CD OF THE WEEK:Voice of My Beautiful Country Motéma ****
In 2002, on her classic Vertigoalbum, singer René Marie pulled off an act of artistic and political daring by joining Dixie, the old minstrel, rose-tinted view of the American South, with Strange Fruit, Abel Meeropol's bitter indictment of the South's racism and lynching. Like any black person, Marie would have found the lyrics and associations of Dixie anathema; like any singer, she would have found it daunting to take on a song indelibly stamped by the great Billie Holiday's definitive version.
Marie is still triumphantly taking risks. Her latest album is not only a personal celebration of American music, but it includes another political gesture: a refit of The Star-Spangled Bannerwith the lyrics of the black anthem Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, which set the cat among the right-wing pigeons when she sang it in public in Denver two years ago.
Voice of My Beautiful Countrycomes out of a repertoire built up in recent years with Marie's working band of Kevin Bales (piano), Rodney Jordan (bass) and Quentin Baxter (drums). It's a wide-ranging programme drawn from jazz, folk, rock, Detroit soul, gospel, blues and counterculture pop, on which only a mature, confident singer could impose unity.
At the core of a superb voice with a great range is Marie's gospel roots, akin to the flamenco echoes she evokes in the Cuban Angelitos Negros. But there's also a warmth and humour that deliver an equally compelling version of White Rabbit, Jefferson Airplane's witty 1960s hymn to drug-taking, in which Bales's solo is like a psychedelic trip in itself.
Marie's penchant for linking songs creates the "suite", bookended by America the Beautiful (replete with a new melody written by her). Although the suite has redundant elements (a long drum solo and a florid piano episode), it includes a gripping reprise of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Singand a lovely My Country 'Tis of Thee,also with a new melody.
Elsewhere, she heightens the impact of two standards by making Imagination an effective prelude for Just My Imagination. Dave Brubeck's lovely Strange Meadowlarkis given a commanding, beautifully paced vocal. There's a majestic Shenandoah, and Marie's power and conviction almost persuade you that the old 1970s hit Drift Awayis a great song.
The joie de vivre that suffuses the whole programme is abundantly clear when the tape runs on after an epic, exuberantly rocking John Henryand the band dissolves into whoops of laughter. See motéma.com
