Welcome to Sound Projections

I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.

Thus this magazine will strive to critically question and go beyond the conventional imposed notions and categories of what constitutes the generic and stylistic definitions of ‘Jazz’, ‘classical music’, ‘Blues.’ 'Rhythm and Blues’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Pop’, ‘Funk’, ‘Hip Hop’, etc. in order to search for what individual artists and ensembles do cretively to challenge and transform our ingrained ideas and attitudes of what music is and could be.

So please join me in this ongoing visceral, investigative, and cerebral quest to explore, enjoy, and pay homage to the endlessly creative and uniquely magisterial dimensions of MUSIC in all of its guises and expressive identities.

Saturday, July 3, 2021

Camille Thurman (b. December 22, 1986): Outstanding, versatile, and innovative musician, composer, arranger, singer, ensemble leader, producer, and teacher

Nostalgia In Times Square by Charles Mingus Charles Mingus

SOUND PROJECTIONS

 

AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE

 

EDITOR:  KOFI NATAMBU

 

SUMMER, 2021

 

 

 

VOLUME TEN   NUMBER ONE 

CHARLES MINGUS
 

Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:

JEREMY PELT
(April 17-23)

WILLIAM GRANT STILL
(April 24-30)

AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS
(May 1-7)

KARRIEM RIGGINS
(May 8-14)

ETTA JONES
(May 15-21)

YUSEF LATEEF
(May 22-28)

CHRISTIAN SANDS
(May 29—June 4)

E. J. STRICKLAND
(June 5-11)

TAJ MAHAL
(June 12-18)

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR PERKINSON
(June 19-25)

DOM FLEMONS
(June 26-July 2)

CAMILLE THURMAN
(July 3-July 9)


https://www.allmusic.com/artist/camille-thurman-mn0003036066/biography

Camille Thurman 

(b. December 22, 1986)

Artist Biography by Matt Collar

Inside the Moment 

Saxophonist, flutist, and vocalist Camille Thurman is a soulful performer with a warm sound that she applies to both acoustic jazz standards and more contemporary R&B-influenced songs. A native of Queens, New York, Thurman began playing music at a young age and honed her skills while attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts. However, after high school she earned a degree in Geological & Environmental Science from Binghamton University before returning to pursue her music career in New York City. In 2013, she caught the public's attention after placing third in the Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition. That same year, she released her debut album, Spirit Child, on Hot Tone Music. A year later, she returned with Origins. An in-demand performer, Thurman has shared the stage with such luminaries as Chaka Khan, Benny Golson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Alicia Keys, Nicholas Payton, Russell Malone, and many others. She is a 2015 Martin E. Segal Award recipient -- recognizing Young Outstanding Artists -- and a two-time recipient of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award. In 2017, she made her Chesky Records debut with Inside the Moment. Featuring jazz veterans Cecil McBee (Bass) Jack Wilkins (Guitar) Steve Williams (Drums) and Jeremy Pelt (Trumpet), Thurman returned the following year with her sophomore Chesky outing, Waiting for the Sunrise, a collection of jazz standards.

https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/camillethurman

Camille Thurman

Acclaimed by Downbeat Magazine as a “rising star” singer with “soulful inflection and remarkable, Fitzgerald-esque scat prowess” and hailed by All About Jazz as a “first class saxophonist that blows the proverbial roof of the place”, Camille Thurman has been amazing audiences throughout the world with her impeccable sound, remarkable vocal virtuosity and captivating artistry. Many have praised her vocal abilities to the likeness of Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter. Her lush, rich & warm sound on the tenor saxophone has led others to compare her to tenor greats Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon. An accomplished performer and composer, Camille has worked with notable Jazz and R&B icons such as George Coleman, Roy Haynes, Dianne Reeves, Wynton Marsalis & the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jon Hendricks, Pattie LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Louis Hayes, Russell Malone, Nicholas Payton, Jacky Terrasson, Alicia Keys, Lalah Hathaway, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu among others. Camille has performed with her band at the Kennedy Center, Rose Theater, Alice Tully Hall, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, The Library of Congress, the Sydney International Women in Jazz Festival, the Tomsk International Jazz Festival, the International Fano Jazz Festival and many other prominent jazz venues and festivals around the world. A 2017 season highlight includes performing as a feature artist alongside Harry Connick Jr., Audra MacDonald, Diana Krall, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Renee Fleming, Marilyn Maye, Roberta Gambarini and Kenny Washington along with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra for the “Ella at 100: Forever The First Lady of Song” Gala concert in tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. In 2015 Camille was a recipient of the Martin E. Segal –Lincoln Center Award for Outstanding Young Artists and a runner up in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition. She was a two-time award winning recipient of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award and a winner of the Fulbright Scholars Cultural Ambassador Grant to Nicaragua and Paraguay. Her compositions were featured and performed by her quartet in the ASCAP/ Kennedy Center “Songwriters: The Next Generation” showcase. Camille has appeared on BET’s Black Girls Rock as the saxophonist & flutist in the All Star Band. “ORIGINS” (2014), Camille’s debut album, reached JazzWeek’s Top 50 and was hailed by the New York Jazz Record as a record that “comes bursting in with the power of virtuosity tempered by tradition, understanding and great feeling” and was celebrated as “a rich multifaceted work of art that is never boring and at times is outstanding” (Curt’s Jazz). “Spirit Child” (2014) featured Rashaan Carter, Shirazette Tinnin, Anthony Wonsey, Shan Kenner and Jason Lindner. “Inside The Moment: Live At Rockwood Music Hall” (2017) is Camille’s third release as a leader and first on Chesky Records featuring Mark Whitfiled, Ben Allison and Billy Drummond. ​ ​ ​ Camille is a proud endorser of D'Addario Woodwinds Jazz Selects Saxophone Reeds.

Source: Camille Thurman

Awards

2012 & 2013 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award 2013 Featured Artist/Band for the ASCAP/ Kennedy Center "Songwriters: The Next Generation" showcase 2013 ASCAP Phoebe Jacobs Prize 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition 2nd Runner Up 2012 & 2013 Saxophonist for BET Black Girls Rock All Star Band 2014 Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival Vocal Competition Finalist

https://downbeat.com/news/detail/camille-thurman-give-back

Camille Thurman Eager To Give Back To The Jazz Community

News, From the Magazine, Camille Thurman, 25 For The Future

by Ed Enright      

November 18, 2020

Downbeat 

Image

Camille Thurman is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come. (Photo: Courtesy of Artist)

​With ambition to spare and serious cred supported by a weighty professional resume, Camille Thurman has made a considerable contribution to the legacy of jazz while paying tribute to its heroes. The 33-year-old New York native—a scatting jazz vocalist with equally strong chops on tenor and soprano saxophone and various woodwinds—has four leader albums to her name, the most recent being 2018’s Waiting For The Sunrise (Chesky), on which she delivers inventive takes on jazz standards in the company of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, guitarist Jack Wilkins, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Steve Williams. Thurman also has been the recipient of distinctive honors, taking second place in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocals Competition and winning the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award two times.

For the past two years, Thurman has toured internationally as a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, temporarily taking the place of tenor saxophonist Walter Blanding, who’s expected to reclaim his chair in the near future. She has spent considerable time on the road and in New York clubs with her own band, the Camille Thurman Quartet, and has been frequently featured with a trio led by her partner, Darrell Green, in collaborative performances at such high-profile venues as the Kennedy Center and Alice Tully Hall.

