Once in a while, a new jazz artist arrives on the scene who reminds US of the power and glory of this music and shows how jazz can still stir our emotions and get our pulses racing in the present day. Cecile McLorin Salvant is that sort of artists. WOMANCHILD is her American debut release.

GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant has had a remarkable rise to stardom in her professional career, and she’s taking another big leap forward with Dreams and Daggers, her third album for Mack Avenue Records. More information on the release, which will be available September 29th, is forthcoming. In 2013, McLorin Salvant made her Mack Avenue Records debut with WomanChild, garnering a GRAMMY Award-nomination, NPR Music’s pick for “Best Jazz Vocal Album of the Year,” and three placements in DownBeat’s critic’s poll as “Jazz Album of the Year,” “Top Female Vocalist,” and “Best Female Jazz Up and Coming Artist of the Year,” among many other accolades. Her 2015 follow up release, For One To Love, won the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Jazz Vocal Album.”

REVIEW:

Recorded live at the Village Vanguard and in studio at New York's DiMenna Center, the double-disc set features Salvant on a thoughtfully curated selection of standards and several originals, all touching upon the themes of romance and heartbreak. Along with her regular trio of pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Paul Sikivie, and drummer Lawrence Leathers, Salvant is joined at various times by the classical string ensemble the Catalyst Quartet, who supply a cinematic layer of orchestration to Salvant's already emotive style. Whether she takes on a warhorse here like "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," or reveals her impeccable flair for picking lesser performed songs as on her wry reading of Noel Coward's "Mad About the Boy," she imbues each track with her own distinctive point of view. The few original compositions included here especially reveal her to be a literate, deeply poetic artist with a strong sense of personal identity. Ultimately, on Dreams and Daggers, with its balanced framework of live and studio recordings, happy and sad romantic songs, small group and classical chamber pieces, Salvant remains as bold and as sharp as ever.

--AllMusicGuide.com (Matt Collar)

The world first learned of the incredible vocal artistry of Cecile McLorin Salvant when she won the prestigious 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. In just under the span of a decade she has evolved from a darling of jazz critics and fans, to a multi-GRAMMY® Award winner, to a prescient and fearless voice in music today. In life and in music, McLorin Salvant’s path has been unorthodox. The child of a French mother and Haitian father, she was raised in the rich cultural and musical mix of Miami. She began formal piano studies at age five and started singing with the Miami Choral Society at age eight. Growing up in a bilingual household, she was exposed to a wide variety of music from around the world through her parents wide-ranging record collection. While jazz was part of this rich mix, her adolescent and teenage years were focused on singing classical music and Broadway. It was in France that McLorin Salvant began to really discover the deep roots of jazz and American music, with the guidance of instructor and jazz saxophonist, Jean-Francois Bonnel. Bonnel’s mentoring included bringing McLorin Salvant stacks of albums, covering the work of jazz and blues legends as well as its lesser-known contributors. Working through these recordings, Salvant began building the foundation needed to thrive and occupy a special place in the august company of her predecessors. Three years later, McLorin Salvant returned to the US to compete in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. On the urging of her mother she entered the contest, but with little sense of what was awaiting her. She took top honors.

The Window is an album of duets with the pianist Sullivan Fortner, explores and extends the tradition of the piano-vocal duo and its expressive possibilities. With just Fortner’s deft accompaniment to support McLorin Salvant, the two are free to improvise and rhapsodize, to play freely with time, harmony, melody and phrasing. Thematically, The Window is a meditative cycle of songs about the mercurial nature of love.

REVIEW:

Shifting between studio recordings and several live performances made at New York's Village Vanguard, Salvant and Fortner commune over a deftly curated and deeply enveloping mix of standards, covers, and one Salvant original, "À Clef," sung entirely in French. For a singer who has drawn well-earned comparisons to the pantheon of great vocalists with names like Ella, Aretha, and Billie, Salvant has an almost magical ability to make each song her own. Of course, Fortner is due equal credit for this transformative quality. A virtuoso in his own right, he has a pristine touch and lithe improvisational skills, drawing tastefully upon classical, post-bop, and stride styles, often within the same song. That he and Salvant play with such élan, but still manage to never get in each other's way, speaks to their immense skill and creative empathy.

