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Photos by Kingmond Young
Quotes
Buster Williams
When you listen to the lovely Ms. Suzanne Pittson, you are being made privy to the artistry of someone who is setting the pace and creating new standards for those who follow and dare to call themselves ‘jazz singers.’
John Handy
Suzanne Pittson’s singing is praiseworthy. She has a personal, compelling style of singing jazz, more like a great horn or keyboard player.
All About Jazz
With “Out of the Hub: The Music of Freddie Hubbard,” Pittson continues to establish herself as one of the best singers on today’s jazz scene. More than just a singer, Suzanne Pittson is a jazz musician. With a fluid phrasing and stunning tone, Pittson uses her voice as another instrument, improvising and playing with the melodies.
Jazz Inside New York
Some controversy exists over just what makes a jazz vocalist. Listen to Suzanne Pittson and you’ll know.
O’s Place Jazz Magazine
Suzanne aspires to have the impact that Freddie Hubbard had with his solos. She and Pelt reach this level several times on this recording to our delight.
DownBeat
…Creative risk and originality.
DownBeat
Suzanne Pittson’s Freddie Hubbard tribute is anything but conservative. Pittson bravely uses her voice to pay homage to the work of one of the most important figures in hard-bop….she doesn’t waver even when facing a vocal reinterpretation of some of Hubbard’s trickiest and best-known solos, from “Byrd Like” to “Crisis.”
The New York City Jazz Record
She can scat like nobody’s business….she credits John Coltrane, Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan as her influences, but like all genuinely innovative musicians, Suzanne Pittson’s creativity, musicianship and improvisational skills are off and away on their own…We have a fresh new jazzbird to celebrate.
LA Jazz Scene
…a superior scat singer…she makes it sound natural, swinging all the way and improvising within Hubbard’s style.
Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner
[The audience at Yoshi’s] got it, and enjoyed it. For most, I suspect, it was the first time they had ever seen and heard jazz just “happening,” and that — for many dedicated jazz fans is what the music is all about.
Jazz Inside New York
Lives up to the genius and expected quality associated with Hubbard and his legacy.
Jazz Weekly
A fitting tribute to not only the great late trumpeter, but to the art of singing.
JazzTimes
Pittson’s ability to rise fearlessly to the challenge goes beyond mere vocal legerdemain, revealing soul-deep creative empathy.
Jazz Improv
Her scat singing alone is so good that had she been the forerunner and not Ella Fitzgerald, Suzanne would have been the Ella.
SF Bay Guardian
Astounding vocal flexibility and fervent commitment to the overall musical feel of Coltrane…audacious and richly satisfying tribute…boundary pushing.
DownBeat
The heart of the album is her stunning vocalese versions of the second and third movements of Coltrane’s landmark 1964 album A Love Supreme. She captures the spiritual urgency of Trane’s music while pushing her voice into ecstatic overdrive.
DownBeat
Suzanne Pittson is a gusty, informed scatter who knows her chord changes. The singer is one to watch for.
Rapport
Suzanne Pittson is an icon in a world of vocal divas. Setting Pittson apart from the others is her sheer dedication to heart and soul through technical accuracy and an uncanny creative ability to find notes where there are none.
LA Jazz Scene
A masterful scatter! Pittson constantly improvises and her solos are full of surprises and chancetaking. One of the more promising bop-oriented singers, Suzanne Pittson deserves much greater recognition.
JazzTimes
A true musician, an insider who nimbly navigates chord changes.
W. Royal Stokes, author of Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson and The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New Orleans to 1990
With jazz vocals in the hands of singers like Suzanne Pittson the future looks very bright indeed. Her supple and strong voice blends with a sure sense of time and a sophisticated way with chord structure.
SF Examiner
Pittson’s voice is knowingly musical and well controlled.
Contra Costa Times
Adventurous and wondrously talented singer, whose accomplished artistry carries her far beyond the bounds of garden-variety jazz singers. There’s a tremendous sense of discovery and revelation just around each new measure.
Wayne Saroyan
Brilliant, risk-taking recording. Stunning virtuosity and a startling clarity of purpose.
All About Jazz
Pittson is like an additional horn in the ensemble. Her ‘scatting’ drives the rhythm section and they respond to her urgings.
Cadence
Suzanne Pittson is another true jazz singer. Her scat work here is breathtaking.
Omaha Reader
Demonstrates an outstanding gift for improvisation. Creates vivid solos as good as, or better than, those offered by horns, pianos and guitars.
Brent Black, review of performance at the Jazz Education Network Conference, January 6, 2012
Suzanne Pittson is a remarkable vocalist, a proven lyricist and made the critic into a fan. An incredibly enjoyable 5 star set that anyone would appreciate! I hope to review Out Of The Hub soon but if the set that I was fortunate enough to take in was any indication then this is a release to check out!
All About Jazz
The songs Suzanne performs on Resolution are a stunning musical expression of brilliant arrangements and interpretive vocalese. The CD is highly intuitive, imaginative and a fitting vocal transformation of Coltrane’s monumental legacy—his tenor saxophone. This complex work deserves praise and recognition.
LA Times
Adventurous jazz singer not afraid to take chances.
All About Jazz
Suzanne Pittson ranks among the finest singers that I have heard and I have heard the best.
All Music Guide
4 stars! Countess instrumentalists have paid tribute to John Coltrane, but rarely have jazz vocalists provided them. Hard-swinging but melodic, Suzanne Pittson thinks like a post-bop saxophonist, so she was a logical person to record this fairly ambitious project.
Village Voice
Attempts the near impossible with a vocal reinterpretation of Trane’s epic masterpiece, A Love Supreme.
Rapport
Suzanne gives you mood and a voice that’s sturdy enough to grab onto the intricate turns of the music so that lyrics and music mesh as one piece.
El Dorado New-Time
One of the nicer jazz efforts out of the San Francisco area as of late. Pittson has a beautiful voice whether hitting low notes on ballads or scatting to the fullest extent of her range.
LA Jazz Scene
Suzanne Pittson has a lovely voice, is not shy to take chances and she consistently delivers, paying respect to John Coltrane’s music, while also stretching out. Highly recommended.
Midwest Record Recap
A solid set for the progressive jazzbo looking for a new work of art.
Cadence
Scatting her way through the improvised parts and swinging briskly when the lyrics come into play, she creates an upbeat atmosphere that oozes with vitality. Uses her voice as though it were an instrument.
Robin Tolleson, Contributing writer for DownBeat, musician
With Blues and the Abstract Truth, young jazz vocalist Suzanne Pittson bounds into the big time. She joins a select few modern singers with the versatility and musical attention needed to breed the texture, soul and swing heard on this release.