Keeping It Simple
Lizz Wright On Her Verve Debut Salt
Editor
It's always a thrill when a debut release from a new artist lives up to the buzz. The latest such thrill is Salt from singer Lizz Wright.
Just 23 years old, Wright got her start singing in church at the age of six in her hometown of Hahira, Georgia. Her father was a minister and her mother sang gospel at services. By the time she was 14, she had taught herself piano, and in high school participated in a number of choral groups, winning several regional and state medals and a National Choral Award.
After high school, Wright spent a year at Georgia State University in Atlanta. But the vocal program there didn't include jazz, and Wright's interest wasn't in classical music. She left college and moved to Macon, Ga., to figure out what she wanted to do, and began sitting in on jam sessions in Atlanta.
The album's title track, a gospel-tinged blues, came from those first experiences away from home.
"I wrote that song the first year that I was away from my parents' house when I graduated from high school and went to college. I was living in Atlanta. I was down in a rehearsal room and I was just playing on a broken piano and I kind of wrote something silly for myself," she recalled. “I never knew that that song would end up being the essence of my journey, and neither did I know that it would end up being sort of a personal anthem for me in a way.
"It really helps me feel anchored, because I've made a pretty serious spiritual and creative transition from the whole gospel realm and the whole Christianity thing — my parents being ministers — into expressing my ideas and beliefs with really different music and saying really different things. ... It's kind of the one song on the entire album that embraces everything that I have done, but still things I haven't gotten a hold of. It's really been quite an anchor for me," said Wright.
Another autobiographical composition on the album is "Blue Rose", written with pianist Kenny Banks. "It has everything to do with my background and how all of a sudden my story is being shared with all these people and celebrated with all these people," said Wright. "I see myself as something very simple. In order to keep doing what I'm doing, I have to remember that it's very simple, that I'm simple, that the things I believe in are simple, and that the music and the magic behind the music, all of those things are very simple. I think the images in 'Blue Rose' portray that message."
Wright also spoke about what she does to make songs she "covers" her own. The album includes Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue." A singer she deeply admires, Abbey Lincoln, had a definitive vocal recording of that song in the 1950's.
"I listen to the song and I listen to it long enough so I can stop hearing all the dressings and the details, and I can hear kind of the bone and marrow of it — the simplicity of the melody and the basic chord changes," said Wright. "And at that point, I get down to the words. I think for a performance standard, for me, it's really good when I can sing things that have somehow been reflected in my life, whether it's something that's been in my subconcious, or whatever. I kind of just get this feeling, you know?"
Salt includes a variety of styles and arrangements, from fat horn sections to simple guitar accompaniment, and from bluesy soul to folk-inflected ballads.
"I think the only way we could have done this album, and be really truthful about where I am, was to make it as broad and eclectic as it is. I'm really surprised and really pleased with people's response," said Wright.
The wide range of sounds on the album should provide Verve with plenty of options for promoting it beyond jazz radio, with tracks that fit many radio formats.
Wright agreed that there is 'something for everyone' on the CD, and added, "It reflects my musical tastes, too. So it makes me really happy that people are a lot more broad than I thought and I almost feel apologetic for not giving them their due credit. But I'm glad I was so wrong."
Wright credits Verve chairman and producer Tommy LaPuma — with decades of Grammy-winning projects under his belt — for allowing Salt's eclectic sound to develop, by providing her, the arrangers, and the accompanying musicians freedom to explore different ideas.
"The great thing about Tommy — and also about Brian Blade and John Cowherd who also produced [the album] — we all worked together with picking songs, bringing songs in and just trying things," she explained. "I think we all were really open minded. At the end of the project, we all felt that we couldn't have come up with what we have without everybody working together. Tommy was really great about knowing how to get an idea across to a large audience. Brian was incredible with taking my ideas — he and John Cowherd — in their raw form and just refining them to really unique expressions and unique arrangements."
Drummer Blade and keyboardist Cowherd are only part of a great supporting cast on the album. Banks, who is Wright's music director and who was in the Atlanta band In The Spirit, which Wright joined as a singer, plays piano, Fender Rhodes, and Hammond B-3 organ. Pianist Danilo Perez, saxophonist Chris Potter, drummer Terreon Gully, and organist Sam Yahel are among many others who backed Wright.
In June, Wright will embark on a tour which will include jazz festivals and other large venues. It's a big jump from the small rooms she has been peforming in for the last four years.
"It's a challenge for me because I've gone straight from playing in church to sitting in at a couple of clubs to doing some dates at a small club and then making the record," she said. "And now I've got to get my performance level up to some pretty high standards pretty quickly. The good thing that I depend on is really good musicians and I learned so much in the recording process — which was a long one — I think I'll be able to make the adjustment if I'm really creative and I take the help that I have."
Even with all the buzz and anticipation, which Wright said has her "floored", she seems to be staying well grounded and, like the message in her music, is focused on keeping things simple. Wright says that she's very thankful for her success so far, and for that which undoubtedly lies ahead.
"There are so many people who in their own ways have put their heart into this, whether it was a musician who gave me a list of artists and music to study, whether it was a D.J. who gave me a really honest criticism, the Atlanta jazz community and people at Verve," said Wright. "For every good thing that happens because of this album, I want people to know I appreciate it." 