Mentored and encouraged early in her career by bassist/vocalist Mimi Jones, saxophonist Antoine Roney and reed player Tia Fuller, Thurman has proven her eagerness to give back to the jazz community by conducting workshops and master classes, teaching at jazz camps, presenting lectures on jazz and gender issues, and inspiring young artists toward musical excellence in whatever ways she can. Recently, she has been leading a virtual mentorship series called The Haven Hang for female artists.

“This is what I’ve been wanting to do for so many years: find other young women musicians who are figuring out the beginning of their journey and connect them with legendary artists that are already doing it,” she said.

Thurman has remained active in recent months, putting on occasional livestream concerts from the New York home she shares with drummer Green and serving as a faculty member for virtual jazz camps and workshops, including the Summer Jazz Academy at Jazz at Lincoln Center. She has been composing a commissioned piece for the Quarantine Music Project that she expects to release in recorded form sometime next year. And she plans sometime in 2021 to release an album of Horace Silver compositions she recorded about four years ago with Green’s trio (which includes pianist David Bryant and bassist Rashaan Carter) plus special guests Regina Carter and the late Wallace Roney.

“When we recorded, we didn’t know that these pieces would be so relevant right now,” she said, noting the inclusion of Silver compositions like “Love Vibrations,” “Nobody Knows,” “Lonely Woman” and “Won’t You Open Up Your Senses,” and pointing out that Silver wrote lyrics to many of his compositions.

“I fell in love with the album that Horace made during the early ’70s, That Healin’ Feelin’ [which appears in its entirety on the 2004 Silver compilation The United States Of Mind]. I was moved by how the compositions are so relevant for today, even though this music was written over 40 years ago.”

In discussing the Silver compositions she rearranged for the album, Thurman said, “They reveal a Horace who is really conscious about his community and how he plays a role as a member of society. I was checking out a song of his about environmental consciousness, and being conscious of the food that you eat. This was in the ’70s. Fast-forward 40 years, and now we’re all getting into being health conscious and realizing our actions and their effects on the environment.

“I have a background in environmental science, so I understand the balance between what we do and how it affects our environment. And for him to be thinking about that and putting it to music is mind-blowing.”

Watch for upcoming online performances by Thurman and her collaborators during the Virtual Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in late February. DB

This story originally was published in the November 2020 issue of DownBeat

https://www.camillethurmanmusic.com/bio 

 

 

bio  //  quotes  //  recent articles

download full bio

Camille Thurman 

 
Remember the name Camille Thurman. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and unique interpreter of the jazz tradition, she is quickly becoming one of the standard bearers for the form, making a considerable and dynamic contribution to the legacy of jazz while
paying tribute to its heroes.

Fluid and powerful on the tenor saxophone and highly inventive as a vocalist, she also plays bass clarinet, flute, and piccolo. Her rich sax sound has been compared to Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon, while her vocal approach—including an impressive scatting ability—has been classified alongside those of Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter.

In a few short years, Thurman has shared stages with such jazz and R&B luminaries as George Coleman, Roy Haynes, Dianne Reeves, Wynton Marsalis, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JALCO) featuring Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, Charles Tolliver, Jack DeJohnette, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jon Hendricks, Harry Connick Jr., Jon Batiste,  Audra MacDonald, Diana Krall, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Louis Hayes, Russell Malone, Nicholas Payton, Jacky Terrasson, Janelle Monáe, Alicia Keys, Lalah Hathaway, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, among others.

The New York City native has already amassed several distinctive honors for her musicianship: runner up in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, two-time winner of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award and a winner of the Fulbright Scholars Cultural Ambassador Grant, The Chamber Music of America Performance Plus Grant (Sponsored by the Dorris Duke Charitable Foundation) and the Jazz Coalition Composers Grant among others. Thurman also has four full-length recordings as a leader to her credit.

Her compositions were featured and performed by her quartet in the ASCAP/The Kennedy Center “Songwriters: The Next Generation” showcase as well as the Greenwich School of Music “Uncharted” Series.  Camille has appeared on BET’s “Black Girls Rock” as the saxophonist and flutist in the All-Star Band. Equally adept as a player and a singer, and recognized for her compositional abilities as well, Thurman has also earned accolades from the media, from Jazz Times to Downbeat, All About Jazz to the New York Times, NPR to Sirius XM Satellite Radio, BET to Jazz Night In America.

Thurman toured internationally toured two seasons withe the world-renowned Jazz At Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis as a saxophonist, becoming the first woman in 30 years to tour and perform full time (2018-2020). After guesting with the JALCO on several shows, including a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, and again during the 2017-2018 season as a featured vocalist for the world premiere of the historic work, “The Every Fonky Lowdown,” Thurman was invited to play the tenor saxophone chair for the past two seasons, which covered four continents. When she is not touring with the JALCO, Thurman is on the road leading her band, The Camille Thurman Quartet. She is also a featured artist with the Darrell Green Trio, where she has performed at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, and numerous respected international jazz festivals and venues.

Thurman was chosen by the State Department under the Fulbright Scholarship grant to perform in Paraguay and Nicaragua with her band. She and Darrell Green were selected by American Music Aboard to travel and perform in various African nations including Cameroon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Mauritania.

The dynamic musician is endorsed by D’Addario Woodwinds & Co. for reeds, Conn-Selmer Inc. for saxophones and Key Leaves saxophone products.

More information on Camille Thurman, please visit www.camillethurmanmusic.com.


https://www.npr.org/2018/08/24/641599802/camille-thurman-is-a-rare-jazz-double-threat

Music Interviews

NPR logo
 

Camille Thurman Is A Rare Jazz Double Threat

Heard on All Things Considered
 
NPR 

Camille Thurman performs onstage during the Jazz at Lincoln Center 2017 Gala in New York City. Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images

In the world of jazz, most musicians choose one single thing and get as good as humanly possible at it, but not Camille Thurman. She's known as a double threat: The rare jazz musician who has mastered both a highly technical instrument — in her case, the saxophone — and sings. Thurman's vocals have been compared to Ella Fitzgerald. Her latest album, Waiting for the Sunrise, is out now.

Thurman was 15 years old when she was gifted her first saxophone by her aunt's mother-in-law. Thurman recalls the manner by which she received the sax as a "story you would dream of."

'When The Bus For The Record Label Comes By': Behind Hot Tone Music

Mimi Jones

A Blog Supreme

'When The Bus For The Record Label Comes By': Behind Hot Tone Music

"I call it The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but the jazz version," she says. "The house is all dark, the stairs are rickety, you open the door and see all these papers on the floor. It looked like the room hadn't been touched in 30 years. And in the closet was a 1967 Selmer Mark VI Tenor Saxophone untouched."

As for singing? Thurman says she's been singing for fun since 4 years old, but never thought to take it seriously until she picked up her instrument. She would learn the saxophone solos by singing and scatting them, although she never realized that's what she was doing until one day at Jazz in July camp, an instructor pointed it out to her. "Is it possible for instrumentalists to sing and scat? Because we think we have one among us," Thurman recalls the instructor saying. 

    As she's gotten older, Thurman has realized the pressure for women in music to be vocalists first and instrumentalists second. She says she often "throws people off guard" when they find out she's an instrumentalist as well as a singer.

    "I remember when I first found out Sarah Vaughan was a pianist and it blew my mind away." she says (Though she was an accomplished pianist and composer, Vaughan was more prominently promoted as a singer.) "I was like, 'How can you just put one part of a person or an artist's gift out there when there's a whole person?'"

    Thurman hopes that her music will expand people's ideas or expectations of what a jazz musician can be. "I think it's giving that awareness to people to see and to hear that this exists and that there's a high level to it, too."

