Harvey Thompson “Love’s Just Funny That Way”

"Love’s Just Funny That Way"
(2003)
    
Harvey Thompson’s lush baritone is a great asset to the Japanese jazz community. His latest release recorded this year in Japan presents standards with freshness and verve. He knows that interpreting classics is best done with a lack of pretence. He unfurls these standards with clarity and confidence. Thompson is unafraid to sing with natural directness, and anyway, he needs no technical or emotional tricks. His voice is enough. It wraps you inside its human warmth. Besides hitting all his notes with an unassuming potency, he draws the lines out with a deep sense of the overall flow of the melody.

His band gives him excellent support, always in the right spot and never in the way. Their tight ensemble backing allows Thompson to add the internal pushes and pulls that draw out maximum value from each of the melodies. The phrasing is simply beautiful. The range is also appealingly balanced, with a gracefulness of tempo. “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams” sways with a slow, sultry motion, while “Just One of Those Things” bounces forward with hip authority. “Waltz For Debby” is delivered with a lovely sense of time, drawing the words out over the 3/4 beat with longing and technique.

The gratifying directness of every tune, they are all strong in their own way, reveals a wonderful interaction between all members of the band and a deep feeling for the essentials of jazz vocals. Hopefully he’s here in Japan to stay.