BRAVE NEW SOUNDS: PROFILES by John Pietaro
ANAIS
MAVIEL, The Voice of Change Has Flown In
Singers in the “downtown” purview of New Music face a
formidable challenge; vocalists have been embattled in both maintaining a
consistent audience and simply being heard above the fray. While some have been
highly valued through the decades, this genre has largely been led by
saxophonists, screaming improvisers who stand out in front of rumbling rhythm
sections and, depending upon the circle and time period, perhaps a bank of
electronics, a line of percussionists or multi-media collaborators. Often, it gets
pretty loud as the temperature on stage rises.
But
Anais Maviel seeks out the quietude between tacits.
There she shines and elevates not only the moment, but the performance itself.
I first encountered Anais, several years ago (in my capacity as a performing
musician) when she sat in on an ABC No Rio performance of the duet I share with
trumpeter Matt Lavelle. “Man, she’s from Paris, and she’s like the air, like
the wind”, was his initial explanation. Like
the air and wind? How could any adventurous artist resist?
Without a shred of rehearsal beforehand, Anais jumped
in on “Round Midnight”, adding a free
soprano vocalization to this classic, forging something other out of whatever I
may have expected. Her voice flowed over the liberties Matt and I were taking
with Monk’s composition, threading through our expansions of time and tonality
with an ease one doesn’t usually associate with any vocalist. Even more
uniquely, Anais soared the stratosphere at pianissimo, offering vocal
visualizations of the cool shadows of Thelonious’ eternal night music. And
then, without warning, she slid deep into contralto, dangling over the area
only Sarah Vaughn had dared to actually revel in.
Hailing from France but born of a Haitian mother,
Maviel studied her craft both in Paris Diderot University (where she wrote a
thesis on the very downtown Vision Festival) and on stage at family music gatherings,
seeking out a new sound. Her’s is a music comprised of both the staccato
pulsations and revolutionary culture of Haiti as well as the swinging, varied
history and legacy of Parisian jazz. There
is something of Josephine Baker in her sleek frame and compelling voice. And
yet, this would not do justice to Maviel’s avant garde spirit.
The singer champions the struggle for “utopian
alternative politics of change”, whether this is featured in the lyric or heard
only through the contour of her vocalizations. It’s all boundless, it all
wreaks of a certain pride and pure expression. The strains of some sort of
distant gospel music emerge, traversing a range from high soprano, down deep, before
morphing into scat and long, lustrous lines of melody. Her voice, cutting
through a line of horns or an onslaught of free jazz drumming, is a reckoning
for every singer who’s been unable to secure a space onstage.
AFTER LANDING ON THESE SHORES, Maviel quickly came to
the attention of some of New York’s leading jazz composers and band leaders
including William Parker and his circle of Visionaries. Attention came quickly
and these days she is a member of not only Parker’s projects but is the
featured voice-improviser with Matt Lavelle’s 12 Houses Orchestra, in addition
to an assortment of other gigs. The power of this voice in such large bands
becomes clear as it sails beyond the tumult below.The Lavelle band’s debut CD,
just released on Unseen Rain Records, is available through http://www.unseenrainrecords.com/?product=solidarity-matt-lavelles-12-houses-limited-edition-cd
Most recently Anais has incorporated tradition West
Indian and African percussion into her solo performances and this can be heard
to excellent effect on her fascinating new album, “Houle” (hear excerpts on
her SoundCloud page: https://soundcloud.com/ana-s-maviel/sets/h-o-u-l-e).
Here, both voice and percussion skitter, attack, flow and propel through the rich
tapestry of world, perhaps multi-world sounds.
------------------------------For more information and for music videos of Anais Maviel’s brave new vocal landscape, visit her website: http://www.anaismaviel.com/
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