    Thurman spoke with NPR's Ailsa Chang about the recording process of Waiting for the Sunrise and showed off her scatting skills live in-studio. Hear their conversation at the audio link.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Thurman

Camille Thurman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Camille Thurman in 2013

Camille Thurman (born December 22, 1986) is an American jazz musician, composer, and member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.[1][2] Her first two albums, released by Chesky Records in 2018 and 2017, peaked at #3 and #25 respectively on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart.[3] She has performed at the Kennedy Center, and was a runner up for the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition.[2][4]

Early life

Thurman took up music at a young age, as she grew up in the St. Albans section of Queens, New York, practicing vocals, piano, and flute before attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts.[5][6][2] She first picked up the tenor saxophone, the instrument she is best known for playing, at the age of 15.[7] She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in geological & environmental science from Binghamton University.[2][5]

Musical career

Thurman moved back to New York City following her graduation, and played with a wide array of jazz musicians, particularly crediting saxophone player Tia Fuller and vocalist/bassist Mimi Jones with helping her in those early years.[5] Thurman went on to place as a finalist in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, garnering much attention, and leading to her first record deal.[5]

Later in 2013, Thurman released her first album, Origins, on Jones' label, Hot Tone Music.[2] She followed up with her second album on Hot Tone, Spirit Child, in 2014.[2]

Over December 2014 to January 2015 Thurman appeared alongside Charenee Wade, Cyrille Aimée, Allan Harris and an eight-piece band including bassist Mimi Jones in Alex Webb (musician)'s jazz theatre show Cafe Society Swing, at New York's 59E59 Theaters, which received a Critic's Pick from the New York Times.[8]

Thurman later signed to Chesky Records, and released her third album, Inside the Moment, on May 19, 2017, which debuted at #25 on the BIllboard Jazz albums Chart.[2][3]

Thurman released her fourth album, Waiting for the Sunrise, through Chesky Records on August 24, 2018, and the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums Chart.[2][3]

Awards and honors

  • 16th Independent Music Award Nominated - Jazz Song with Vocals "Cherokee"[9]
  • 17th Independent Music Award - Jazz Album with Vocals - Waiting for the Sunrise[10]
  • 17th Independent Music Award - Jazz Song with Vocals - "The Nearness of You"[10]
  • NAACP 50th Image Awards Nominated - Outstanding Jazz Album[11][12]

http://downbeat.com/news/detail/camille-thurman-finds-her-voice

Camille Thurman Finds Her Voice on ‘Waiting For The Sunrise’

Interview, News, Camille Thurman
 
by Suzanne Lorge  
October 30, 2018
Downbeat 
Image

Camille Thurman’s latest release, Waiting For The Sunrise (Chesky), was issued in August.   (Photo: Jack Vartoogian)

Saxophonist Camille Thurman kept her singing under wraps all throughout her time at the famed LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York City. And in college at SUNY-Binghamton, she wasn’t even a music major—she earned a bachelor’s degree in geological science. But in less than a decade as a professional singer and woodwinds player, she’s made her mark as one of the most promising—and intriguing—young musicians around.

Thurman hails from the St. Albans section of Queens, known for the many jazz greats who’d lived there during the swing era, including Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald. Growing up, Thurman took inspiration from their musical accomplishments; she listened to these jazz masters, taught herself to plunk out tunes on the piano and started playing flute in middle school. (Tenor saxophone, her bailiwick today, came later.) Several educators along the way encouraged her playing, and eventually the final piece of her musicianship—artful scats and rich vocals—fell into place.

“It took a while to find out what I was comfortable with as my identity,” Thurman said. “I play and I sing. Sometimes society—especially for women—might pressure you to do one thing, because it might be aesthetically easier to accept.”

Arguably, as a musician, Thurman has taken the less-worn path, and so female role models were harder to find. She credits saxophone player Tia Fuller and bassist/singer Mimi Jones with helping her to land on her feet in New York after graduation. Their advice? If you’re going to sing and play, be great at both or don’t bother. Thurman took this advice to heart, and within a few years had placed as a finalist in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, played at Jazz at Lincoln Center, toured internationally and performed alongside some of the biggest names in the jazz and r&b worlds.

Her debut album, Origins, and her second, Spirit Child, both released in 2014 on Jones’ label, Hot Tone Music, fueled Thurman’s rapid ascendancy. She followed these successes with Inside The Moment: Live At Rockwood Music Hall last year—her first album as a Chesky artist, and her first time using the binaural recording technique, which creates a three-dimensional sound sensation for the listener. This method doesn’t allow for audio “punch-ins,” however, so on her Chesky albums, Thurman relies on her expert ear and indefatigable skills as an improviser to guide her in her quest to record complete takes.

Her second recording for Chesky, Waiting For The Sunrise, dropped in August. Thurman sings more and plays less on this album, often deferring to her band, an ensemble of instrumentalists who worked with the singers who captivated her young ears back in St. Albans: Steve Williams, Shirley Horn’s drummer; Cecil McBee, Dinah Washington’s bassist; Jack Wilkins, Sarah Vaughan’s guitarist; and Jeremy Pelt, Cassandra Wilson’s trumpeter.

“She made it happen,” said Williams, remarking on the challenges a young player faces when recording with such iconic musicians. “She’s a bright light in the future of this music.”

This fall, Thurman has plans to finish a Horace Silver tribute album and tour as a guest musician with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The latter is quite an accomplishment for a player who made her Lincoln Center debut three years ago as part of a “Generations in Jazz” concert. DB

https://jazztimes.com/features/lists/camille-thurman-before-after/

Camille Thurman: Before & After

Learning to listen differently with a multifaceted talent

 
by Ashley Kahn
May 5, 2021
JazzTimes 
Camille Thurman
Camille Thurman (photo: Daniel Green)

Camille Thurman blowing tenor with the Jazz at Lincoln Center big band behind her. Fronting the quartet co-led by drummer Darrell Green. Switching from saxophone to flute, then to singing a standard like “Nobody Knows,” revealing her various talents, often on the same melody. These snapshots from a career in its first flowering were common enough up to a year ago; now they’ve been replaced by a few home activities that Thurman considers the hidden benefits of a year in lockdown.

“I find myself listening to music now differently from before,” she says. “In the beginning I was trying to learn the key solos and repertoire. But now I find myself taking the time to process and hear other things I missed in my youth: how musicians taper the notes, their phrasing, the nuances of harmony, the arrangement, the sound, the colors, the musicians’ interactions.”

There’s more: As a recently hired educator working with the jazz studies department at the University of Northern Colorado, Thurman’s finding more time to interact with her students. “It’s been a joy actually because the majority of the time, I’m a clinician. I’d go in and work with the students—like an intensive boot camp for one day or a week—and then wish them the best: ‘Okay, good luck going into the new world, reach out to me if you need any help!’ But now I have the opportunity to work with some students for a consistent period of time, which has been a blessing to watch their growth.”

Thurman’s own growth can be measured across four well-received albums in the past seven years, with plans for two more, including “a tribute project to the late great Horace Silver that I’ve been working on along with Darrell Green, and it features Wallace Roney and Regina Carter. We pulled some pieces from Horace’s albums That Healin’ Feelin’ [1970], Total Response [1971], and All [1972]—those records that we don’t really hear too often. But it’s music that’s so needed now and is perfect for today’s time. We’re hoping to get the music out to you soon.”

To call Thurman a triple (or quadruple, or quintuple) threat is to miss the fact that from her perspective, her music is less about the tool and more about developing a strong and consistent voice that flows through all her instruments, voice included. This idea guided the choice of tracks for her first Before & After with JazzTimes, which took place via Zoom on April 8, 2021.

