At Fridays After Five last evening John Carden and his band, Greenwich Swing Time, performed under the big FOF tent. This is the third time I’ve heard John with some version of the same band. The band is cool, stellar, capable – clearly jazz. But when he opens his mouth, I do a double-take. John gets an A for effort – telescoped by his body and facial gyrations, but his training gets in the way. Or, gets in my way. It’s the diction. When he sings Lady is a Tramp, he sings ‘tramp’ with one clear syllable. Not one-and-a-half to two as normal folks would. And, believe me, jazz singers are normal folks. And in one song, ‘forever’ was sung ‘forevah’ - many times. John’s ‘more’ doesn’t have an ‘r’ in it: it’s ‘moh-ah.’
I’ve liked listening to John elsewhere, in the past. But I’ll just keep doing double-takes when he does jazz. Maybe he’s invented a new jazz genre: jazz-theatre fusion! Y’ think?
-Pulsifier
