There are no mystical components involved in jazz music — mostly it’s about improvisation and swing. And what holds true for the piano, bass or saxophone also applies to the human instrument — the jazz voice.
This Friday, Jay Clayton, who refers to herself as “a jazz singer/performer who composes and teaches” will present, in recital format, three Peabody students majoring in Jazz Voice and Jazz Standards. The study of Integriti Reeves, Amanda Bloom and the school’s first vocal jazz major, Lauren Shusterich, involve the mastery of the vocal jazz repertoire.
“When you’re a jazz singer, you learn the language of jazz,” said Clayton, who performs regularly and grew up listening to her idols — Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins — in New York jazz clubs. “The best jazz singers have listened to the same music as the instrumentalists. You learn it by listening to it and doing it.”
Shusterich agrees. “Recitals are nice because it gives us a chance to be in the moment of what we’re really expressing,” she said. “These musical moments and the right chemistry with the ensemble make it all worth it.”
The three vocalists will be accompanied by jazz instrumental majors Kevin Clark and Jacob Mackenzie on guitar, Andrew Ferguson and Zachary Swanson on bass, Tsai Huai-En on trombone, Jake Silver at the piano and Nathan Jolly on drums.
The standards in the evening’s lineup include Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To,” “Goodbye” by Gordon Jenkins, “I Wish You Love” co-written by Oscar Levant and Albert Beach, and Brooks Bowman’s “East of the Sun.”
Many of these works are also considered pop standards, but, as Clayton notes, it’s all in the rendition, the language of jazz that she imparts to her students.
Also included in the program is a group piece Clayton arranged and titled “Blues Collage.” Referring to it as “a little cluster of bebop blues,” the medley consists primarily of the works of Charlie Parker with some Duke Ellington intertwined for good measure.
Clayton will perform in “Blues Collage” and thinks perhaps, in the true spirit of an improviser, she might open the concert with a song.