Listen to a Spotify playlist featuring most of the songs in this Before & After:

1. Jimmy Heath
“Left Alone” (Love Letter, Verve). Heath, tenor saxophone; Russell Malone, electric guitar; Monte Croft, vibraphone; David Wong, bass; Lewis Nash, drums; Cécile McLorin Salvant, vocal. Recorded in 2019.

BEFORE: That’s Cécile and Jimmy. It’s funny because while I was listening, it had this vibe like it was from a ’60s Abbey Lincoln recording, an eerie kind of feel but very focused and beautiful. Then I realized the compression on the sound and I was thinking, “Oh, this is new and modern.” I started to hear Cécile’s spin and tone, and she was doing some similar things to what Sarah [Vaughan] would do with her phrasing, and I heard a few Blossom Dearie-isms in there too with the tapering of her notes. And Jimmy, I mean his sound? I knew right away that’s Jimmy. 

I’ve heard some of the tracks from this album. It’s gorgeous. But it’s hard to listen to because I remember when Jimmy passed. I was playing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the Jack Rudin [Jazz Championship] competition [in January 2020]. We literally were about to go on stage to play and got the news. I remember everybody was in shock … our hearts sank because we had just seen him the winter before, during the big-band holiday tour in Georgia. He came backstage and was hanging out with us. I got to talk with him about my hometown, because he had lived in Queens and was sharing all this information about its wonderful jazz history. Then this album came after he passed and it felt like, “Man, this is the last piece of Jimmy that we have.” It still hasn’t registered that he’s not with us anymore.

2. Nubya Garcia
“Before Us: In Demerara & Caura” (Source, Concord Jazz). Garcia, tenor saxophone; Sheila Maurice-Grey, flugelhorn; Joe Armon-Jones, keyboards; Daniel Casimir, bass; Sam Jones, drums. Recorded in 2020.

BEFORE: [Listens to entire track] I was deep in thought. I have a couple of guesses, but I didn’t recognize that tenor sax sound. Beautiful composition. I love the song and the arrangement, and I love how they voice the trumpet and tenor. It’s definitely much more recent. I love the energy. The drummer is pretty killin’. I kinda have a thing for drummers, I guess. [Laughs] But the tenor sound? I was thinking possibly Nubya because I’ve heard snippets of her before and I was listening really intensely to the timbre.

AFTER: Ah, yes! I knew it was her because I saw a couple of videos before and [I was] listening to how she was approaching the language. We’ve never met but one day, hopefully after this pandemic is over, we’ll get to meet each other. I’ve definitely seen her music online and I’m happy to see her. I haven’t checked this album out yet and I’m going to have to.

3. Shirley Horn
“Get Out of Town” (Close Enough for Love, Verve). Horn, piano, vocal; Charles Ables, bass; Steve Williams, drums. Recorded in 1988.

BEFORE: [Immediately] YES! Oh man. Shirley Horn. All day, every day. I’m a Shirley Horn fanatic. When I first got on the scene I kept my singing a secret for a long time because I thought, “Okay, I’m a lady and they’re going to assume that I only can sing, people are going to look at me with my horn and they’re going to question if I can play or not.” I thought to myself, “Just play, just play.” But Antoine Roney got me to take the bold step and do both. I didn’t see anybody singing and playing a horn. He told me you got to listen to Shirley—check out her arrangements, how she picks her songs, that balance of how she’s able to sing and play but tailor something that highlights her gift in its best light.

Then he introduced me to Steve Williams, who ended up recording on my fourth album [2018’s Waiting for the Sunrise], and that was like a perfect marriage because I got to see Shirley from the mindset of the drummer who worked with her. We didn’t have a conversation directly about Shirley, but the spirit and the feeling was there. We picked a song from her book—“If You Love Me [(Really Love Me)]”—and I remember after the session Steve just nodded. I was like, “Yes!” That was a moment for me: I got the nod of approval from Shirley’s drummer, I’m doing something right! He was so loving and supportive too. 

What’s the advantage of being a singer who also plays an instrument?

That’s an excellent question. You get the inside ticket to everything as far as understanding what’s happening harmonically, rhythmically, and being able to communicate with the band, which is so important because that’s one less wall that you have to deal with. Being able to play an instrument helps you to tap into those things, so that you’re able to creatively go deeper into the music and present it exactly like you’re hearing it. When you check out Shirley, or Carmen McRae, or any of those great singers that were also instrumentalists—Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin—they had something special that made them unique. We love them so much because they have this magical thing that allows them to really get inside of the music and make it work for who they are while connecting with everyone.

4. Lionel Hampton / Dexter Gordon
“Seven Come Eleven” (Lionel Hampton with Dexter Gordon, Who’s Who in Jazz). Gordon, soprano saxophone; Hampton, vibraphone; Bucky Pizzarelli, electric guitar; Hank Jones, piano; George Duvivier, bass; Oliver Jackson, drums; Cándido Camero, congas. Recorded in 1977.

BEFORE: [Halfway into saxophone solo] Uh-huh. Yeah. [A few bars later] Woooo! … uh-huh … uh-huh … uh-huh. Yeah! It’s not often you get to hear Dexter on soprano like that, and with Lionel Hampton. On congas, Cándido.

Cándido was way down in the mix!

I was trying to do the math. I’m not familiar with this recording and I didn’t recognize the tune. I was just processing—I know that’s Dexter, I know that’s Lionel, and then thinking period-wise. That’s Cándido. And the guitar—that sound is recognizable.

First off, I could hear Dexter because of his tone, even though he’s on soprano. I could hear him playing the same thing on tenor—and then his phrasing and his ideas. He has those classic things that he plays, those slick melodies that he’ll quote—that’s Dexter. Another thing I love about him, he has such wit. The first record I got turned on to for Dexter was Go and I had to transcribe “Second Balcony Jump.” I didn’t yet know the language of jazz at 14. I knew he was a genius because he was taking all of these different melodies out of left field and finding simple ways of incorporating them into his solos, and then the band would, bam!, respond right back to him without missing a beat.

AFTER: I could tell that was Bucky. That is so awesome and hip. And Dexter is Dexter. It doesn’t get any better than that. The soprano is a special instrument—you gotta give it some TLC and it will start loving you. I’ve been getting into the curved soprano, because I always thought it sounds sweeter. I mean, the straight sounds beautiful too, but there’s something about the curved soprano. And I love that it’s small, so you could throw it in your suitcase and take it out in your hotel room and start blowing and nobody knows it.

5. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra
“Movement 4” and “Movement 5” (Promises, Luaka Bop). Sanders, tenor saxophone, voice; Sam Shepherd, keyboards, programming. Recorded in 2020.

BEFORE: Hmmm. Yeah. Pharoah. Yeah. There’s just something about his sound, it cuts to the soul. It’s so real and raw but it’s so beautiful too. You could hear the link between him and Trane–the purity of the sound. But it’s not Trane, it’s Pharoah. I love when I hear him because it’s like I can visualize the air going into the horn and how the sound comes out, the harmonics and all. Was that him singing?

AFTER: I never heard Pharoah vocalize. Wow. I’m going to have to dig into that album some more. It’s beautiful—it reminds me of the earlier albums he did in the ’70s. There’s a track I remember him playing soprano on, on Thembi [1971], and this reminded me of that same vibe—the meditative quality and openness. It’s like he uses the music as a blank slate for the horn to sing and float on with all these textures and colors in the mix going in and out. It creates this beautiful sound around the focal point of his horn’s sound playing through everything.

Would you consider working with electronics or programming, more of a produced project?

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been going back and forth thinking about this because I’ve been wanting to do something where I get to use woodwinds. I love playing flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo, also combining bass clarinet, and maybe even tenor and voice. If I can get some time I’d like to learn how to use the equipment and mess around with it to see what I can come up with.

