For those unaware, the recording and release of Lisa Rich’s Long As You’re Living in 2024 was the culmination of a major comeback. After 33 years of forced inactivity due to serious health problems, she returned with her voice in prime form and was showcased on one of the top vocal albums of the year. Its follow-up, I Still Rise (out now via Tritone Records), fully confirms her return to the jazz scene.

Lisa Rich grew up in Baltimore, had piano, voice and dance lessons, listened to her father’s jazz albums, and as a teenager sang folk music at parties. After moving to New York and touring as a backup singer and dancer in a show band, she gained experience singing with a jazz trio and recorded her debut album, Listen Here.

She possessed a beautiful voice, was a superior scat singer, gave sensitive interpretations to ballads, and always swung. Her second album, Touch Of The Rare, teamed her with arranger-composer-keyboardist Clare Fischer, and in 1987 she recorded Highwire, a superb set including five Chick Corea songs, finally released in 2019.

I Still Rise reunites Lisa with the three musicians from Long As You’re Living. “I met pianist Marc Copland back in 1978 — he was even on my first demo. I love his harmonic sense; when we play together I feel as if am singing at a different level. I’ve known bassist Drew Gress since his twenties; we had a house gig at the Pirate’s Hideaway for years, so we go way back. Jay Clayton and I decided to use trumpeter Dave Ballou instead of a drummer. That changed everything — I found so much beauty in the space left by not having drums.”

1. No Moon At All [3:17]
2. The Two Lonely People [5:40]
3. Beginner/How Can We Sing About Freedom? [5:41]
4. Èstate [5:10]
5. Take Five [4:38]
6. Quiet Now [5:28]
7. Ancient Footprints [6:36]
8. Like Someone In Love [7:19]
9. Never Let Me Go [4:49]
10. It’s Over Now (Well You Needn’t) [4:58]

The vocalist, recording artist and educator dutifully opens her new recording on the emboldened No Moon At All and the sheer elegance of Bill Evans’ The Two Lonely People, and then we get the affectingly impassioned blend of Beginner/How Can We Sing About Freedom? (the latter channeling her frustration at today’s turmoil’s, sandwiched between the wordless Beginner), the brilliantly sculpted, Italian bossa nova hipsway of Èstate and an impassioned rendition of Paul Desmond’s Take Five is along next.

Then comes an emotively stirring rendition of Denny Zeitlin’s Quiet Now which is itself backed seamlessly by a creatively reimagined Wayne Shorter cut in Ancient Footprints, the sumptuously decadent, scat-hued veteran standard Like Someone In Love, the set rounding out on the crystalline Never Let Me Go, coming to a close on an enjoyably upbeat cover of Thelonious Monk’s It’s Over Now (Well You Needn’t).

“I am very grateful that I had the comeback. Now every day I sing, improvise, talk to musicians, and am part of the community. I hope to continue as long as possible. Singing has brought me joy and a purpose which I had lost for years. It brought my soul back and the creativity keeps me alive and happy.”

PLAYERS, INSTRUMENT:
Lisa Rich - vocals
Marc Copland - piano
Drew Gress - bass
Dave Ballou - trumpet

** Please know that the opportunity to win a signed CD from Lisa is no longer on offer due to circumstances out of our control, sorry **

www.lisarich.com