Click on MP3 next to song to hear audio sample.
The second album from Ann Savoy & Her Sleepless Knights finds Ann and the guys doing what they do best: taking standards of the pop, blues and French variety, both familiar and obscure, and making them their own. In his liner notes, T Bone Burnett, a long-time Ann fan, notes, “She doesn’t imitate the past, she animates it…” It’s an assertion that is easily verified with even the most cursory listening to the new album where Ann is again backed by the stellar “Le Hot Club of Paris”-inspired combo fronted by Tom Mitchell (guitar) and Kevin Wimmer (fiddle) with Eric Frey on upright bass, Chas Justus on rhythm guitar and Glenn Fields on drums.While Ann had been long-associated with traditional Cajun music as a result of her work with the Savoy Family Band (the Savoy-only group that includes husband Marc, youngest son Wilson and Black Coffee co-producer and eldest son Joel) as well as with the Savoy-Ducet Band, Black Coffee is just not that kind of record. Its roots go back to Tin Pan Alley, to pre-war Paris, the Mississippi Delta and down to New Orleans with an approach that’s both cosmopolitan and authentic. There are blues songs associated with Bessie Smith, a special favorite of Ann’s, as well as classics from the Django Reinhart, the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart and Johnny Mercer canons. There is something subtle and wonderful that Ann does that makes the material audibly ‘breathe’ in a manner of speaking. Ann adds life to whatever she does and these songs are no exception.
The fact is that Ann is a brilliant vocalist who is as at home harmonizing with Linda Ronstadt on one of their collaborations as she is as getting her Cajun stomp going with the Magnolia Sisters. As the “girl singer,” backed by the brilliant musicianship of the Sleepless Knights, she takes flight as never before.
Ann offers a quick tour of the album’s tracks that are as soul enriching as a steaming urn of, yes, Black Coffee.
I Cried For You - I have heard this by Dede Pierce from New Orleans, and also by Billie Holiday. This woman is on the other side of her pain, feeling strong, and throwing it back in her ex-lover’s face.
Whoa, Tilly, Take Your Time - I have been listening to Bessie Smith for decades, and have always loved her double entendre songs. She was such a powerhouse, full of humor and spirit.
Nuages: This beautiful Django Reinhardt song has been recorded many times, but not often with the lyrics. They paint a still life of a scene: a gray train platform, a floating handkerchief, a cloud passing.
Black Coffee: Tom sent me some songs by Wingy Malone; I was knocked out by his style and his band. He had one arm and played the trumpet, a tough New Orleans Irish Channel man. This song is so funny; the singer just can’t go home after partying too much until he gets some black coffee to sober up.
If It Ain’t Love: The Boswell Sisters, these swinging sisters from New Orleans, were masters of close harmony. They learned many of their songs from their ‘Mammy,’ and recorded several of these spirituals and blues. This is a beautiful song, reworked by the Sleepless Knights.
You’ve Been A Good Ole Wagon: Another Bessie Smith song, re-invented by the band into a citified version. I love the earthiness of the imagery, and, again, the independent woman telling her old man that she has a new one.. and better!
My Funny Valentine: I have loved this Sinatra song since I was a little girl. To be loved in all your imperfections is such a dream.
C’est Chanson Est Pour Vous: Tom found this song, recorded by Jean Sablon and Django Reinhardt. We just love the swing, or lilt of it, and the words are so clever, the way they compare the way they want to live life to music.
If You Were Mine: It’s by Billie Holiday and one of my favorite songs by this musical queen. The song is so full of love, and the idea of the power of love is so lyrically evoked here.
New Orleans Blues: I fell in love with Blue Lu Barker’s the sassy vocals the first time I heard her; she sounds like she doesn’t take any guff from any man!
Embraceable You (duet with Tom Mitchell): I have heard this song sung by everyone since I was a child. I guess Chet Baker was the one who really brought it home to me. Then I heard Tom sing it and knew we had to record it, very sparsely and gently. The band wanted the French version slipped in because everything sounds so beautiful in French.
J’Attendrai: This song is a longtime Django favorite, but one day I heard Rina Ketty sing it with the verses, and the real sadness of the story was brought to life. I love the images she uses to describe her loneliness, and how slowly the time seems to pass as she waits, broken hearted, but still with hope.
