Wild Birds by Suzanne Lorge

New York-based singer/writer Suzanne Lorge re-releases her debut jazz album, Wild Birds, now available via all streaming platforms. The CD originally launched as part of the Cornelia Street Café VoxEcstatic series in fall 2016.

Eight traditional swing, bebop, and Latin tunes form the nucleus of Wild Birds, a song exploration of the migratory nature of human relationships—how we become close, only to move apart and, ultimately, return to each other again.

On the album, Suzanne’s luminous vocals are offset by two different trios of world-class musicians. The late Frank Kimbrough, pianist for Maria Schneider’s Grammy-winning jazz orchestra, joined forces with bassist Dean Johnson and drummer Tim Horner on six of the tracks, and pianist David Budway led bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Tommy Campbell on the remaining two.

The title track features Frank on an achingly beautiful ballad by composer/pianist Daryl Kojak, inspired by Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “If I Loved You,” while Suzanne interprets the poem that shares the album's title—her tribute in verse to the wisdom of the natural world. Through the poem’s central metaphor of wild birds, Suzanne delivers a powerful message about loss, letting go, and our natural ability to heal. The track takes on added poignancy in light of Frank’s untimely passing in December 2020.

Suzanne also contributed original lyrics to the jazz waltz “Better Than Anything,” a jubilant romp through some of the unforgettable places that she's visited in her world travels. As a young jazz student, Suzanne spent many an hour dissecting singer Irene Kral’s version of this bop classic, fascinated by the iconic singer’s cool, straight-toned sound.

For this solo debut, Suzanne would revisit several other tunes from Kral’s 1963 album with the Junior Mance Trio, Better Than Anything: Ray Noble’s romantic down-tempo, “The Touch of Your Lips,” as a mid-tempo swing, with echoes of Mance’s brisk arrangement. Jerome Kern’s final composition, “Nobody Else But Me,” in a double-time feel, with plenty of space for the band to extemporize at full bore. And “No More,” a rarely heard anthemic ballad popularized by Billie Holiday, here as a rubato duet between Suzanne and Frank.

But in contrast with Kral’s mournful take on “Gentle Rain,” the title track from the posthumous release of the singer’s final album in 2001, Suzanne delves into the hopefulness buried deep in Luiz Bonfá’s classic bossa. This bid for human connection finds full lyric expression on the Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen standard, “Out Of This World,” arranged with contrasting feels by master vocalist Jay Clayton, one of Suzanne’s most beloved mentors.

On “Fifty Ways (To Leave Your Lover),” Suzanne settles effortlessly into the funky, odd-meter groove of David Budway’s arrangement, an excellent showpiece for the album’s second dynamic trio. And on “The Very Thought Of You,” with its delicate 6/8 lilt, that these superb musicians reveal their more reflective side, as Suzanne soothing voice warms to Ray Noble’s romantic lyrics.

Total Running Time: 38:41

Suzanne Lorge is a New York-based singer and writer.