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In a time when vocal gymnastics are passed off as singing...
When
Whitney's constant flitting around a note like a moth instead of
hitting it is considered "great"...
When
Mariah's dog-whistle is admired by millions...
When even
jazz singers are not immune to the worship of sheer technique:
Doreen Smith is the proverbial breath of fresh air.
While she does
sing jazz, she extemporizes and all that, she also knows that
some parts of a song are good enough to do them "as is" [or else why do
that song at all?]. Hers is an art of subtlety and restraint, of feeling over
contortion, of content over form: of refined creation.
She's not "performing": she's singing, a distinction all too rare
nowadays. The only other jazz
singers I can think of offhand who are similarly devoted to emotion instead
of showiness are Dave Frishberg,
Billie Holiday and
Tony Bennett...
... and I think Doreen is good enough to sit at the table with all of them.
There may be other singers as good as she is, but none better.
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Biography