Camille Thurman at the 2019 Gotham Jazz Festival
Camille Thurman at the 2019 Gotham Jazz Festival (photo: Alan Nahigian)

6. Jazzmeia Horn
“Legs and Arms” (Love and Liberation, Concord Jazz). Horn, vocals; Stacy Dillard, tenor saxophone; Victor Gould, piano; Ben Williams, bass; Jamison Ross, drums, vocals. Recorded in 2019.

BEFORE: Ahhhh. Jazzmeia … uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh … yeah. We’re good friends. I know her voice very well. All those little nuances that she does with her phrases. Beautiful tune—all her compositions and arrangements are. I’m so happy and proud of her for taking that leap and letting the world hear her music. I haven’t had time to check out everything [on her latest album]. I know her first one.

I was able to hear and recognize instantly, from the first time I heard her, she was seriously doing her homework and was about the music 100 percent. I remember we were backstage at the Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition years ago and we were so giddy. We hugged each other and we were so happy to see each other both experiencing that special moment, encouraging one another. That’s the thing about the jazz scene: You’ll meet people in passing many times over, but actually having a situation to sit and talk, those are few and far between. But when you do come together you get right to the point and you’re able to exchange a lot of things without having to say a lot of words.

She’s not afraid of taking chances. The singers that we love, that’s what they did. Sarah, Ella [Fitzgerald]. Betty [Carter], of course—the queen of taking chances. Every aspect of the voice was obtainable, whether it was the range, the phrasing, the timing, the rhythm, the timbre, the coloring, the play on the words and delivery. All of those things were used and every aspect of the human experience was channeled and expressed. It was more than just a nice voice singing the melody. It was art putting all those things together. I love my sister for doing that because that’s what this music is all about, artistry and life.

7. George Coleman Quintet

 
“I Got Rhythm” (In Baltimore, Reel to Real). Coleman, tenor saxophone; Danny Moore, trumpet; Albert Dailey, piano; Larry Ridley, bass; Harold White, drums. Recorded in 1971.

BEFORE: Wooooo! Yeah. [Listens intently] I want to say it’s George. He was doing some harmonic things that I recognized, and how he’s playing rhythm changes at that tempo. That’s what I love about his spirit. It’s like he set out the gate—gone. I could hear the rhythm section working, and I love that about George. He’s so strong with his time, even at fast tempos he’s just like a laser –straight shooter. It doesn’t matter if the music starts to feel like, “Oh shoot, we’re about to fall.” He’s just there, it’s a direct forward motion. Nothing moves him. It wouldn’t matter if the sky was falling.

Of course, I love the music he did with Miles but what he did on his own is amazing too. I think of him both as a sideman and a leader. I feel like he should be celebrated a lot more, because when it comes to modern playing on the saxophone harmonically, he was an innovator. A lot of what we hear today in modern jazz saxophone, he opened up that world for us. He’s one of my favorites and my hero.

AFTER: I knew it was rhythm changes but there you go, “I Got Rhythm.” I remember it was Antoine [Roney] who connected me with him and got me to fall in love with him. I was working on this transcription of George’s music. And he said, “Why don’t you meet him?” That was like saying, “You want to go meet Oprah? You want to go talk to God?” [Laughs] Antoine called him right then. “Hey George, I have a young lady here, she’s a great player, I’d love for you to meet her.”

I ended up going to Smoke to see George because I had a residency there for about two years on Wednesday nights with my band and he was playing one weekend. I saw his son George Jr. outside and he was like, “You’re Camille, right?” “Yeah, I’m Camille, you’re George Jr., but how do you know me?” He said he knew about me because I was a saxophone player and a scientist. I said, “I don’t practice science, but I do have a degree in geological and environmental science.” He said, “I was a chemistry major and I play drums.” We’re both science nerds and musicians, and we started talking. “I want to introduce you to my dad, I think he really needs to meet you.” So between George Jr. and Antoine, I got hooked up with George.

George ended up having me come over and he gave me this amazing lesson. He sat down at the piano and explained how he was thinking, which is like every musician’s dream. I could ask him, “How did you come up with that, or think about it that way?” I’m sitting with him and I remember feeling like I was about to float and go to heaven. It was just so surreal.

Another thing I love about George is his harmonic freedom, that anything and everything is up for grabs. Harmony is all about how you hear it and how you make it work. It’s not about playing what’s written, it’s about playing what can be and what could be there. That’s the biggest lesson I got from him. He just opened my mind and my ears to exploring everything and anything in the chord, outside the chord, revisualizing the progressions, figuring out how to get there, realizing there are rules but it’s really about how you make the rules work for you. 

8. Samara Joy
“Sophisticated Lady” (Live from Emmet’s Place – Vol. 46, YouTube video). Joy, vocal; Emmet Cohen, piano; Russell Hall, bass; Kyle Poole, drums. Recorded in 2021.

BEFORE: [Turns head away from screen, then immediately turns back after first line of lyric] I know that voice. First off, Samara’s voice is unique. It’s round and full with a very rich tone, similar to Lizz Wright but different because of how she shapes her phrases. I remember she was doing a lot of studying with Barry Harris, and when I saw that I was like, “Yes! You’re in the right place, mama, learning from Barry!” You can hear that she put her time in. 

Tone, control, understanding of the lyrics, and being able to sing the story. She has such a unique gift at such a very young age and I’m so happy that she’s doing what she’s doing. I remember when I first met her in high school and we talked for a little bit, and the next thing I knew she sent me an email saying, “Hey Camille, I got into Purchase College and I’m going to pursue singing as a major.” I was like, “YES! You should! You need to be there. People need to hear you.” Now to see this a couple of years later just makes my heart smile.

What about the way many musicians have been keeping in touch, performing online or producing series like Emmet’s Place?

It’s been uplifting because it shows the spirit of the jazz community. The community is very resilient—the musicians and the listeners. Jazz has been through many adversities throughout its history in this country, and the beautiful thing about this music is that in each era, it’s created its own soundtrack for the time. Right now we’re actively doing that using Zoom and other forms of technology despite us not physically being together. I mean, it’s never going to replace being in the same room and experiencing the sound surround you; to hear the sound hit the air and feel the hairs on the back of your neck go up from how a person phrases that melody or sings that note. For now, it’s a tool we can use to get the music to a wider audience.

I’m working on a virtual mentorship project that got started because of the pandemic. It’s called The Haven Hang and it’s a musician question-and-answer opportunity for young/early-career women musicians, giving them opportunities to hear from established artists sharing their insight on how they developed as artists and women. We’ve had Dianne Reeves, which was a dynamic session, sharing so many stories about Carmen McRae and Betty Carter. We’ve had Dee Dee Bridgewater, Terri Lyne Carrington, Bertha Hope, and many others. It’s been such a fun project to work on. Episodes are available to view on my YouTube channel.

9. Dayna Stephens
“Loosy Goosy” (Liberty, Contagious). Stephens, tenor saxophone; Ben Street, bass; Eric Harland, drums. Recorded in 2019.

BEFORE: Mmmmm! [Listens more] Mmmmm. Woooo! I love trio stuff, especially with tenor. It’s so exciting. I love the rhythmic play the tenor has with the drummer and the bassist, and how they’re able to use a combination of everything—rhythm, color, dynamics, time, but then also the “snakes.” It’s like an endless cat-and-mouse game. Or better yet, “boxing à la music,” I like to call it. The bass and the drums are just so interactive and imaginative. I love that about it.

As far as who the tenor player is, it sounds familiar but I can’t put my finger on who it is. Definitely recent. I would guess they spent some time checking out George and some Sonny. The tone is beautiful, and the control and the range too. I like this person! 

