The Songbirds Archives

Connie Evingson: Fever – A Tribute to Peggy Lee
Minnehaha Music (MM2002), US, 1999

Reviewed by Leonel Escota; New York City

Connie Evingson was not a fan of Peggy Lee from the get-go. She grew up listening to her father’s records of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dakota Staton, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Consequently, she acquired jazz sensibilities, if not by genetics, then by environmental influences.

A dedicated jazz fan herself by her adult years, she picked up Lee’s definitive Black Coffee LP and was impressed by it, but she found that Lee’s many other records were not as easily obtainable. Eight years ago, three people in a span of three weeks told her that she "reminded" them of Lee, "not in sound but in approach." This piqued her curiosity, and she undertook thorough research on Lee’s recordings and life. From then on she was hooked, partly because she discovered a lot of similarities in their background – they are both of Scandinavian descent and both from smaller Midwestern towns. (Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota; Evingson across state lines in Hibbings, Minnesota.)

After brief stints with the Minnesota Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Evingson started her legitimate singing career as a member of the jazz cabaret group, Moore by Four. She toured with the group, performing in major clubs and music halls in New York, Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Rome; and is still officially a member. In 1998, she was chosen by Jazziz magazine as "one of the top unsigned vocal talents in the country." She released I Have Dreamed, her first solo recording of mostly musical-theater songs in 1995, on her own label, Minnehaha.

As recently as the spring of 1999, Evingson has been performing Fever, her one-woman tribute to Lee. The show is a musical celebration of Lee’s artistry with a focus on her most popular vocal and songwriting contributions. The songs are meticulously linked by pertinent biographical information about Lee’s triumphs and challenges.

Fever – A Tribute to Peggy Lee, Evingson’s second CD, is the "companion piece" to that show. The twelve songs on this recording – roughly half the number she performs in her stage tribute – effectively celebrate Lee. With a voice that has been described as "iceberg velvet," Evingson sings in a style reminiscent of Lee’s, yet with attentive listening, it is obvious that the style is certainly her own. Whether consciously affected or not, Evingson’s voice contains a whiff of Lee’s, perhaps due to their shared middle range. Her arrangements, though similar to the original versions, are fused with a modern touch that would appeal to both puritanical and more adventurous listeners.

While most Lee’s arrangements only bordered on jazz, Evingson’s are jazz head-on. These updated arrangements, however, do not always work. Her jazzed-up version of Some Cats Know, for example, suffers from being a minute or two too long. Her rendition of Fever, although extremely competent, offers nothing fresh to the listener. Perhaps in being too careful about tinkering with a classic, the result is a bit too clinical. Still, these arrangements are miles better than Jeanie Bryson’s very disappointing attempt with much of the same material, found on Some Cats Know: Jeanie Bryson Sings Songs of Peggy Lee (Telarc, 1996).

Evingson captures the nuances that made Peggy Lee famous – the sly sexy slant in He’s a Tramp, the buoyancy in It’s a Good Day, the manic dementia of Is That All There Is? It is remarkably apparent that although Evingson understands the artistic intelligence that Lee displayed in her original versions, she is careful not to mimic or copy her. If anything, her more sensitive readings are a lot more accessible to the untrained and inexperienced ear. She nails a touching version of I Wanna Be Loved, a sincere and beautiful song that is easily combustible in the hands of a mediocre singer.

The dramatic highlight of the disc is her melancholy interpretation of Where Can I Go Without You? The sparse piano accompaniment coupled with Evingson’s peerless vocals make for five minutes and four seconds of musical pleasure.

All in all, Evingson has embarked on her voyage to stardom. The jazz vocal scene right now is littered with overproduced and over-marketed jazz vocalists whose main agenda is to sell records first. It’s refreshing to touch upon a singer whose real objective seems to be making beautiful music. If dedication and commitment are the barometers of success, then she is already a big star. 

Tracks

1. I Love Being Here With You (Peggy Lee, Bill Schluger)
2. Some Cats Know (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller)
3. I Wanna Be Loved (Billy Rose, Ed Heyman, Johnny Green)
4. He’s a Tramp (Peggy Lee, Sonny Burke)
5. Black Coffee (Paul Francis Webster, Sonny Burke)
6. It’s a Good Day (Peggy Lee, Dave Barbour)
7. Why Don’t You Do Right? (Joe McCoy)
8. Fever (John Davenport, Eddit Cooley Jr., Peggy Lee)
9. I Don’t Know Enough About You (Peggy Lee, Dave Barbour)
10. I’m Gonna Go Fishin’ (Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington)
11. Where Can I Go Without You? (Peggy Lee, Victor Young)
12. Is That All There Is? (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller)

With Sanford Moore, piano; Terry Burns, bass; Phil Hey, Nathan Norman, drums; Reuben Ristrom, Joan Griffith, guitar; Dave Karr, tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute.

Twin Cities Jazz Society
(Search for Evingson under "Minnesota Jazz Groups")

Review of Evingson’s stage production of Fever: