The most extreme example I can think of is The Essential Miles Davis, a two CD retrospective from Columbia a few years back. Given the length and breadth of his career and artistry, any collection that includes the modal jazz of Kind of Blue, experimental quintet work of Sorcerer and the fusion of Bitches Brew cannot allow someone to truly understand his music. Think of it as the Blind Men and the Elephant for music - whatever track you hear gives you a picture of what an artist is like, and it inevitably fails to give an accurate one.

Two of our finest female singers have released compilation CDs that for the msot part, succeed in showing off their artistry. By Request: The Very Best of Karrin Allyson draws on ten of her albums, along with a previously unreleased gem. Many of these were "theme albums", whether it was taking the music of Brazil, or covering blues, standards or Coltrane's Ballads.  As a result, each one of those releases served as a self-contained offering by the singer expressing her artistry at that moment. Here, the tracks are merely selections on the compilations, and while they are without exception fine recordings, you can't help but feel that the singer is better represented by the original CD as a whole.

Footprints was one of Ms. Allyson's best CDs, as she took isntrumental jazz classics and had lyrics added to the tunes. "Next Time Around(Soultrane)", is a Tadd Dameron composition that couldn't get cleared for inclusion on Footprints, but now serves as a terrific example of how talented singers can take memorable tunes and with the assistance of lyricists like collaborator Chris Caswell, being new and even deeper feeling to the piece. Click here to listen to her lyrics added to Duke Jordan's "Jordu", in a new version entittled "Life is a Groove".

Cassandra Wilson often peppers her albums with stripped down, reimagined version of rock classics. With Closer to You: The Pop Side, she collects eleven of those songs from six of her prior albums. Ms. Wilson has become perhaps our finest interpreter of popular songs today, and her versions of songs by the Monkees ("Last Train to Clarksville"), U2 ("Love is Blindness") and The Band ("The Weight") attempt to recreate songs that may have become jukebox favorites. As a result, this CD succeeds where many other compilations fail, since it creates a thematic whole.

Two songs on the CD, "Harvest Moon" and "Tupelo Honey", are among the strongest ballads written by Neil Young and Van Morrison, respectively. Ms. Wilson manages to make them very much her own, particularly the latter, stripping away any excess and leaving only her voice, Brandon Ross' steel guitar, Lonnie Plaxico's bass and percussion from Kevin Johnson and Lance Carter to carry the song. Charlie Burnham's violin plays the familiar beginning and adds tension on the instrumental breaks, but its the spareness of the arrangement, and Ms. Wilson's desky vocal, that makes it so memorable.

Kurt Elling is that bold, however, and we are the luckier for it. The rich baritoned singer from Chicago, backed by strings and his longtime piano playing partner Laurence Hobgood, has shown with Dedicated to You that it is possible to record music associated closely with another artist, and turn it into your own.

 All six tracks that graced the orginal album are performed here, along with a five songs recorded by Coltrane on his classic 1962 album Ballads. The material is perfect for Elling, a master of using all aspects of his range to bring across a song, sometimes in one phrase. His version of "Lush Life", for example, takes a slighter slower pace than the original, and stretches out some words, while moving from lower to upper range in one line, all to great dramatic effect. Hopgood's piano is also worth noting here, deviating from the more traditional approach McCoy Tyner took forty-five years ago.

Elling tells the story of the sessions in his poem "A Poetic Jazz  Memory", which merges with "It's Easy to Remember". This serves to set the scene extremely well, and reminds us how grat art can appear when we least expect it, when talent, material and timing all merge.

The string section adds much to the material as well. From the pizzicato opening to the title track, or the coloring added to "Lush Life" and especially "My One and Only Love", these arrangements swirl around Elling and show another side to the familiar material. Only the Coltrane quartet backed Hartman on the original. 

Ernie Watts joins Elling on saxophone, and while his playing is more than acceptable, he plays it far too safe to stand in Trane's shoes. The sole instrumental on the album, "What's New", gives Watts a chance to show his stuff, but he never really shows the kind of playing he contribtued to Charlie Haden's Quartet West.

Dedicated to You won't ever replace the warmth and intimacy that John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman still bring every time it's played, but it doesn't try to. Instead, it joins CD's like Karrin Allyson's Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane and Branford Marsalis' Coltrane's A Love Supreme as current artists winningly taking the classic music of John Coltrane and making of it not only tribute, but triumph.

Kind of Brown  (a tip of the cap to his mentor Ray Brown) finds McBride back on his acoustic bass, playing as part of a quintet called Inside Straight. It's a winning hand, primarily due to the high quality of his collaborators and seven strong McBride compositions.

Drummer Carl Allen teams seemlessly with bassist McBride, creating a rhythm section that can keep the time with the best, but doesn't hesitate to step out and take control as well. Listen to McBride's solo on "Rainbow Wheel" to see that he can play the upright bass with the best.

Saxophonist Steve Wilson lends a warm sound to tracks like "Starbeam" and really stretches out on Freddie Hubbard's "Theme for Kareem". I'm a huge vibes fan, so its great to see McBride incorporating Warren Wolf, Jr. into the band. He contributes a lightning solo to "Kareem", and a tasteful run on pianist Eric Scott Reed's composition "Pursuit of Peace". The lilting "Uncle James" shows that Wilson and Wolf and slow it down as well, contributing tasty sounds to the piece.

McBride was wise to tap Reed for his pianist bench. A veteran of Wynton Marsalis and Freddie Hubbard's bands, he is a great foil for McBride, weaving in and around the bass player here and there.

 In short, Kind of Brown is the kind of CD that reminds us why we like acoustic jazz - its short on bombast, long on style and substance. With Inside Straight, Christian McBride has reclaimed his position as one of our finest upright bass players.

Day One of the 32^nd annual Freihoferâs Jazz Festival in Saratoga Springs, New York may have been married by passing showers, but the weather didnât seem to dampen the spirits of the enthusiastic crowd the filled the rolling grounds of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (âSPACâ). Producer Don Melnick clearly had diversity as one of the hallmarks of the show that day, and the crowds were treated to two stages of the many facets of jazz music.

From Brazilian to Latin Jazz, Acoustic to Electric sounds, and veteran and new faces, the talent roster was impressive. As in previous years, a main Stage in the large amphitheatre and a Gazebo Stage across the park allowed both current stars and up and coming talent to perform.  It was a sumptuous musical buffet, and the hungry jazz fans were feasting all day.

As with any buffet, not all the offerings are going to be at the gourmet level, Kendra Shankâs early set suffered from the large main stage setting; she performed a more intimate set later in the day on the gazebo stage. Mark Morganelliâs Jazz Forum Project Brazil played a solid if unspectacular set of Tom Jobim covers, gaining some needed lift when vocalist Monica Olivera guested on vocals.

The mid-afternoon music made the day truly memorable, 80 year old Jimmy Cobb was nothing less than sensational as he gathered an all0star group to create the âSo What Bandâ and salute the 50^th anniversary of Miles Davisâ modal jazz classic Kind of Blue. Trumpeter Wallace Roney seemed prepared to channel the spirit of Miles, taking the stage clad in a natty large pattered lapel less jacket and shades that recalled late period Davis. Roney has been called upon by Herbie Hancock to play Milesâ parts in a 1992 concert reuniting the Second Great Quintet, so there could be little doubt about his ability to tackle the material. Roney wisely chose not to mimic the muted notes and minimalistic solos of the 1959 recording note for note, instead bringing new and exciting tones to familiar material.

 Javon Jackson and Vincent Herring had the task of taking spots occupied by John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly, respectively, but more than held their own, with Herringâs solos particularly notable. The fire of the band came from pianist Larry Willis, whose energetic chords and forceful solos pushed songs like âAll Bluesâ and âFreddie Freeloaderâ up and onward. Each song earned a standing ovation. Cobb is the sole living member of the band from those famous sessions, and the band set him up for a furious solo to end the set. They left the stage with the audience begging for more.

 The crowd didnât get an encore, but they did get Gary Burtonâs much ballyhooed Quartet reunion, featuring guitar ace Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow and Antonio Sanchez. Playing songs from their stellar new live album; the band was in peak form on up-tempo numbers like âSea Journeyâ and Methenyâs âQuestion and Answerâ. Burton continues to wield his four mallets like a wizard, whether on the ballad âCoralâ or Steve Swallowâs intricate âFalling Rainâ.

Latin Jazz too often gets overlooked in major festivals, but a real coup was achieved by grabbing the Grammy-winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra before they headed off on their European tour. The band is a dozen strong, with a percussion section to match any in the business, and they had the crowd up and dancing, providing some needed hip-shaking to the soggy early evening.

Regrettably, the closing acts couldnât match the groupâs fire. The Stanley Clarke-Marcus Miller-Victor Wooten bass troika known as SMV proved to be a better idea on record than on stage. The CD Thunder allowed for overdubs and production detail, but performing live, they were backed only by keyboard and drums. Miller surprised the crowd with his sax solo on âWhen I Fall In Loveâ and bass clarinet on âTutuâ, but for the most part, their set seemed an exercise in bass-head flash. I must concede that it is unlikely I will see this many masters showing off their tricks and talents on one stage again, too often the feeling was of a series of master classes or private âcutting sessionsâ than a group performance of any real soul or grit.

Patti LaBelle, who closed the evening, showed soul and grit to spare, but her performance was sadly lacking in well-thought out and detailed presentation. She sadly seemed to take the Las Vegas approach of dripping a verse here and allowing a backup singer to take her leader there. âLady Marmaladeâ was cut unforgivably short for audience participation shenanigans. A medley of âWhen You Wish Upon a Starâ and âOver the Rainbowâ ended her set with real feeling, but I couldnât help but feel that Miss Patti had more with which to leave us.

It's not easy to separate the public persona and acts performed by an artist from his work, but in considering Michael Jackson, I think its imperative. Poets like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound (and I am NOT comparing their work to Jacko's in any way) were a blatant anti-semite and fascist supporter, respectively, and yet their art will live forever and holds a special place in my heart. So I would prefer to remember his prepubescent enthusiasm and his days as a moonwalking megastar to the horrors of the last fifteen years, when he became a world-wide punchline and then, pariah.

The writer Greil Marcus used a quote from a William Carlos William poem in reference to Elvis Presley that I think serves Jackson well - "The pure products of America go crazy." An appropriate epitaph.

A Jazz Salute to Michael Jackson includes the following songs associated with the Jackson Five or Jackson's solo career:

Charles Earland - "Never Can Say Goodbye" from Funk Fantastique.

Lou Donaldson - "I'll Be There" from Cosmos.

Ramsey Lewis - "She's Out of My Life" from Three Piece Suite.

Miles Davis - "Human Nature" from The Complete Miles Davis at Montreaux.

Stanley Jordan - "Lady In My Life" from Stolen Moments.

Susan Wong - "Billie Jean" from 511.

Podcast 149 has just some of the performers I'll get to see, both up and coming acts and certified legends like:

Kendra Shank Quartet - "Life's Mosaic" from Mosaic. I've had her CD for several months now, and for no good reason haven't given you a taste of it. Kendra tackles standards with finesse and confidence, finding new and exciting ways to make the listener take notice of old chestnuts. She subtly links tunes for medleys, with her "Reflections in Blue" perfectly connecting to Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies". This track is a Cedar Walton tune, and Kendra is backed by Frank Kimbrough on piano, Dean Johnson on bass, and Tony Moreno on drums. Guest appearances are made by Bill Drewes on saxophone and clarinet, and Ben Monder on guitar.

Gary Burton Quartet Revisited with Pat Metheny - "Walter L" from Quartet Live.  You've heard a lot about this one here already, so let's jsut say that this is a Gary Burton original written for the first guitar player he ever worked with, Walter L. "Hank" Garland. The band? Burton on vibes, Pat Metheny on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums.

SMV - Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten - "Tutu" from Thunder. If the Jeopardy! answer is "Thunder", then the question must be, "What do you get if you put three three bass giants on stage together?" This should be a real crowd pleaser. The song was written by Miller for Miles Davis, and features him on bass clarinet, saxophone and synthesizers along with bass.

Aaron Parks - "Karma" from Invisible Cinema.  A track from a welcome new piano player's debut album. He's been a key playerin Terence Blanchard's quintet, now setting out with his own band - Matt Penman on bass, Mike Moreno on guitar, and Eric Harland on drums.

