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Térez Montcalm
Here’s To You – Songs For Shirley HornIt’s never an accident when a singer records an album in tribute to another singer. If Térez Montcalm launched herself into Here’s To You – Songs For Shirley Horn, it is obviously because Horn is, as she says, her “all-time favorite singer”. Her mastery of ballads is what fascinates Térez Montcalm the most: “She was the only one able to sing such slow ballads, give them such a laid-back tempo, slow the swing down this way.”
A real challenge for Térez Montcalm, whose two first albums (Voodoo in 2007 and Connection in 2009) thrilled her audience and the critics with the raw energy inherited from her jazz, rock and funk influences. Thus the warmth of her resonant voice finds new depth in these ballads of a troubling clarity: One At A Time on a melody of Michel Legrand, Isn’t It a Pity by the Gershwin brothers, A Song For You by Leon Russel, How Am I To Know, famous adaptation of a poem written by Dorothy Parker, sung by Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday before Shirley Horn.
And what a casting! First off, Steve Williams, who had been Shirley Horn’s drummer for twenty-seven years, gave some advices to Térez. He brought his extensive knowledge of the repertoire, an intimate understanding of every song... and numerous conversations with Térez. “It was very important that he told me stories about Shirley Horn. I did not know Horn personally: I saw her perform twice but I’d never met her. Steve Williams brought her spirit to the project.” She also practiced each song with Gil Goldstein.
During the three days of recording, something came up – a sort of alchemy.” Térez dared singing Just In Time, a song with passionate fervor, and a bilingual version of L’Hymne à l’amour. “Shirley Horn sang the whole song in English, as I’d heard at the Village Vanguard years ago. I liked the way she began the song, but I’m a French speaker who much admires Édith Piaf. So I had to finish it in French.” Therefore, she begins singing Marguerite Monnot’s sublime melody with Geoffrey Parsons’ lyrics, If You Love Me, then falls back to the lyrics written by Piaf. But we’d never heard a French-speaking singer reaching such emotion without imitating Piaf’s extravagant pathos.
She displays passion and drama, the exhilaration of love and tragic fatum, not with the roughness of words, but with her velvety voice. As if, never losing her loquacity, her sensuality and cheek, Térez Montcalm had uncovered Shirley Horn’s secrets of class, elegance and precision – the hardness of Indian ink with all shades of watercolor.
2011-2012
