
Judy Wexler’s NO WONDER—Liner Notes by Grammy-winning author Neil Tesser
Sometimes, the best way forward starts with a backward glance.
Any improviser will agree: the standup comics, the action painters, and especially the musicians whose solos tell the best stories. The chain grows stronger if the links connect. A prominent avant-garde saxophonist once gave me a tip: “You have to listen to what you just played so you’ll know what to play next.”
Judy Wexler never met that guy, but the lesson sits at the heart of this smartly chosen collection of standards—some better known than others—displayed in settings that any jeweler would gladly claim. Pianist Jeff Colella wrote the arrangements, and that fits, not only because of his two-decade collaboration with the singer, but also because in 2008 he wrote the chart that simmered into the project at hand.
Wexler’s 2008 album Dreams and Shadows featured the song “Delilah.” Colella based his arrangement on the indelible jazz version of that song, released by the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet in 1955, and casting Wexler as a sort of “sixth member” of that historic quintet. “I’ve always loved that arrangement,” she says now. “I told Jeff I wanted a whole album with that kind of feel, and he gave me exactly what I asked for.” (Did he ever.)
These arrangements make an ideal match with the program Wexler wished to present. “I’ve never done an album of all standards,” she points out, “and I wanted to give some love to some of the hipper ones.” This decision dovetailed with her desire to recapture the classic two-horn combo she’d fronted on “Delilah”: dynamic arrangements, interpreted by a band of A-listers, that vie with the vocalist for center stage. (Colella leans heavily on Danny Janklow—fluid on alto and tenor, authoritative on flutes—and trumpeter Jay Jennings, whose tuneful solos on these standards may surprise those who know him only through his work with the band Snarky Puppy. And having the revered veteran guitarist Larry Koonse on hand doesn’t hurt, either.)
Not every singer can excel in these situations; not every singer has the confidence and command to share the spotlight in this way. But Wexler, utterly natural and shunning histrionics, can hold that spotlight, even while the band boldly decorates the background. Everyone wins.
On “Slow Hot Wind,” she coasts on light zephyrs from the horns before giving way to Bob Sheppard’s gusty soprano solo. “I Wish You Love” serves up a Count Basie-esque series of fills, which Wexler volleys with verve. The writing on “You Stepped Out of a Dream” recalls the West Coast cool of the 1950s, a resonant beacon for lifelong “California girl” Wexler, while the delightful “Never Will I Marry,” like many a concerto, basks in the synergy between soloist (Wexler) and ensemble.
For other examples of buried treasure, try “Wish You Were Here,” or Cedar Walton’s jazz classic “Firm Roots” (with the rarely heard lyrics by singer Kitty Margolis), or “That Sunday, That Summer,” resplendent in flute and flugel tones. On the title track, composed and arranged by the irreplaceable Luciana Souza, Wexler merges herself into the rhythm section, helping to propel the momentum with her command of the peppy melody and lyrics, before sailing into a tour-de-force unison with the horns.
And then there’s “Dance Me to the End of Love.” It’s become a well-known anthem; Wexler still finds something new by, once again, looking back. Leonard Cohen wrote the song after learning that during WW II, prisoners in Nazi death camps were forced to perform string-quartet music next to the crematoria, while their fellow prisoners went to their deaths. Wexler found herself newly moved by the song after the October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians, a state of mind captured in the mournful klezmer clarinet lines and the gypsy guitar solo.
None of this would succeed without Wexler’s quietly sensational voice. The timbre? Sweet but not honeyed; silky, with a touch of husk; lustrous but not glaring. If a string of pearls could sing, I imagine they’d sound like this. She radiates an effortless swing, with a ballerina’s ability to maintain the beat while dancing around it.
And always, Wexler stamps her interpretations in ways as subtle as they are impactful. She rejects technical bombast or a cabaret actor’s emotive excess. A tiny pause before the beat becomes a telling wrinkle in time, forcing a sudden rehearing of the lyric; the hint of glissando signifies a raised eyebrow or a hidden smile.
Small gestures writ large, hand-in-hand with sleek and swinging arrangements: no wonder this album gets better with each listen.
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- 1. No Wonder – music & lyrics by Luciana Souza (4:39)
- 2. The Summer Knows – music by Michel Legrand, lyrics by Marilyn & Alan Bergman (4:25)
- 3. You Stepped Out of a Dream – music by Nacio Herb Brown, lyrics by Gus Kahn (3:06)
- 4. Never Will I Marry – music & lyrics by Frank Loesser (4:08)
- 5. Wish You Were Here – music & lyrics by Harold Rome (3:52)
- 6. Firm Roots (Are What You Need to Win) – music by Cedar Walton, lyrics by Kitty Margolis (3:59)
- 7. Slow Hot Wind – music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Norman Gimbel (4:21)
- 8. I Wish You Love – music by Léo Chauliac & Charles Trenet, lyrics by Charles Trenet (4:28)
- 9. Dance Me to the End of Love* – music & lyrics by Leonard Cohen (5:04) *In memory of the victims of October 7th
- 10. That Sunday, That Summer – Joe Sherman & George David Weiss (4:08)
- 11. A Weaver of Dreams – Jack Elliott & Victor Young (4:13)
- 12. The Night We Called It a Day – music by Matt Dennis, lyrics by Tom Adair (5:05)