The American Songbook is a treasure trove, but far too many jazz singers concentrate on the shiniest crowd-pleasing tunes. Two recent albums by very different Bay Area vocalists offer object lessons in the rewards of mining less frequented territory.
Though she paid early dues singing salsa and Latin jazz, Kat Parra has spent the past decade forging a gorgeous and consistently surprising repertoire by setting ancient Sephardic songs to an array of Latin American rhythms. Her fifth album, “Songbook of the Americas” (JazzMa Records), is another big step in crafting a stylishly bespoke body of songs unlike any other singer on the scene.
Focusing on material by women composers, she ranges freely across the Americas, turning an obscure Betty Carter tune into sprightly cha cha (an arrangement by ace bassist Aaron Germain) and sashays through Chabuca Granda’s gracefully grooving “Maria Lando,” a collaboration with pianist Murray Low, who has long played an essential role in Parra’s music.
Peruvian-born Bay Area bassist David Pinto contributes several gorgeous arrangements, including setting the poem “Dame La Mano” by Chile’s Nobel laureate poet Gabriela Mistral to an obscure and stately Peruvian rhythm. He also streamlines the tango “Como La Cigarra,” a song by Argentine poet and playwright María Elena Walsh where Parra is joined by the unmistakable Venezuelan-born Bay Area vocalist Maria Marquez. Her throaty cello tone adds emotional heft to a piece indelibly linked to the struggle against Argentina’s brutal junta that disappeared so many of its own citizens in the late 1970s.
Other guests bring out her lighter side. Parra sounds right at home stepping into the aspirational world of Tuck and Patti on her original song “Dare to Dream,” and South Bay jazz singer Nate Pruitt struts with her on an Afro-Cuban arrangement of the swooning “Music Man” ballad “Till There Was You.” Clearly, Parra is still finding gold as she scours the New World for fresh material.