AFTER: Oh! I was thinking Dayna for a second but I heard Dayna on other stuff, and I was like, “No, it’s not him because it’s a little different from other things I’ve checked out.” “Loosy Goosy”—it’s a great title. I love Dayna. I’ve heard him through records and I haven’t seen him live lately, just stuff that I would hear and see online. He’s so creative and he’s so free, and you could hear that on this track. I love his playing! I’ve heard him on EWI too and, you know, I tried it at his house and I was like, “That’s okay—I’m good.” [Laughs]

Do you like stretching out with a small group or trio?

Aside from the big band, I actually work a lot with my own band, which is a quartet, and every now and then [drummer] Darrell [Green] will do trio too and it’s so much fun. Working in the big-band context is great, it’s a whole ’nother thing. You got a lot of moving parts and it’s all about how we’re moving together but then also being conscious of the ebb and flow of where you fit harmonically and rhythmically in time as it’s constantly moving and changing. But in a smaller group you have a little more freedom because you’re not one of five people representing one position. There’s a lot more flexibility with the role you can play in a small-group setting. Drums and bass is my thing.

10. Sarah Vaughan
“Nice Work If You Can Get It” (Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi, Columbia). Vaughan, vocals; Tony Scott, clarinet; Budd Johnson, tenor saxophone; Miles Davis, trumpet; Bennie Green, trombone; Mundell Lowe, electric guitar; Jimmy Jones, piano; Billy Taylor, Jr., bass; J.C. Heard, drums. Recorded in 1949.

BEFORE: Oh my lady!!! I love her. Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Hmmm. Uh-huh. There’s so much lyricism here, and what I love about Sarah is her take on melody. She leaves you on the edge of your seat because you don’t know how she’s going to sing it each time. Also her interaction with the band. That band was swinging, and you could hear from her phrasing she’s right on top of that beat and it leads to her being able to take creative chances rhythmically with how she sings the melody. And if she was feeling bubbly, you could hear it through how she sang. That’s what’s so beautiful about her, she’s not afraid to be herself through the music. And that trumpet solo, I want to say that’s Clifford [Brown], right? Is it Kenny [Dorham]? No, no, not Kenny. I’m stumped.

AFTER: Miles. Wow. I’m going to have to go back and listen to that and study that—shame on me. It’s pretty. Just so lyrical and the tone—the tone. I was thinking Clifford for a second because both him and Miles, their tone was just so beautiful and round and anything that they play, the lines would just float.

It’s amazing how well they complement each other on this track. When you’re doing both on the same song—singing and playing—how do you balance the two?

I remember the first time somebody asked me to do that, and I just did it. I was like, “Wow, that took so much focus because you’re working on your timing and you got execution going back and forth from the horn to the voice.” I was trading with myself, which was a whole other thing. Most of the time you’re singing a melody and then you play, or you just play the melody and then you sing. But I was actually going back and forth every four measures, which was really making me think. I guess it’s the discipline and how you practice executing the instrument and feeling time. Now I feel and see it all as one entity. It’s definitely a blessing because you really have to know the music and it forces you to learn the lyrics, to understand the harmony and also to listen to the band, not be afraid of being proactive, reactive, interactive, and at times the instigator. So even if I’m switching back and forth, I always am able to—bam!—be right there, come in and play as one person seamlessly switching from one instrument or role to the next.

So Camille on sax doesn’t get angry at Camille the singer for hogging the song.

[Laughs] No, not at all. 


ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER:

Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, journalist, producer, and professor. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, and has written books on two legendary recordings—Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane—as well as one book on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. He also co-authored the Carlos Santana autobiography The Universal Tone, and edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/18/817679491/camille-thurman-finds-her-voice-on-a-journey-to-jazz-at-lincoln-center 

Camille Thurman Finds Her Voice On A Journey To Jazz At Lincoln Center

by Sarah Kerson

From WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman.
Photo by Frank Stewart

As both a saxophonist and vocalist, Camille Thurman is a rare jazz double threat. She says "the horn is a voice, and the voice is a horn," and this consideration of the interconnectivity of her instruments informs her work as a performer, composer and educator.

On this segment of Jazz Night In America, we hear music from Thurman's band at Dizzy's Club, and parts of a performance with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in which she is the first woman to play a full season in 30 years.

We also explore the jazz history of her neighborhood in Queens, where Thurman grew up minutes from the former homes of jazz royalty like Count Basie, Fats Waller and Ella Fitzgerald.

Musicians:

Camille Thurman: vocals and tenor saxophone; Darrell Green: drums; Keith Brown: piano; Devin Starks: bass.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra: Wynton Marsalis: Artistic Director and trumpet; Chris Crenshaw: trombone; Vincent Gardner: trombone; Victor Goines: saxophone; Carlos Henriquez: bass; Sherman Irby: saxophone; Elliot Mason: trombone; Ted Nash: saxophone; Paul Nedzela: baritone saxophone; Dan Nimmer: piano; Marcus Printup: trumpet; Kenny Rampton: trumpet; Camille Thurman: tenor saxophone.

Credits:

Producer: Sarah Kerson; Senior Producer: Katie Simon; Host: Christian McBride; Project Manager: Suraya Mohamed; Music Engineers: Rob Macomber and James P. Nichols; Senior Director of NPR Music: Lauren Onkey; Executive Producers: Anya Grundmann and Gabrielle Armand.

AUDIO:  <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/817679491/817895798" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"></iframe>


https://harlemjazzboxx.com/camille-thurman/ 

Camille Thurman

Camille Thurman resting her saxophone on her shoulder.

Camille Thurman, multi-talented saxophonist, flutist, vocalist, composer, and educator, is a young musician emerging on the horizon, acquiring an impressive list of accomplishments that extend well beyond her years. Her lush, velvety, rich, & warm sound on the tenor saxophone has eluded others to compare her sound to the likeness of tenor greats Gene Ammons and Dexter Gordon to name a few.

Camille’s ability to sing 4 octaves and perform vocalese has given her the capability to influence audiences with melodies reminiscent to the sounds of Minnie Riperton, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. Camille was a runner up in the 2013 International Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition and twice won the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers award. Her quartet performed her compositions in the ASCAP/ Kennedy Center “Songwriters: The Next Generation” showcase and she has appeared on BET’s Black Girls Rock in Kim Burse’s All-Star Band. 

 

https://www.camillethurmanmusic.com/

Watch Them Play Live!

Jazz 24/7 Presents Camille Thurman 

Live at Fraser

December 3, 2019


December 17, 2019 – Camille Thurman is a gifted saxophonist who has been likened to tenor greats Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon. Her skills as a vocalist have generated comparisons to Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter. Camille and her band, the Darrell Green Trio, performed a concert at WGBH to a sold out audience in our Fraser Performance studio.


More about Camille Thurman: https://www.camillethurmanmusic.com/


https://chesky.com/pages/camille-thurman

The world of Jazz has been graced by many great female vocalists through the decades -- Ella Fitzgerald, Sara Vaughan, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, to name just a few. Chesky Records is excited to introduce a name we feel will one day be in their company...Camille Thurman. On her Chesky Records debut, Thurman shows her versatility with stunning performances on both saxophone and vocals.

The multi-talented Camille Thurman is an award-winning composer, a formidable saxophonist, and a second-place winner of the prestigious Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition. She has performed with artists ranging from Dr. Billy Taylor, George Coleman, Lew Tabackin, and George Benson, to Chaka Khan, Alicia Keys, and Missy Elliot. She recently made her Jazz at Lincoln Center debut during the Generations in Jazz Festival, leading a killer quartet as she sang, played, and showcased original compositions and some classics. She also recently gave an improvised scatting performance during Battle of the Big Bands that brought down the house in The Appel Room.

