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Suzanne Pittson

“OUT OF THE HUB: THE MUSIC OF FREDDIE HUBBARD,” Suzanne Pittsonʼs most recent recording, released on August 24, 2010, takes jazz vocals to a new level. While this recording demonstrates a perfect marriage of Hubbardʼs music and Suzanneʼs lyrics, it also showcases her amazing skill as an improvising jazz musician, with an astonishing technical facility, beautiful tone and phrasing, and unrelenting swing.

Suzanne was born into a musical family, and began piano lessons at age 8 with John Hiersoux, a student of a student of Franz Liszt. Though she played classical music, her family listened to jazz day and night. When she was very young, she performed a Schumann piece for Erroll Garner, a friend of the family, and he reciprocated by playing “Misty” on her piano at her request! Witnessing the creative freedom of this genius at an early age, no doubt instilled a profound curiosity of this magnificent art form.

Suzanne first fell in love with the music of the great trumpeter Freddie Hubbard while still in high school. She went on to complete a Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts in music as a classical pianist at San Francisco State University, where she performed as soloist and accompanist, and in various chamber ensembles. While in graduate school, she also began to study jazz. With years of piano training under her belt, she set out to explore the music of the modern horn players, transcribing and singing their solos.

Hubbardʼs unique harmonic language was of particular interest, and she determined to use it as a model for her own developing vocal improvisations. In June of 2008, Suzanne and her husband, pianist Jeff Pittson, visited Freddie at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City to seek permission to record original lyrics to some of his compositions. While he was initially flattered, Freddie was not confident that a vocalist could sing his complex compositions and he requested a demo. Upon hearing the demo, Freddie enthusiastically approved the lyrics to five of his compositions, stating that he was very pleased and looked forward to hearing the recording. Ms. Pittson has expressed that the making of this CD with Freddieʼs blessing was indeed a great honor and privilege.

“Out of the Hub: The Music of Freddie Hubbard” features some of the most dynamic jazz musicians on the New York City scene today. Along with Suzanne on vocals, the use it as a model for her own developing voc recording features Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Steve Wilson on alto and soprano saxophone, Jeff Pittson on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Willie Jones III on drums, with stunning arrangements by Jeff Pittson. The lyrics were a collective collaboration between Suzanne, Jeff and their son Evan, who also created the cover illustration and CD graphics. All of the original lyrics express ideas about life, music, love, joy, suffering, and fantasy, but always seek to find hope in the midst of crisis. The two vocalese lyrics on “Lament for Booker (Bright Sun) and “Crisis” (Weʼre Having a Crisis) - set to Freddieʼs trumpet solos - are narratives based on their respective titles. “Lament for Booker” expresses praise and admiration for the great trumpeter Booker Little, who died at the age of 23, and the vocalese shows appreciation for the jazz legacy that our predecessors have helped to create. “Crisis” is an urgent cry for dialogue between people and cultures in order to resolve our world crisis.

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189
Album Review

Suzanne Pittson: Out of the Hub: The Music of Freddie Hubbard

Read "Out of the Hub: The Music of Freddie Hubbard" reviewed by Wilbert Sostre


The vocalese and scatting tradition is alive and well in singer Suzanne Pittson. 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. Out of the Hub includes tunes written by or associated with trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard, with Pittson writing or co-writing five lyrics, which Hubbard approved just three months before his passing in 2008. To honor Hubbard, Pittson recruited ...

174
Album Review

Suzanne Pittson: Blues And The Abstract Truth

Read "Blues And The Abstract Truth" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Billy Eckstine once said to an aspiring vocalist “Use your natural chops, never affect an accent that is not your own" and to her credit there is not one iota of affectation in Suzanne Pittson's vocal style. She sings with clarity and never loses the essence of the song with useless histrionics. Pittson's instrument is her voice. No Saxophones, Brasses, Strings or Percussion can duplicate the human voice, it is an entity unto itself capable of twists, turns and innuendo ...

131
Album Review

Suzanne Pittson: Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane

Read "Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane" reviewed by Dave Hughes


One of the most adventurous vocal CDs to come around in a long time is Suzanne Pittson's Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane. Pittson achieves her goal of molding her voice into saxophone-like solos. She's bold and daring, very much in the spirit of the CD's honoree. The occasional slight lapse in intonation can be forgiven in settings like this where caution is thrown to the wind and Pittson immerses herself into the song. Her husband, Jeff Pittson, proves to ...

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Album Review

Suzanne Pittson: Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane

Read "Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Resolution is a “concept” album whose cardinal purpose is to reshape the music of saxophonist John Coltrane, especially from his seminal work A Love Supreme, for vocalist Suzanne Pittson and her accompanists. As one who was never a partisan of Trane’s later “spiritual” period, I find it difficult to appraise with confidence those aspects of the session. Besides two sections from A Love Supreme (“Resolution” and “Pursuance” with lyrics added by Suzanne and husband Jeff Pittson) they include Trane’s “Liberia” ...

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Album Review

Suzanne Pittson: Resolution: A Remembrance Of John Coltrane

Read "Resolution: A Remembrance Of John Coltrane" reviewed by Jim Santella


Scat singing and original lyrics mark Suzanne Pittson’s second release, which is centered on John Coltrane’s landmark A Love Supreme album. With a piano trio and tenor saxophonist, altering her voice at times as if it were a trumpet, Pittson sings of life and love, the deep feelings we have buried inside, and how the music can help us find our way. From Northern California, the singer holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from San Francisco State University, where ...

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Interview

Seeking the Essence of Freddie Hubbard: Suzanne Pittson "Out of the Hub"

Seeking the Essence of Freddie Hubbard: Suzanne Pittson "Out of the Hub"

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins

Vocalist Suzanne Pittson previously accepted the challenge of lyrically interpreting John Coltrane's opus “Resolution" from “A Love Supreme." With Alice Coltrane's consent she did so with all due humility... and with gusto! Her latest effort is a loving tribute to an artist whose legend appears to be growing slowly in ancestry, the late NEA Jazz Master trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. For “Out of the Hub" Suzanne addresses compositions credited to Freddie and songs he indelibly enhanced through his artistry, and she ...

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Performance / Tour

Vocalist Suzanne Pittson Presents the Music of Freddie Hubbard at Sweet Rhythm, Wednesday, January 24th Sets at 8 & 10PM

Vocalist Suzanne Pittson Presents the Music of Freddie Hubbard at Sweet Rhythm, Wednesday, January 24th Sets at 8 & 10PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

The Suzanne Pittson Quartet will present the music of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard with original lyrics on Wednesday, January 24 at Sweet Rhythm in New York City. The Quartet includes: Suzanne Pittson, vocals Jeff Pittson, piano Harvie S, bass Anthony Pinciotti, drums Suzanne will perform such Freddie Hubbard compositions as “Birdlike," “Crisis," “Cunga Black," “Jodo," “Hub-tones" and “The Intrepid Fox" with original lyrics, as well as “Up Jumped Spring," with lyrics by Abbey ...

“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 ʻjazz singers.ʼ”

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