Eddie Skuller
Essential 2 (Tribute to Jimmy Scott) - EP
© 2008 Eddie Skuller (634479745584)
Skuller embraces the dark and moody but injects the tender promise of hope as he pays tribute to jazz legend Jimmy Scott
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REVIEWS
Eddie Skuller's voice hovers somewhere between the ionosphere and the microphone, revealing an obvious affinity with Jimmy Scott, not only in vocal timbre, but in how he conects with each individual tune. – ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Eddie Skuller does sad with a capital "S." But the cabaret singer with the high tenor voice avoids a pity party, shading his songs with depth and texture. Skuller's a fan of Jimmy Scott, not only because they share high voices, but also because of how the veteran singer connects with audiences and manipulates a song's tempo. Skuller embraces the dark and moody but injects the tender promise of hope. Not an easy thing for most singers to pull off." – PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
Skuller too has his own cult following of listeners who are drawn into the darkness before the dawn suggested by the angst shining through his singing. His performances consist too of notes drawn out to edge-of-one’s-seat length and words that bear universal emotional weight suggesting recovery from—or at least perspective upon—at worst great suffering and at least hurt feelings.
It’s evident to the listener that Skuller owes a great deal to Scott. But the important point is that Skuller’s voice can capture the listener’s attention on its own merits, even as he pays tribute.
Skuller’s dark side captures the horrors of the imagery within Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” a song that Holiday owns but which Skuller effectively borrows. Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” summarizes the feeling of Skuller’s singing—that of the external trappings of joyfulness covering pain within.
Backed by a rhythm section that shares Skuller’s intent to allow the lyrics to speak for themselves, but with heart-rending vocal enhancement, the music no doubt comes from within the soul of Skuller and, even if it weren’t a tribute, would be nonetheless affecting. Well done, Eddie Skuller. Thank you, Jimmy Scott. – JAZZREVIEW.COM
ABOUT EDDIE'S TRIBUTE TO JIMMY SCOTT
It is the crooner’s art to give epic voice to intimate sorrow, but who speaks for the singer? On this collection, vocalist Eddie Skuller sends a valentine to an often-unsung jazz great, Jimmy Scott.
Skuller’s dramatic delivery strikes a key with all generations, and he draws from the famous hits and out-of-the-way favorites of each, with a classic yet hip lonelyheart lounge that points a new direction for the jazz-club canon while nodding to a lineage both lauded and overlooked.
Bridging both categories is Jimmy Scott, the ethereal vocalist whose incomparable, ghostly takes on standards and daring variations on familiar hits of all genres have made him a legend abroad and a cult favorite in America. Scott’s haunting style connects with kindred lost souls, and on Skuller’s new album he carries on this community of outsiders tradition with an homage to songs made indelible by Scott.
The songs range outward from the starkly beautiful aural landscapes of ingenious pianist Ethan Herr to the warm vistas of a suave trio taking in everything from a sprightly “When Did You Leave Heaven”, a searing “Lilac Wine” and a sublime “You Dont Know What Love Is” along the trip. Through it all Skuller’s supple voice knows just where to turn and take the listener, be it dark alleys of regret or dizzy heights of redemption.
The collection includes the Jimmy Scott hit “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” (a previously unreleased track recorded live at the Metropolitan Room in NYC). With a love song to a giant of jazz’s fertile fringe from an emerging force on the forms cutting edge, Eddie Skuller is nobodys fool.
Also available, ESSENTIAL 1 (Eddie sings the songs of Bob Dylan, Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams)
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Eddie Skuller
author: John Fradleythis is a tribute to Eddie Skuller