The inaugural release of the new Virtual Audio Series from Chesky Records, this album was recorded in front of a live audience at Rockwood Music Hall in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, using a single binaural microphone. This technique places the listener in the middle of a live show. If you didn't know any better, you'd swear you can smell the perfume of the young lady seated to your left.

 

Appears On

Quick links

Chesky Records

1650 Broadway, Suite 900

New York, NY 10019

(212) 586-7799

https://www.jazzspeaks.org/listen-camille-thurman-pursuit-with-a-purpose-excerpt/

Photo via http://camillethurmanmusic.com

The guitarist Russell Malone praises the reedist and vocalist Camille Thurman‘s “warm and beautiful sound.” In Russell’s words, Camille is “a creative improviser…with taste. Keep your ears on this young lady!” The pianist Luis Perdomo concurs, noting Camille’s “very versatile talent” and suggesting that she is one “to watch out for.” “Look out for this fresh new voice on the New York scene,” proclaims the saxophonist Tia Fuller, “As a saxophonist, flutist, vocalist and composer, Camille is versatile and deeply rooted in the tradition. Get ready world…Camille Thurman has it all.”

If you haven’t checked out Camille’s own groups yet, you may have heard her performing with one of the artists whose effusive praise you just read. Or perhaps you’ve seen her sharing the stage with elder statesmen like Dr. Billy Taylor, Benny Golson, or George Coleman, or backing up R&B and Hip-Hop stars like Alicia Keys, India Arie, Ciara, or Missy Elliott. One thing is certain: with the formidable combination of “gutbucket” (The Hartford Courant) tenor stylings and a four-octave vocal range, you’re likely to start hearing more about Camille very soon.

Camille is a native of Queens, New York. Her musical journey started with early lessons from memorizing and singing the music of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan, and other artists in her mother’s record collection. Camille added the flute and the saxophone to her arsenal in her early teens, and was performing professionally even while studying the geological and environmental sciences at Binghampton University. After graduating, Camille made the move to New York, where she is a regular member of the Nicholas Payton Television Studio Orchestra, the Mimi Jones Band, Charlie Persip and Supersound, the Valery Ponomarev Big Band, and the UMOJA Sextet. Her own quartet has performed around the country and around the globe.

We look forward to welcoming Camille’s quartet to our stage on Thursday as a part of our debut series. She’ll be joined by the pianist Shamie Royston, the bassist James Genus, and the drummer Rudy Royston. In the words of Rio Sakairi, our Director of Programming, “Don’t sleep on Camille Thurman. This girl is bad.”

Listen to a clip of Camille soloing on her original composition, “Pursuit With A Purpose.”

https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/t/ta-tn/camille-

Camille Thurman

 
Multi-talented saxophonist, flutist, vocalist, composer, and educator Camille Thurman is a young musician acquiring an impressive list of accomplishments that extend well beyond her years. Her lush sound on the tenor saxophone has eluded others to compare her to the likeness of tenor greats Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon. Her ability to sing four octaves and to perform vocalese allows her to influence audiences with melodies r iniscent to the sounds of Minnie Riperton, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. Ms. Thurman’s skills have garnered the respect of audiences beyond the United States, in countries such as Israel, Peru, Russia, and Switzerland. An accomplished performer and composer in her own right, Ms. Thurman has since performed with notable jazz and R&B icons Dr. Billy Taylor, Chaka Khan, George Col an, Benny Golson, Dianne Reeves, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, Patti LaBelle, George Benson, Alicia Keys, Eric Benet, Ciara, and Missy Elliot, among many others. She also leads her own quartet, which has since performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the International Women in Jazz Festival, the Tomsk International Jazz Festival, the Super Jazz Ashdod Israel Festival, and The Jazz Gallery, as well as other prominent jazz venues and festivals around the world. Ms. Thurman was a runner-up in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition and a two-time award-winning recipient of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award (2012 and 2013). She has appeared on BET’s Black Girls Rock as the saxophonist in the All StaR&Band led by music director Kim Burse (2012-2015). Her debut album ORIGINS—featuring LuiSemperdomo (piano), Rudy Royston (drums), Corcoran Holt (bass), Enoch Smith Jr. (piano), Brandee Younger (harp), and Shirazette Tinnin (drums and cajón) —was relased on the Hot Tone Music label, along with her second release Spirit Child.

https://blog.uvm.edu/tgcleary/2019/07/29/a-message-from-the-future-of-jazz-camille-thurman-and-her-solo-on-sassys-blues/

A message from the future of jazz: Camille Thurman and her solo on ‘Sassy’s Blues’ (The State of the Blues, part four)

July 29, 2019  
by tgcleary
 

(The title of this post is borrowed from a video narrated by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a figure whose achievements in the political world have more than a few parallels to Camille Thurman’s achievements in the jazz world.)

Camille Thurman is a groundbreaking jazz musician in more ways than one.  Along with a small number of younger players such as Bria Skonberg and Esperanza Spalding, she is reviving the tradition of the instrumentalist who is an equally adept and serious vocalist.  Although this tradition goes at least as far back in jazz history as Louis Armstrong, it has always been somewhat rare and seems to have all but died out around the bebop era, when (at least according to most historical accounts) the chief innovations in the music were occurring in the instrumental world, leading the separation between instrumental and vocal jazz music to became even more pronounced than during the swing era.  In an NPR interview, Thurman mentions she was shocked to discover that Sarah Vaughan’s considerable skills as a pianist remained a secret during most of her vocal career:  “I remember when I first found out Sarah Vaughan was a pianist and it blew my mind away…I was like, ‘How can you just put one part of a person or an artist’s gift out there when there’s a whole person?”  (Although Vaughan was originally hired as a second pianist in the Earl Hines big band, her piano skills stayed largely out of sight during most of her vocal career.  It was only in her later years that she revealed her piano skills in live concerts such as this one and the Marian McPartland show which can be heard by clicking on Vaughan’s name above.)

As one can see by listening to Thurman’s solo on ‘Sassy’s Blues’ from her album ‘Inside The Moment’ (my transcription of the first two choruses is posted below with her permission), she is a masterful improviser who demonstrates both a deep knowledge of jazz melodic language and the ability to make it her own.  Her ability to begin phrases on the upbeat, as well as her ability to ‘make the changes’ in her solo locate her melodic language firmly within the bebop idiom. Her ability to lend an instrumental quality to her scatting and the range of syllables she chooses both give the solo a distinctly modern flair. 

In the NPR interview I mentioned above, Thurman explains that while she has been singing informally since she was a child, she began to get more serious about singing when she found it a helpful way to learn saxophone parts (during a time in her life when she received a scholarship that required her to play the saxophone.)  Each of her three albums gives a slightly different answer to the question of whether she identifies more as a vocalist or an instrumentalist; while ‘Origins’ and ‘Inside The Moment’ contain mostly instrumental pieces with the occasional vocal feature, last year’s ‘Waiting For The Sunrise’ highlights her singing on most tunes, although on many tracks Thurman alternates with seeming effortlessness between playing and singing.  This remarkable feat, combined with the album’s ballad-heavy tune choices, makes it reminiscent of the classic ‘John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman’ album, but with the two masterful soloists rolled into one performer.   (Perhaps the most succinct demonstration of Thurman’s ability to alternate between the two skills is an astonishing ‘There Will Never Be Another You’ from 2013.)  I hope that Thurman might be a model for a new kind of jazz student, one who rejects the false choice between playing an instrument or singing and instead realizes that if one can develop both these skills, they can powerfully support and strengthen one another (regardless of whether or not one’s goal is to be a multi-instrumentalist.) I also hope that the increasing and increasingly visible ranks of professional female jazz instrumentalists, younger players such as Thurman, Spalding, Skonberg, Helen Sung, Linda May Han Oh and Tia Fuller as well as veterans such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Joanne Brackeen, and Jane Ira Bloom will lead aspiring female instrumentalists to stay in the game despite so many jazz scenes being male-dominated. The recently founded Women In Jazz Organization is also an important development in the jazz education scene. It is crucial that role models for female instrumentalists remain visible in the versions of the jazz world projected by the media and by educators because, as Marian Wright Edelman said, ‘It’s Hard To Be What You Can’t See.’ (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives her own version of this statement in the video mentioned above.)

