Sarah Moule has a voice that inspires and comforts at the same time. The quality of her vocals makes you realize all is well in the jazz world.
Stormy Emotions (33Jazz285), Moule’s 5th album, explores the themes of time and love in an uplifting collection of 10 previously unrecorded tracks written by her husband, pianist and composer Simon Wallace and the late jazz lyricist Fran Landesman. Moule worked with Wallace and Landesman for 18 years, during which the three developed a uniquely close relationship to their material.
A native New Yorker born in 1927, Landesman was a character and tabloid favorite. Her lyrics have been sung by artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Barbra Streisand. Stormy Emotions finds Moule completing her introduction of 45 Landesman/Wallace songs to the world. Landesman once said, “I got lucky meeting Simon. That he married Sarah Moule was a bonus. She’s the jazz singer par excellence.”
Stormy Emotions was recorded in a South London studio amidst the challenges of 2020 and features Moule and Wallace’s long-time musical collaborators: bassists Mick Hutton (Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, Tina May, Jim Mullen) and Neville Malcolm (Philip Bent, Tom Jones, Billy Cobham, Steve Williamson), drummers Paul Robinson (Proclaimers, Buggles, Nina Simone) and Rod Youngs, (Denys Baptiste, Les McCann, Angela Bofill), guitarists Nigel Price (Nigel Price Organ Trio, Nigel Price Organ Quartet) and Charlie Cawood (Knifeworld, Mediaeval Babes), and saxophonist Mark Lockheart (Days on Earth, Seb Rochford, Jackie Shave, Alice Leggett, In Deep, Malida).
This album represents just a fraction of the 300-plus numbers Simon Wallace and Fran Landesman wrote together. The title track was composed on the day Landesman and Wallace met. Eighteen years later, on the afternoon of the day Landesman passed away, they finished “Nothing Is Mine Now,” the album’s opening track: It’s is a beautiful, flowing song with lyrics speaking of immersive love emotions, sung by Moule in her warm, resonant tones, taking the listener through many feelings of love and stating that everything is now shared, not your own any more. The piano line and emergent solo are lovely, and the vocal line weaves dexterously around these.
“Are We Just Having Fun” has a quirky, sax-led introduction with vocals that explore the possibilities of a relationship: “Is it for keeps or just the night? The meeting of two minds or maybe just too much medication?” Great lyrics and beautiful accompaniment. “Will you stay by my side or kiss me and run? Are we playing for keeps or just having fun?” the lyrics ask – to which the answer is never given. The structure is crystalline, and the interpretation of the number by Moule is superb.
“Never That’s When” is swingy, strong and sassy with sensual vocals, which see Moule dipping into her deeper tones for emphasis and emotional impact. She interprets the lyrics with aplomb and answers her own question of, “When will I forget you?” with “never, that’s when.” A well-structured and superbly developed track with piano work to rob a bank for and a narrative that tells a familiar tale of love and frustration. In the final third, Sarah Moule’s vocals are sheer magic.
“Close to Tears” has a traveling bass line that emerges and recedes out of the background like a will-o-the wisp and an ensemble accompaniment which supports the clear, beautifully toned vocal lines. Add to this a sax solo which is perfectly timed and delivered with alacrity and the cleverly structured arrangement, and the number is an exceptional listen. “A Magician’s Confession” is a tale of the wonderful tricks in a conjurer’s armory, but also of things she cannot do – like bringing back the snows of yesteryear. She can make a winner out of you. She can do lots of magic with her bag of amazing tricks, but she cannot take you back to a time of innocence. Yet, the hope is the future and forgetting about the past. That is the trick, perhaps.
“Truly Unruly” is a jazzy, traditionally laid out track with a bit of a walking bass, steadfast drums and audacious lyrics, interpreted cheekily by Moule, who again demonstrates her ownership of any song you put in front of her. A stellar piano interlude leads to the vocals again entering with brassy confidence – and it works just so well: “Let’s give way to desire, you can thrill me to tears. Let’s be wayward and wanton without fears. Let’s be passionate pilgrims, let’s be bad to the bone, let’s get truly unruly in a world of our own.” Oh yes.
“After the Fall” is dramatic, heady and dynamic with some real strength in the vocals, delivered tone-perfect by Moule. This track’s build towards the intense middle-instrumental section is immense, and the vocal re-entry loses nothing of its impact. If there is a stand-out track on this fine album, this is it. “On Hold/Living In Limbo” is a track that feels like a standard, as it is a recognizable form and has many familiar musical arrangements, but it is laced with enough ingenuity and individuality to make it both listenable and memorable. The guitar work is full of trickery and quite delicious, and the switched tempos as it waves from swing to laid-back blues and back to swing work wonders.
“Time Is the Beast” is a quieter, poignant number. Bass clarinet adds sonorous tones to the underpinning accompaniment, as the vocals weave around the melodic lines – sometimes strong, sometimes delicate and always emotive. There is a darker side to the lyrics: “Time will steal the sparkle from those baby eyes, searching for an answer, pleading for a prize. Time, indeed, is the beast. Waiting to pull you down, tearing the lost to tatters, stealing the winners crown.” Sarah Moule’s vocals again add just the right touch of melancholy and edginess to this track.
“The Long Arm of Love” is a sultry, easy-on-the-ears (and mind) number about love reaching those parts most emotions cannot reach. Gentle, lulling and quite lovely with Moule in higher tones – and still exceptional. “Fool’s Gold” is cheeky, sumptuous in its arrangements and swings out like a good ‘un with a stealthy bass line underpinning the tight ensemble, making room for a beautiful, trinkly piano interjection as well. The lyrics tell, almost predicatively, of not being fooled – not being fooled by the poet with his poet’s mouth but finding the real thing. “Stormy Emotions” is a beautifully structured, well-put-together duet of vocals and piano telling of how we learn many things, but we still need to deal with our emotions. With perfectly placed spaces for emphasis, the words sing out across the textural qualities of the accompaniment. A great track to finish what is a superb album.
Sarah Moule’s Stormy Emotions is a rarity: It combines stellar, tone-perfect vocals with wonderful, passionate lyrics that create a tight and layered narrative depicting many situations and telling many different stories. Without the vocal interpretation, the lyrics would still be good, but Moule’s interpretation brings them to life.
The accompaniment is just so – never too overbearing but always supportive, tight, and the musicians’ quality shines. It is a great gift when delivering jazz songs to know when to leave a gap and pace those spaces. Moule seems to do this without thinking, and this adds to the emotional quality of her singing. Interpreting the lyrics of Fran Landesman could be a challenge for some singers, because they have an edge to them, a truth and bite, yet also a tenderness and somehow a beguiling love for the state of humanity. Moule picks up all these things and delivers them, packaged seemingly effortlessly, yet their placing needs such care and attention.
Altogether simply wonderful album. Going back to Landesman’s quote, Sarah Moule is indeed “a jazz singer par excellence.”
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