Babshad Jazz Quartet
Babshad Jazz Quartet Giee, Kokubunji May 15, 2015
Barbara Hadenfeldtバーバラ・ハデンフェルト –vocal
Charlie Hadenfeldtチャーリー・ハデンフェルト –drums
Yuichi Kudo工藤雄一 –piano
Alan Gleasonアラン・グリースン –bass
Calling out tunes from her 100-plus playbook, Barbara Hadenfeldt took the stage and took control over the audience’s heart. Her singing is old school, and beautifully so. At home now in the San Francisco Bay area, Hadenfeldt has played for many years on the west coast. Her singing not only courses over the Great American Songbook with ease, but is steeped in genuine feeling.
Though husband Charlie Hadenfeldt knew every song, and seemed to sense which one she would call, Kudo and Gleason had to flip through the charts to find what she wanted. Seasoned veterans of the Tokyo scene, Kudo and Gleason took a glance over the charts, Hadenfeldt cleared her throat, and the next song was off and running. The evening was what jazz is all about, the feeling of the moment, the preparation completed over long years, and the idea that a rehearsal would only make things less challenging and less fun.
Hadenfeldt has a very full dance card on the west coast where she resides, and it is easy to hear why. She imbues each song with passion and meaning and her own sense of how the world works. She sexes up the tunes, drapes them in drama, and pulls feelings from a deep inner space. Her singing is experienced and serene. With husband Charlie’s excellent brushwork forming a supportive layer of rhythm that she obviously thrived on.
Kudo started each tune with beautiful intros, and followed in the middle with great solos. His interplay with Hadenfeldt’s vocals was marvelous, and more so since they had played together only a few times in the past. Gleason was all over the charts, seemingly able to get to the deep roots of a song with only a glance. Their musicality become the salty, pure water Hadenfeldt’s voice swam through with gusto.“Autumn Leaves” in French was a real ear-grabber. Switching easily from French to English, it was clear the songs were not just something she knows, but a real part of her. “The Boy from Ipanema” nicely reversed the gender, and became all the sexier for the switch. Hadenfeldt moved easily from the ache of “The Meaning of the Blues,” delivered with womanly depth and dimension to “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” which skipped along like a girl. Her pacing of the songs made each of them stand out next to the one before.
The evening was a marvelous display of the standards in the Great American Songbook, but a reminder that the songbook really lives inside of the singers who sing it. The only regret is the evening wasn’t long enough to finish the other 80-plus songs living inside her that she brought along in the playbook, and might also have sang, if only the night never finished.
https://www.facebook.com/barbara.hadenfeldt
https://www.facebook.com/barbara.hadenfeldthttp://babshadjazzz.com