Bonerama - "Hard Times" (single). A New Orleans export that takes calls itself "brass funk rock"; I call it a good time. No fewer than four trombone players make up the band, including Mark Mullins,
Craig Klein, Steve Suter, and Greg Hicks. Matt Perrine on tuba, Bert Cotton on guitar, and Eric Bolivar on drums round out the band.

Bettye LaVette - "You Don't Know Me At All" from The Scene of the Crime. One of the best stories of the past few years was the resurrection of the career of blues/soul singer Bettye LaVette. A veteran of 1960's "Northern Soul" movement, she came back with a vengeance in 2005. This track comes from her most recent album, which finds her backed up by southern rockers the  Drive-By Truckers.

George Benson - "Nature Boy" from In Flight. Benson will perform a tribute to Nat "King" Cole to end the festival Sunday night. Therefore, it seemed appropriate to go back 30 years ago for this Cole classic. The band includes Benson on guitar and vocals, Stanley Banks on bass, Jorge Dalton on keyboards,  and Harvey Mason and Ralph MacDonald on drums and percussion.

Mark Morganelli began presenting concerts in his first Jazz Forum loft at 50 Cooper Square in June 1979. By the time the second Jazz Forum loft closed its doors in April 1983, recordings, videos, films and radio broadcasts had documented performances by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Woody Shaw, Red Rodney, Carmen McRae, Barry Harris, Max Roach and others.

Mark Morganelli established the Jazz Forum at 50 Cooper Square in New York City's East Village in June of 1979 to provide opportunities for emerging and established artists and their groups to perform in a relaxed loft-setting. He emphasized jazz education by renting his loft to Detroit piano icon Barry Harris, whose legendary classes grew from 25 to 150 students every Monday night for three years, before Dr. Harris relocated to his own Jazz Cultural Theatre. Weekly large ensemble presentations of Chuck Israel's National Jazz Ensemble, Jaki Byard's Apollo Stompers, and Charli Persip's Superband also happened at the Jazz Forum. There were also weekly jam sessions led by drummer Jo Jones, Jr. During the period when the second Jazz Forum operated at 648 Broadway at Bleecker Street, from 1981 to 1983, the loft played host to many benefits for ailing musicians, several National Public Radio broadcasts, a few celebrated recordings, and the award-winning film "Music In Monk Time," featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Milt Jackson, and Jon Hendricks

Deane Kincaide's Band - "Take a Tip From Father" from Classic Capital Jazz Sessions. This 12 disc compilation includes selections from Big Bands well-known (Benny Carter, Cottie Williams, Bobby Hackett) and less known, like this track. Kincaide was primarily known not as a leader, but as a member of the Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Woody Herman Big Band. Recorded in 1950, and unissued until the compilation came out on Mosaic Records, it's chock full of good advice.

Abbey Lincoln - "Story of My Father" from Devil's Got My Tongue. Abbey both wrote and sings this tale from her highly personal 1992 Verve album. Lincoln said that she composed the song because there were a few things she still needed to write down and to say. "It is like a letter to my mother and my father to say to them, 'Listen I really got it, I really appreciate all you did to help me to live,'" she says. "In a way, it's a monument to myself." Among those given credits are J.J. Johnson on trombone, Max Roach on drums, and Babatunde Olatunji on percussion. 

Stanley Clarke - "Father and Son" from At the Movies.  This 1995 collection of material from the bass ace's movie soundtracks includes this short but sweet piece from John Singleton's film Boyz n' the Hood. 

Lydia Allen - "Song For My Father" and Horace Silver - Title Track from Song For My Father.  A vocal version followed by the classic 1964 Blue Note version by the "Hard Bop Grandpop". Personnel for the instrumental are Horace Silver on piano, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Joe Henderson on sax, Teddy Smith on bass and Roger Humphries on drums.

Dave Valentin - "Danzon for My Father" from Tropic Heat.  Flutist Valentin suplemented his quartet of pianist Bill O'Connell, bassist Lincoln Goines, and drummer Robbie Ameen with extra percussionist and a horn section, with the result being this dynamic tribute to his Dad.