-- AllMusicGuide.com (Matt Collar)

'For One to Love' includes five original songs as well as Burt Bacharach's 'Wives and Lovers,' and continues to showcase her deep appreciation of the great Bessie Smith with a take on 'What's The Matter Now.' She also sings in French on a song by French singer Barbara from 1965 called 'Le Mal de Vivre'. McLorin Salvant is superbly supported in her vision by a world-class group of musicians who share her values and play a key role in shaping each performance into an artistic statement. There are no studio tricks or subterfuge here. For One To Love is truly the creation of a singular and unique creative. We present to you with Cecile, the second record in her young and amazing career.

2016 Grammy Winner for "Best Jazz Vocal Album." "This music is very personal, very close to home," C�cile McLorin Salvant responds when asked about the songs on For One To Love. "I'm not playing anyone else here but myself. I can look at many of these songs and see that this is an event that really happened, or a feeling I've lived through myself," McLorin Salvant explains. "That's what makes it so difficult to share. It's almost like a diary entry." McLorin Salvant is superbly supported in her vision by a world-class group of musicians who share her values and play a key role in shaping each performance into an artistic statement. There are no studio tricks or subterfuge here. When asked her about the secret to her success, McLorin Salvant nonchalantly ascribes much of it to luck. But, then, after a quiet pause, she adds: "People will always be moved by something that's genuine." They certainly will and you will encounter just that on every track of this bold, heartfelt album. That same attention to detail also emerges in a similarly meticulously created, handmade package; a package that C�cile has literally envisioned, drawn or handwritten everything in it. For One To Love is truly the creation of a singular and unique creative. We present to you with C�cile, the second record in her young and amazing career.

Once in a while, a new jazz artist arrives on the scene who reminds us of the power and glory of this music, and shows how jazz can still stir our emotions and get our pulses racing in the present day. C�cile McLorin Salvant is that sort of artist. WomanChild is the stunning Mack Avenue debut of a once-in-a-generation artist.

Oh Snap is the new album from the McArthur Fellow and 3-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist C�cile McLorin Salvant. Oh Snap features twelve original songs by Salvant-plus one short "cover" of a verse from the Commodores' 1977 hit "Brick House"-mostly recorded outside of a traditional studio environment. The album features longtime musical collaborators Sullivan Fortner, Yasushi Nakamura, and Kyle Poole, as well as cameos from singers June McDoom and Kate Davis. The album is an eclectic mix of genres from indie to folk to jazz to experimental pop, all anchored by Salvant's otherworldly voice. Oh Snap shows that she will never be pigeonholed into one genre and proves, once again, that Salvant is one of the most daring and creative artists currently making music.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2022 release. Singer/songwriter C�cile McLorin Salvant's Nonesuch Records debut album, Ghost Song, features a diverse mix of seven originals and five interpretations on the themes of ghosts, nostalgia, and yearning. Salvant says, "It's unlike anything I've done before-it's getting closer to reflecting my personality as an eclectic curator. I'm embracing my weirdness!"

2023 release. M�lusine features a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating as far back as the twelfth century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Krey�l. M�lusine follows last year's label debut, Ghost Song, which has received two Grammy nominations and tremendous critical praise, including spots on best albums of 2022 lists from the New York Times and NPR, among others. The new album's songs tell the story of the European folkloric legend of M�lusine, a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday as a result of a childhood curse by her mother. M�lusine later agrees to marry Raymondin on the condition that he never see her on Saturdays. He agrees but is ultimately convinced by his brother to break his promise, piercing his wife's door with his sword and finding her naked in the bath, half snake, half woman. When she catches him spying on her, she turns into a dragon and flies out the window, only to reappear every time one of her descendants is on their deathbed. Salvant, whose parents are French and Haitian, says M�lusine is also "partly about that feeling of being a hybrid, a mixture of different cultures, which I've experienced not only as the American-born child of two first generation immigrants, but as someone raised in a family that is racially mixed, from several different countries, with different languages spoken in the home. "