Intro: I wanna review an album to strut my stuff and turn you on to a new artist. Hope you will, too. The audience awaits. I mean, why wouldn't we. We are pretty well acquainted with and interested in one another.
I ran my album of the month by folks on Audio Asylum and while there was response enough, it didn't fly very high. Mjosef has seen her in Brooklyn, I believe he said (here, not there) and was dismissive. Fooey! This young miss is a complete original with a delicate and clear voice and some big cajones. And it's how she uses her voice. She has an uncanny ability to know what notes go where and when. Her name is Maria Neckham and her album
Deeper (Sunnyside) is all original music by her.
A sextet of international musicians, perhaps Brooklyn based and that I'd like to hear more of, accompany her. She is from Austria, originally, but lives in Brooklyn now and by way of an ashram judging by her uplifting lyrics and her dedication to a mentor in the liner notes.
The opening two tracks are sweet and lively. She sings like she's one of the band. A credit to her, I think. Her musical use of her voice and choice of notes is pretty amazing to me especially when you consider her young age. How did she become this wise, this fast? This is heard to full effect on Fear, the darkest and most turbulent tune on the album. She opens the tune which then becomes a lengthy exploration by her tenor sax player. And this guy gets some notes from his sax on this that actually sound accidental and part the sea for me, right up my spinal nerve! When she rejoins, she improvises wordlessy and flawlessly. And when the horn players return behind her, she weaves in and out of their combined voice with sympathetic sustained notes. I have never heard another singer do what she does. Examples of her unique improvisational voice abound.
I don't know how these players found one another, but, in my opinion, they have made an extraordinarily fine and highly original album. Too original and esoteric for mass appeal, but that's what motivates the miss and yours truly about this album. The sound is high quality, too.
A quote from Jazz.com:
“It wasn’t just the unaffected clarity or refreshing timbre of her voice, nor her remarkable range that captured my imagination; it was the fearless integrity of her musical ideas.” -Jazz.com
http://www.marianeckam.com/music