So let's celebrate this day with the appropriately titled song "Summer Solstice", the title track from saxophonist Azar Lawrence. Lawrence has been  unjustly ignored in recent years, given his strong  background. Beginning at the age of 19, he has been supporting acts as diverse as Woody Shaw (he played on "The Moontrane"), War, Earth,Wind & Fire and Ike & Tina Turner. He played sax for Elvin Jones for two years, and was part of McCoy Tyner's band for another five years.

His most notable recording as a sideman came when he was chosen by Miles Davis to perform with his band at Carnegie Hall, concerts that would eventually be released on album as Dark Magus.

As a leader, Lawrence has released six albums, most notably his tribute album to John Coltrane in 2007, Legacy and Music of John Coltrane. Lawrence and his quartet will concentrate on that material when he performs on the closing evening of the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz July 19, 2009.

Playing mostly material included on their live reunion CD recorded last year, Burton, Metheney, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Antionio Sanchez never failed to dazzle, deftly integrating Burton's vibes and Metheney's familiar upper register guitar for a sound that could swing, bounce, rock or float, depednign upon the mood and song.

Burton was in fine form, wielding his four mallets in his inimitable style. As Metheney commented, Burton's great virtues are not limited to his viruosity on the vibes, but include an unerring sense of what tuens to include in the set. The Quartet inclued material written by Carla Bley("Olhos del Gato"), Chick Corea ("Sea Journey"), and Keith Jarrett (a moving "Coral"), along with their own compositons. Particularly memorable were Metheney's rousing "Question and Answer", which showed off the guitarist's fiery side,  and Swallow's playful "Hullo, Bolinas".

The show reached an unexpected highlight when Swallow and Sanchez laid out for three songs. Metheney and Burton dueted on two acoustic numbers, including "Summertime", before returning to an electric sound. Metheney even trotted out a 42-string multiplenecked guitar that created a sound recalling Burton's collaborations with guitarist Ralph Towner.

Sanchez is too young to remember the first recordings made by the Quartet in the early 1970's, but he held his own with the three veterans, filling in spaces with rhythm, and letting loose with two drum solos that elicited a loud response from the crowd and beaming smiles from his bandmates.

The crowd demanded encores, and the Quartet obliged with two uptempo numbers that ended the evening on a high note. The Quartet is off on the Festival circuit for the summer, so don't miss this rare opportunity to see a reunion that is far more than mere nostalgia.

Pero has studied with Wynton Marsalis at Juilliard, and he plays a Monette trumpet that was a gift from his teacher. He's cut his teeth at the Rochester Philharmonic, and playing with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band.

This is his debut CD, and its an impressive one. Click here to listen to his version of "Blue Rondo", a tune familiar to Dave Brubeck fans. Pero is on trumpet, with Adam Nussbaum on drums, Andy Snitzer on tenor sax, Artie Reynolds on bass, Paul Livant on guitar and Peter Firsh on piano.

Jaimoeâs Jasssz Band features as its core Jaimoe on drums, Junior Mack on guitar and vocals, Dave Stoltz on bass, and Mathais Schuber on keyboards. A rotating series of some of the finest horn players of our time, including Jay Collins, Frank Kozyra, Paul Lieberman, Kris Jensen and Richard Boulger, have joined the band from gig to gig.

The Jasssz band plays the Majestic Theater at nearby West Springfield on Saturday night, June 20, 2009. To get you in the mood for what will surely be a memorable night, click here to listen to the jazz classic "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise". The track opened up a concert dedicated to the memory of the legendary jazz drummer Ed Blackwell in 2007. The CD is available here. 

Another reason the original film was memorable was its soundtrack, which has been described by Allmusic.com as "one of the best and most inventive thriller scores of the 1970s". Written by veteran film composter David Shire ("Norma Rae", "The Conversation", "Farewell, My Lovely" and most recently "Zodiac"), the score was heavily polyrhythmic, with horn sections building tension and delivering payoffs to drive along the action. Shire utilized the 12-tone method of composition, a technique devised by Arnold Schoenberg in the early 20th century in a theme is created by using 12 pitches in a specific order, and then other theems are created by playing that "row" backwards, upside-down, backwards and upside-down, or transposed.  Click here to listen to the "Main Title", a good example of the overall soundtrack.

