Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Manhattan Transfer. The Real Group. Take Six. Every now and then, a vocal jazz group comes along and adds another layer to the genre.
New York Voices, coming to the George Mason University Center for the Arts March 11, is on that list. Performing with the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, they’ll bring the polish and tenacity that comes with decades of experience.
The quartet’s close harmonies and intricate arrangements have appeared on more than a dozen albums. Each member is also an educator and helps run two annual NYV vocal jazz summer camps, one in Ithaca, New York, and the other abroad.
In 1986, a group of Ithaca College alumni, including current NYV members Peter Eldridge, Darmon Meader and Kim Nazarian (Lauren Kinhan joined the group years later), were invited to Europe for a series of jazz festivals. When the audience members “were on their feet” after one of their shows, Nazarian says she knew they were on to something. Two years later, New York Voices officially joined the international jazz scene, recording their first album within a year.
Nazarian offered us an inside look at the quartet.
Do all four of you work together on each arrangement?
Darmon still does the lion’s share of arranging and musical direction. But we are a four-headed monster, and we are a democracy. We all have room to speak and air our musical and creative opinions, which is I think one of the reasons this group has lasted as long as it has, because we do respect each other. And if something doesn’t feel quite right, whether it’s in the arrangement or in our own parts, we talk about it. The art of compromise—I think it’s the rule of any good marriage, any good team.
As arrangers, how do you go about taking an instrumental song and translating it for a quartet?
It’s always about putting the music first—that is one thing that we do agree about. It’s not really about us as the artist or a showcase or a platform or a spotlight. It’s about making the most music that you possibly can and maintaining that instrumental influence. Even when we’re singing a lyric, we would think about how we would sing that melody just on syllables to maintain that line, to find the natural accent, to make sure if it’s swinging that it’s swung, if it’s straight that it’s straight eighth notes.
And there’s always that connection to our rhythm section or a big band or an orchestra that we’re singing [with]. We don’t think of New York Voices as in front of the band—we think of New York Voices with the band and in the band.
And then there’s the sharing with the audience. So there’s three circles going on: what’s going on between New York Voices, what’s going on between New York Voices and the band, what’s going on between all of us on stage and our audience.
What are your favorite collaborations?
We did an entire CD of Rilke poetry that Robert Lesley wrote music for, and it is an amazing project. Meryl Streep recited the poetry. … Our collaboration with the Count Basie Orchestra was an education unto itself in professionalism, in being on the road with jazz warriors and learning how to swing. That was momentous in our career. Our collaboration with Paquito de Rivera. Every time we are with that man and with Ivan Lins, we are elevated to a place that we couldn’t get to without them. Our education continues when we collaborate with these masters, and everything that you thought about music, or you thought you had learned, crystallizes in those moments and becomes of higher quality, higher caliber. The bar is raised.
And they are truly magical moments to get to work with these people and to call them friends. That’s a professional achievement that I couldn’t have dreamed of. You are at one point a fan, and then you are standing next to them in the recording studio or on the stage, and you are generating this intangible magic, this music that people are resonating with. That’s one of the reasons to be alive. It’s our mission in life to give music purpose, and when you collaborate with these people, it’s evident that you’re doing the right thing on the planet.
Why would you say jazz is relevant today, and what does the jazz community need to do to ensure its future?
It’s America’s music first and foremost. It was born here. I’m a patriot in music. We have to keep this music alive, I believe. It’s part of our voice—and I’m not just talking about what we speak; it’s part of our voice on the planet. It unites us on the globe, and music fills that space. Imagine the world without music. That’s a painful thought. And to have contributed to America’s music makes me proud. And I think as jazz musicians and teachers, we have to take it upon ourselves to introduce this to our very young in the world, whether they’re American or not, because it will help create their future appetite for this kind of music. If they don’t hear it early on, then it takes a little bit longer to appreciate. But if they hear it early on, then it becomes part of their regular routine. So for me, it’s all about being exposed to good things, and I think jazz is a really good thing. It’s up there with all the other great art in the world and good food and good homes and good clothing. It’s part of a quality life.