand Underfoot, but Lambert sings her lyrics as if teasing music out of the words themselves, phrase by phrase, discovering melodies that circle back on themselves the same way her poems often cyclically repeat a key phrase. … when she’s playing off other bandmembers the results are alert and refreshingly free of singer’s-improv cliché. It’s unusual to hear Paul Bley’s harmonically treacherous lyricism on a vocalist’s album, and he’s in fine form here, his abrupt sea-changes alternately complementing and challenging Lambert. Reunited here with bassist Barre Phillips for the first time since Sankt Gerold, he also strikes up a strong relationship with drummer Michel Lambert … the furious “Théo’s Pace,” Bley’s freest, most aggressive performance in some years… if the above description intrigues then do give it a try. Bley’s admirers will certainly find it an intriguing one-off.”
Nate Dorward, Cadence

“Sand Underfoot is a charming album from Canadian poet and jazz singer Jeannette Lambert. That it recalls three Canadian folk singers – Mary Margaret O’Hara and the McGarrigles – for its dreamy, sleep-walking quality is really a telling tribute. Featuring husband Michel on drums, the excellent Barre Phillips on bass and telling contributions from the ever remarkable Paul Bley on piano, its central theme is humankind’s tenuous relationship with nature, which is reflected both in the lyrics and the music. Both have a fragmentary quality, never quite becoming fixed in the landscape. Perhaps a bit like the beach in the lovely title track or the desert in ‘Desert Ride’ and ‘Beautiful Desert’, everything is in a state of flux. Songs are punctuated by improvised solos and duos from the musicians, who confirm our impermanence. ‘Theo’s Pace’ a lengthy improvisation from all four performers is a tour de force, while ‘Rim of Fire’’s four part suite suggests both isolation and companionship. Bley is a perfect choice here, while Michel Lambert’s Paul Motian-inspired drums are in constant movement. Phillips works particularly well with Lambert and Bley, the latter an old sparring partner. But it’s Jeannette Lambert who remains the focus of attention, even while leaving the stage to her co-performers. A jewel.”
Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, June 2006

Personal Taste, critic’s pick for June 2006
Neil Tesser, Jazziz

“An adventurous singer from Canada who is well worth knowing, Jeannette Lambert’s recent CD Sand Underfoot has pianist Paul Bley as a guest.”
Scott Yanow, Scott Yanow, Jazz Critic website

“I have given it a few good listens,which it deserves and I am impressed with its inventiveness and the artistic courage you have to be yourself and explore musical terrain that most of us are too chicken to do. Great work! Plus you are able to do more improvised, free jazz and not have it sound jarring becauseyour voice has an interesting timbre.”
Maureen Kennedy, jazz vocalist

“Sand Underfoot, the follow up to Jeannette Lambert’s first record she made with Barre Phillips and Michel Lambert (which I highly recommend if only for it’s completely unique mood and beautiful sound) and she has added Paul Bley on this one (good choice eh?!) This features more of her poetry and beautiful singing.”
Tim Posgate, Tim Posgate’s Canadian jazz life Blog

”Jeannette Lambert’s Sand Underfoot is free jazz in the best sense: music filled with complicated simplicity and dense with light. The elder-but-never-old masters Paul Bley and Barre Phillips meld seamlessly with the playfully serious energies of the younger Jeanette and Michel Lambert. The words and music here are part of an ancient tradition that is always new: the artist’s poetic call and response with the natural world … There is much that gleams on Jeannette Lambert’s beach.”
J. W. Jarvis, Customer review, CDBaby.com

“Lambert describes herself as a “jazz vocalist/poet” — I figure the poet came first, but she’s worked hard on the jazz end, and it pays off on one piece where she scats a bit… there is much of interest here”
Tom Hull, Jazz Prospecting

Available at CDBaby and iTunes

Jeannette and Michel met Barre Phillips during their travels in the South of France in the early 1990′s. It was the start of a great friendship and many musical collaborations. These three performers are dedicated to the art of improvising, and the interaction between the musicians is instant and inspired. Together they create music that is expressive and lyrical, within multi-dimensional expressions of time. In 1998 they formed their trio and performed their first concert at the gallery Isart in Montreal. This CD, Lone Jack Pine, features creative, improvised music based around Jeannette’s poetry. The stories are rich with imagery of Canada and Indonesia. It was described in Cadence as “art at a very high level” and received 4 stars in the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. They have performed at the Musée d’art Contemporaine at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, and at the Distillery Jazz Festival in Toronto.