 Unfortunately, the new film reportedly has abandoned any attempt to rewrite or pay homage to the original score, relying on Rap Music ("99 Problems" by Jay-Z or Alternative Rock (A Perfect Circle) for a more contemporary sound. Imagine if a Christian McBride, Terence Blanchard or even the hip-hop influenced D.J. Logic could have been brought in to re-image this classic score!

Posted today is a recording of an FM radio broadcast on March 1, 2009 from Paris, France of a LâOrchestre National De Jazz tribute to Billie Holiday on the 50th anniversary of her death. The recording, entitled Broadway in Satin: Billie Holiday Revisited, features many of the songs Holiday made famous, including Karen Lanaud singing "Skylark" and Ian Siegel channeling TomWaits doing "Solitude".

As the notes on the recording indicate:

For the 50th anniversary of Billie Holidayâs death, Daniel Yvinecâs LâOrchestre National Du Jazz had Alban Darche compose new arrangements for Holidayâs classic songs. So "Skylark" is given an Asian flavour in the instrumental colours of Chinese cymbals and gongs, while "Youâve Changed" and "God Bless the Child" are given avant-garde arrangements.

Visit the posting here.

Burton has always had a strong proclivity for working with guitarists. His 1967 album Duster was arguably the first jazz fusion album, powered by a young Larry Coryell on guitar. That group included bassist Steve Swallow and Roy Haynes on drums. Bob Moses replaced Haynes from the follow-up Lofty Fake Anagram, and the original quartetâs final studio album, A Genuine Tong Funeral (featuring the compositions of Carla Bley) completed 16 months of epic recording. After the release of a quartet live album, Coryell would go on to work with Herbie Mann, and then establish a seminal jazz-rock band, the Eleventh House. Burton went in different directions, making duet and trio albums with Chick Corea, Ralph Towner, Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley and Swallow.

Burton returned to the quartet setting with the new quartet of 1973, composed of guitarist Mick Goodrick, bassist Abraham Laboriel and drummer Harry Blazerc. However, Burton soon tapped one of his Berklee students,  19-year old guitarist Pat Metheny to work with, and then replace, Goodrick. This would be the start of a 35-year musical friendship between the vibist and guitarist that continues today.

Podcast 147 traces the history of the Burton-Metheney collaboration with selections from several of their releases, including:

âThe Colours of Chloeâ from Ring, featuring bassist Eberhard Weber along with Swallow.

âVox Humanaâ from Dreams So Real. An album of Carla Bley compostions.

âB and G (Midwestern Night's Dream)â from Passengers. Future PMG drummer Danny Gottlieb joined the Burton group for this song.

âB and G (Midwestern Night's Dream)â from Quartet Live! A different reading of a Metheney composition.

âQuestion and Answerâ from Quartet Live! One of my favorite Metheney compositions, originally heard on his collaboration with Roy Haynes and Dave Holland.

Arriving on the New York scene in 1977, Lisa began collaborating with bassist William Parker, a collaboration that continues to this day.  She was also was heard regularly with pianists Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb in the days of Studio Henry.  Over the years she has worked with many new music and jazz notables including Cecil Taylor, Rashid Ali, Gerry Hemingway, Hilton Ruiz, and Jim McNeely.

Sokolov is the originator of the method of Embodied VoiceWork, a vocal improvisation method which she teaches at The Experimental Theater Wing at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts where she is a full professor.  She was also on the faculty of The Graduate Program of Music Therapy at NYU for ten years.   In case all that is not enough, her work as a lay cantor has been featured in A CBS Special, "Sacred Art; Ancient Voices."

While she is not well known in best-selling jazz circles, her past albums Angel Rodeo, Lazy Afternoon and Presence have all received Best CD of the Year citations and press kudos. DownBeat magazine gave Presence a rare rating of 5 stars, along with Best New Release of 2004. Their 2005 critics poll adds Sokolov onto their âRising Starâ vocalist  list.

Her latest album, A Quiet Thing, (Laughing Horse Records) was released last week, and I got a chance to speak with her about the new CD, her upcoming appearance at New Yorkâs Vision Jazz Festival and how she picks her material, from âOlâ Man Riverâ to âKol Nidreâ.