Over the past year, Thurman has made a particularly momentous and groundbreaking move; she has been appearing regularly as a tenor saxophonist and vocalist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, a group in which female instrumentalists have been historically and inexplicably absent from the roster of permanent players.  As her website biography relates, she has become ‘the first woman in 30 years to work an entire season with the world-renowned orchestra (2018-2019).’  This careful wording manages to avoid mentioning that the group has never had a female player among its regular lineup.  The group’s website mentions that it includes ‘15 of the finest soloists, ensemble players, and arrangers in jazz music today’, and many, myself included, would go further to say that it has been the leading jazz big band in the country since its inception.  In its sense of prominence and mission, including its educational work in the Essentially Ellington competition, as well as a diplomatic functions representing the U.S. in performances around the world, the JALCO is a kind of jazz parallel to the U.S. Congress.  As recently as last year, however, trumpeter Ellen Seeling, chair of the advocacy group Jazzwomen & Girls Advocates, was quoted as saying of the band that ‘“They travel the world and have for years, sending the message that there are no women good enough to be in this organization.”  In light of the JALCO’s well-earned and deserved prominence, as well as the challenge it has had with including female musicians, Thurman’s breakthrough makes her a kind of jazz parallel to both Jeanette Rankin, the senate’s first female member, and Shirley Chisholm, its first African-American female member. (Strangely, despite having played more than a season at this point with the band, Thurman is still not listed on the JALCO website among either their regular members or on their list of substitute players.)

I am a longtime fan of the JALCO and its musical director, Wynton Marsalis.  I have seen the full band twice in concert, seen Marsalis’ small group live, listened to them many more times on recordings, and have used the excellent scores from the Essentially Ellington competition with many student bands I’ve led.  In an earlier blog post, I transcribed a characteristically ingenious solo Marsalis took on ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’ during his commencement speech at UVM in 2013.  I’ve also experienced Marsalis’ legendary resistance to recognizing the talent of female instrumentalists firsthand.  When a female student of mine asked him in a question and answer session at UVM around 2005 whether the quality of female jazz players in general was improving, his answer began with silent head-shaking, which was followed with a short verbal answer that boiled down to ‘No.’ 

In a Village Voice article published earlier in the decade, Marsalis’ response was somewhat more hopeful.  The article, written in 2000 by Lara Paragrenelli, first acknowledges that ‘The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra… has never had a female member’ and then goes on to quote Marsalis (I have included Paragrenelli’s interstitial comments as well): “ “I hire orchestra members on the basis of merit,” says artistic director Wynton Marsalis, implying women do not yet make the grade. “The more women we have playing jazz, the higher the level of playing gets, the more they audition, and the more women are going to be all over. It will be just like classical music.” Marsalis also cites slow turnover in the band of 15, limiting the availability of positions.”  Paragrenelli goes on to quote historian Sherrie Tucker, author of Swing Shift: All-Girl Bands of the 1940s, who tells her that “The argument that women will eventually be good enough is very old.”

I have been thrilled and enlightened for many years by the sound of the JALCO’s performances, but in recent years I’ve increasingly noticed how it is full of age and culture diversity, symbolizes hope and excellence to many, and yet doesn’t include qualified women among its regular members, as one would expect from such a representative body.  To have noticed this imbalance, and then to see the footage on Marsalis’ website of a performance including Thurman from earlier this year, alongside the National Symphony Orchestra of Romania, carries for me a taste of the thrill humans worldwide must have felt seeing Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon in 1969.  The contrast between the Romanian group, which includes female players in every section, including multiple women among the woodwinds, and the JALCO with its single female member, dramatizes how the most recognized U.S. jazz group is just beginning to catch up to representative organizations in many fields in its gender diversity.  Marsalis and the JALCO deserve long and loud accolades for finally recognizing in a prominent way the deep well of female instrumental jazz talent that has been in existence for many years. Here’s hoping that it is a sign of many more such changes yet to come.  


Interview: Camille Thurman on super groups and this month at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

Camille Thurman

News | February 8 2016

This month, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Colafavorite Camille Thurman will be hosting the Late Night Session every Thursday and Saturday night. We sat down with the talented saxophonist and vocalist—a runner-up in the 2013 International Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition and two-time recipient of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers award—to learn about her time travel dreams, her all-time favorite jazz line-ups, and the mystical relationship between music and nature.

Jazz at Lincoln Center: What’s your most memorable performance?

Camille Thurman: Performing with the great Jon Hendricks of Hendricks, Lambert and Ross. I was floating the whole time because here I was scatting with one of the legends and each moment and phrase he sang had me on the edge. I was making music with Jon and I felt at home instantly.

JALC: You studied geological & environmental sciences in college. Does nature inspire your music? 

CT: Nature does inspire my music. When I was a child I used to listen to the radio and visualize the pitch of songs to the nature I would see around me at different times of the day or seasons; the sky and its color, the trees, the sun. Geological processes that occur in nature are similar to things we experience in life and music is about life; there are ebbs and flows, earthquakes, moments of calmness or eruptions in nature.

JALC: What’s the most fulfilling part of your job?

CT: The most fulfilling part of doing what I love is being greeted by audience members after a show and them telling me I touched their heart through my performance. Some people even approached me and said I made them cry tears of joy. That's what makes it so worth it!

JALC: Which acts this month at Jazz at Lincoln Center are you most excited to see?

CT: Freddy Coleat Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, the Christian McBride Big Bandin Rose Theater, and the Music of Dexter Gordon: A Celebrationat Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola.

JALC: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

CT: Sometimes it's okay to say no. You can't do everything. Some opportunities come and they're great and you may be 100% prepared for them but if it's not the right time or you feel in your heart that it is not where you need to be at that moment.

JALC: If you could live in any era of jazz, which would it be and why?

CT: I would live in the mid-50s to the mid-60s. I would love to have seen Sarah Vaughan, the Miles Davis Quintet, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Nina Simone, and Ella Fitzgerald perform. To experience their sound in person, in a live setting, would be amazing! 

JALC: Is there an album that changed your life or had a big impact on you?

CT: Dexter Gordon's Gowas the first jazz album I ever heard and his sound inspired me to want to play the tenor saxophone. I was a teenager playing the tenor and was trying to figure out if this was something I wanted to do. When I heard his sound I heard strength, freedom, confidence, joy, and someone that was bigger than life. He inspired me and I knew from the moment I heard him I wanted to chase after playing like that! 

JALC: If you could form a supergroup of five musicians (alive or dead), who would be in it?

CT: Ahmad Jamal, Buster Williams, Lenny White, Sarah Vaughan, and George Coleman.

Camille will be hosting the Late Night Session every Thursday and Saturday this February at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola; doors open at 11:15pm. Artists include:



THE MUSIC OF CAMILLE THURMAN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH CAMILLE THURMAN:





 

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